Kids at school can find the dumbest reasons to tease their fellow students.

For example, in today’s story, one young boy is getting teased because he has a name that is unusual in the U.S.

The boy wants to go by a different name to stop the teasing, and his request is creating drama between his mom and aunt.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITA for telling my SIL to let my nephew use an American name

My husband (36m) and his sister (38f) were born and raised in Africa.

They immigrated to America as older teens/young adults, so they have no experience growing up in the U.S.

Recently, my SIL was upset because her son (10m) has recently started asking to go by an American/English name.

His name is a very traditional name from her and my husband’s culture and it has no standard counterpart in English.

She can relate to her nephew’s predicament.

Apparently my nephew has been teased for his “weird” name and just wants a “normal” name to fit in.

She asked me what I thought because I grew up in the US with a foreign name.

I (35f) was born and raised in the U.S. to immigrant parents from an European country.

My name is from their country/native language, but it has an English counterpart (think like Erzsébet – Elizabeth).

I tended to use the American version in school so my classmates and teachers could pronounce it.

Her SIL didn’t like her suggestion.

I told my SIL to let my nephew use the new American name/nickname so he wouldn’t be teased.

She got upset because his name has a lot of meaning and she doesn’t want him to be ashamed of his background and culture.

She said I wouldn’t understand because my name came from a white country and we live in a fairly white area so people are more accepting of it.

I just think that why he should be proud of his name and culture, kids suck and sometimes it’s just better to go along to get along.

That she let him use new name to not be teased and wait until he is more mature to understand why he should love his name.

AITA for telling her that?

Her SIL asked her what she thought, and she gave an honest answer.

There’s not much more you can do.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person thinks her SIL is being selfish.

The SIL didn’t want an honest answer.

I didn’t know this about Barack Obama.

This person thinks it’s sad there isn’t another option.

He’ll resent his name forever if he’s not allowed to use a different one.

Just for awhile, Mom.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.