CARIMAC Times 2016: The JREAM Edition Journalists Reviving Awareness of what Matters | Page 135

“I ran into the bathroom and cried until school
was dismissed. I beg[ged] my mother not to
send me back to that hell place but, of course,
she did,” Myles added.

“The teachers and students alike would call me
oatmeal, not because they couldn’t pronounce
it [my name], but because they wanted to make
fun of me,” Williams explained.

Many students at the Jonathan Grant High
School would anticipate the sound of the lunch
bell as a signal of freedom, but for Myles, the
dismissal bell was the real signal of freedom;
escape from students she could only describe
as monsters because of how they treated her.

All the interviewees who bear an uncommon
name told CARIMAC Times that their names
have caused them to be reserved around people
who they fear would mock them.

Children with uncommon names sometimes
become socially handicapped. In fact, many
become introverts.
An American psychologist, Carlin Flora, in a 2015
study titled, ‘Hello, My Name is Unique’, found
that “children with uncommon names might
feel alienated from their peers and become
loners to avoid being mocked.”
Myles knows this reality all too well. However, so
do countless others, including Othniel Williams.
Williams is an alumnus of Denbigh High School
in Clarendon. The Denbigh High School is one
of many secondary institutions in Jamaica
where children gather to get formal education
and, by extension, socialisation. It is a place
where students are supposed to feel secure
and welcomed. Nevertheless, as interviews
revealed, it is a place where teachers are also
at fault for mocking their students.
Nineteen-year-old Othniel Williams said he
was taunted and ridiculed, not just by students,
but also his teachers.
“I was frustrated. I wanted to move away from
them, or hit some sense in them,” he said.

Others like Deadranne Baston, and her brother,
Janrameish Baston, also explained that they
were afraid to socialise because they knew
people would not say their names correctly.
Strained relationships
But, having an uncommon name does not only
come with the burden of not making friends.
Researchers have found that the singularity of a
name can negatively influence the relationships
individuals form.
One researcher, David Figlio in a 2005 American
study, found that “children with singular names
are sometimes classified with some pathological
personality qualities, and having this name
can cause individuals to resent others, which
can affect the type of relationships they form”.
A Jamaican child psychologist, Gemma Gibbon,
also supported this view, as she said, children
might resent their parents if they believe they
were wronged, or have been treated unfairly
through the names they were given.
Twenty-two-year-old Deadranne Baston said, in
her younger years, she had what she described
as a poor relationship with her mother because
she disliked her name.

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