Bullies are the same, whether they are 6 or 60, and Bill Cunningham proved it with his repeated references to Barak Obama’s middle name. He has tried to make it into something it isn’t in an effort to send a message that just isn’t true. Momocrats is calling him out on it. Momocrats contributors have spent the past day (”Just call me Hussein Day”) sharing their personal childhood stories of how someone tried to make them feel bad about their name. And I’m joining in.

My name is Ammie. It is pronounced “Amy” but I was named for my great-grandmother Ammie who pronounced her name with the short A sound. Think Ammie rhymes with Annie and you have the correct pronunciation of her name.

The spelling and pronunciation of my first name caused me misery throughout my childhood. No one ever spells it right. If someone sees the spelling and has never met me–say a teacher reading my name from an attendance sheet for the first time–they never say it right either.

My name has been butchered in every way it can possibly be butchered. I’ve learned to just deal with it and shrug it off. For example, a Sunday School teacher once argued with me about how to spell my name. I couldn’t possibly know how to spell my own name after all, right? People have spelled it “Amy” “Aimee” “Amie” “Amee” Aimme” “Ammy”–you name it they’ve come up with a variation. Every variation except the correct one. I’ve even had people decide my name wasn’t Ammie at all but rather “Annie.”

All of that doesn’t bother me anymore. However, what did bother me is something I no longer have to deal with: my maiden name. I won’t share the actual name. I don’t want people to find me that easily! I will say it was something that could be butchered and morphed really easily into the worst possible name a little girl or a teenager could have. “Gross.” UGH! Oh how I hated that! Sometimes it was an honest mistake. I understand that. After all “Gross” is a surname. But most times when it was used it was a deliberate dig from some bully intent on just being plain ol’ mean. Ammie Gross. Ammie’s Gross. Ammie is gross. I still cringe when I think about it.

But it’s just a name. Right? It was a name that some unimaginative bully came up with because they couldn’t come up with anything more creative. It was something to make them feel better about themselves by trying to make someone else feel bad.

It was just a name. It didn’t mean I really was gross, anymore than Obama’s middle name means he’s a terrorist or associated with terrorists. It’s a weak-assed, school-yard bully tactic that people with class and intelligence can see straight through. Right?

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