On the first day of class, I always told my students "If you want to be called something different from what's on this paper or I mispronounce it, just tell me. And If I keep getting it wrong, don't say to yourself 'Well, I must be nothing and nobody to him." Instead say to yourself "He's old and stupid" and keep correcting me." Never a problem.

My son's first initial is T. and his middle name is Rex. I'm sure he'd show up on the name-hating groups here, but he likes to go by T. Rex in class/with friends. His new teacher gave me the side-eye, but to my knowledge still calls him that. It is (a version of) his legal name, after all.

I had to laugh when a FIRST grade teacher is saying school is a formal and professional environment. Ma'am, your students still regularly eat their boogers. Go to a private high school with thst attitude

I don't know about this teacher for certain, but when our family ran into teachers with this "no nicknames" policy, it was almost ALWAYS an excuse so they could deadname trans children. They only applied it to all the children in their classroom so they could claim it wasn't. (The tipoff was that they would also refuse to use pronouns that differed from the child's biological sex.) "I'm sorry, but this paper says [gendered name] and [male/female], so that's how they're going to be known in my classroom. I don't want to confuse the other children."

If my teacher had just started calling me by my first name I probably wouldn't have answered. Nobody uses my first name, not even my family.

Teacher is on a power trip and needs to calm down. I've had teachers call me exclusively by my last name, my nick name, my real name... Every teacher I've ever had they ask at the beginning of the year what you prefer to be called. This one just seems like a real itch in the a*s crack of education.

Teacher here!!! This teacher goes by a nickname too! I hate my first name so much!!! I had a teacher like this in school, and she was an idiot. Escalate!!! We do not get to call the shots on everything.

I would have considered adding Fiji as a(nother) second/middle name. That way she doesn't he have to use it when she gets older and might not want to use it anymore, she can abbreviate it on e.g. college applications, if she so wishes, but nobody can say it's not her actual name. And a second or middle name can very well be the calling name... Also, it would always be part of her... representing this part of her life...but she can later decide whether she still wants to use it, or not. In my opinion that would (have) be(en) the most logical way to go forward...

I am a teacher -- 12th grade American Government and Economics. May I suggest that there may be something else going on here? Over the last few years, various states have been passing laws regarding transgender children. These laws involve pronoun usage as well as what names you are allowed to call students. It may be that this teacher is trying to avoid getting caught up in a scenario where they get called on the carpet for using something other than the child's name that is found on their birth certificate. For what it's worth, I think the teacher is dead wrong -- especially since the parents have explained the what's and whys of the name and fully support it. And I agree with each and everyone of those who have said that they need to have that child transferred to another classroom ASAP.

Another thing I would like to add: I am German and spent my Senior year in the US, at a High School in a small town in Idaho. My name is Christine. I asked everyone to call me Chris. In Germany I go by Tine (family and friends), or Christine (everyone else). I absolutely hate it when people accidentally (or, even worse, on purpose) call me Christin, Christina or Christiane. Yes, the English pronunciation of "Christine" is similar to the German pronunciation of "Christin"...but that's just it... it's similar, not tge same. Anyway...in the US everyone called me Chris, as I asked them to. Except my English Lit teacher. She insisted on trying to pronounce my name "the German way". It ended up sounding like "Christina". Which I hated so very, very much...soooooo much. As she refused to just call me Chris, I asked her to at least pronounce "Christine " the way basically any other native English speaker would...but she kept insisting on doing her "German" pronunciation "thing".

Fiji is a cool name. I wonder if Mom & Dad might consider having the child's name legally changed? What a great gift that would be!

It's very clear to me by the teacher's comment of "if you didn't like the name, you shouldn't have used it" that they (erroneous, but old fashioned) believe that children should be 100% controlled by adults at all points in their lives. Which is concerning with the times and also the children under their care. Is this teacher not understanding of the fact that children are humans, too? At what point does this teacher believe that children are capable of controlling their own lives? Are they the type of person to also complain about children not taking responsibility for things they've never learned (ie "I knew how to cook at x age, why don't you" but also "children shouldn't be allowed in the kitchen, it's full of dangers")

My son Mace has never gone by his legal name (Matthew) even at birth. I cowed to my mother-in-law when she was upset we were planning on naming our son Mace, so my ex found out that Mace was a medieval derivative of the name Matthew, so we named him Matthew and called him Mace. Hopefully we’ll legally change his name at some point because he HATES the name Matthew and will fight strangers over it. None of my mom’s siblings go by their first names either, my grandparents gave their children names that sounded good but called them by their middle names (because Belinda Noelle sounds better than Noelle Belinda, Anne Kirsten sounds better than Kirsten Anne, and Neal Christian sounds better than Chris Neal.) I would throw hands with a teacher who doesn’t call my child by the name he answers to.

My name is Kimberly, never liked being called Kimberly by anyone but my Unclr Jim. In the 70s, there were 5 Kimberly's per class. I always went by Kim, never Kimberly, Kimmy or anything other derivative. It was Kim or nothing. Everyone respected that. My Gran was named Frances, also during the 30s loads of Frances' so they called her Wicki a nickname derived from her last name Wickham. I didnt know until I was probably 10 that Wicki wasnt her real name. This tracher reminds me of the many teachers I had in the 70-80s that were on a power trip. They didnt earn the respect teachers deserve, they made up BS rules and acted out to show they were the boss. We all just thought in our heads they were ridiculous and felt no real respect for them while we did what they said to keep them off our backs. Not the same thing as being respected. I remember both types for very different reasons. Some I praise, some I mock with disdain-Mr. Nilson!, Mr. McCafferty, Mrs. Naff, just to name the top rank

I hate teachers like this. I was in a class with 6 people with slightly dif variations of the same name. Think Al, Alex, Alexa...yadda yadda... The only 2 this teacher would get mixed up was me and the other person sitting next to me. Our names were a 1 letter difference. The thing is, WE LOOK NOTHING ALIKE! She never got the other 4 mixed up. Just us 2! I'm short, chubby, angry, and a smart mouth. The other person, not necessarily tall, but taller than me, long beautiful hair, sweet, soft spoken, smart, and an all over amazing human being. COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF ME! I told her her to just refer to me by the first letter of my name. She said "No, I will refer to you by YOUR name." YEAH! WELL YA AINT EVEN DOING THAT! I hated her... Get your kid out of that class! Also one of my nephews goes by his middle name since his dad has the same name. He had a teacher only refer to him by his first name. My brother switched him out of the class and escalated the situation. That teacher lost...tbc

Easy remedy, change her name legally to the chosen name. Then there will be no confusion

I named my kids with old school, strong names that also had short nicknames so they could decide if they wanted their original formal names or the short abbreviation names. I don’t see why it matters as long as it’s not inappropriate

Could they maybe legally change her name? As she had been consistent for so many years Fiji is now her real name anyway, might as well make it official

Try posting letters that aren't FOUR YEARS OLD, please! OP's kid is now a tween and has likely forgotten about her stupid 2nd grade teacher. Yet, Bored Panda is accepting comments that are now irrelevant -- and with no update(s) from OP in years! Do better, BP!

If the teacher feels like being formal she should then call her Ms. Fiji

This actually brought back memories of 2nd grade way back in 85-86. A teacher called everyone by their first and middle names. Get to me and she'd always call me Thomas Marion (for the record, Marion has been in the fam for the past 240 some odd years. All thanks to the Swamp Fox). I have always hated my middle name. If it was on the birth certificate and on official school documents, then she'd call you by first and middle name. No exceptions. --- needless to say, Marion didn't go well with my peers. Personally, I like to think my middle name is Matthew, lol. And no, I can't afford to actually-legally change my name.

I had a teacher that called me Julie for an entire school year. Not my preference, not on any of my paperwork. Not sure where she came up with it. My name is Jennifer (Jen, Jenni, hey kid). It was super confusing when she'd call on me, since I wasn't Julie. She once told me that to her, I seemed like a Julie so that's what she was going to call me. It was a really rough year. Sometimes you get a bad draw on the teacher lottery. It sucks. Get her switched to a teacher that will respect her choice and your support of that. --definifely not Julie

This matter needs to be escalated to the principal, and if necessary, to the school board. Switching classrooms this early in the game would give the obnoxious teacher the idea that she won this battle. Also, it would give her the upper hand in declaring Fiji and her mother "problem child and parent." In the meantime, Fiji doesn't have to answer to a name she dislikes, and she shouldn't. The teacher needs to get over herself, and damned quick. This is a school, not boot camp. If she can't wrap her head around the fact that some people prefer a name other than their legal one, then she needs to consider another career path.

One of my ex-g/fs decided in kindergarten that she wanted to be called 'Kitty' and she's gone by that ever since. She feels weird about being called her legal name and sometimes it's a little awkward in professional settings to tell adults to call her 'Kitty' but it's never been a problem in her life and is part of her identity. It's so weird to force a kid to be called something they're not comfortable with.

So for me there's another side to this. Why does her own name upset her so much, surely that should be investigated? What is going on that makes her or anyone want to change their name, it's just name, it shouldn't have that much importance. It doesn't change who you are.