How "off" does this sound to you?

[Carrie12345]

New baseball team for littles. Pretty much all the parents and kids are strangers on day 1.

 

A dad walks up with his son, and the coach asks the boy his name.  Let's say the boy says "Michael" right there in front of his dad.  Later, the coach is trying to sort out his roster b/c there have been multiple team changes.  The dad asks if his son "Kevin" is on there.  Coach says no, I thought his name was Michael, and adds it.  Dad says nothing. Meanwhile, you look over and Dad has a giant "Michael" tattoo on his arm.  A little later, the coach is introducing all the kids to each other and asks the boy to tell everyone his name.  The boy hesitates a little bit, but confidently says Kevin, pause, lastname.

 

My brain can come up with several explanations for the situation, but my stomach isn't listening very well to any of them!  I'm paranoid, right?  If a crazy creep was doing something awful with a child, surely they wouldn't bring them to sports and accidentally register with one identity THEN make up another, right?

[bettyandbob]

Very weird.

[Miss Tick]

Witness protection? Some kind of age shuffle scam so that little Kevin/Michael, who is really a year or two older than the rest of the boys looks like a baseball genius? Sounds odd!

[Butter]

I had a friend who was adopted by his stepdad in second grade.  His last name changed.  It took a while before he got used to saying his name was J- B- rather than J- A-.  A friend of my daughter hates his first name so when they moved three years ago he chose to start going by his middle name instead of his first name.  I wouldn't jump straight to something strange going on.

[Ethel Mertz]

The only thing I can think of is that maybe he has a long formal name: "Michael Kevin Last Name" and goes primarily by "Kevin," but registers under his legal first name of "Michael." This would be true for our kid. Hmmm.

[zoobie]

The only thing I can think of is that maybe he has a long formal name: "Michael Kevin Last Name" and goes primarily by "Kevin," but registers under his legal first name of "Michael." This would be true for our kid. Hmmm.

I have one of those too, but I would say yes, first name Michael but he goes by Kevin. Maybe last name is Michael? But again, he would've said that.

 

That's weird! Please let us know if you solve the mystery as the season goes on.

[lllll]

nm

Edited April 22, 2016 by _ ?^..

[maize]

I'd guess it is a first/middle name thing, son shares dad's first name and mostly goes by middle name but also identifies as first name cause it goes on rosters and class rolls and such and people call him by it.

[Anne in CA]

There may be an issue where they are changing the name for any reason. For instance, I know a family where the dad and mom each had a son named Anthony when they married, so one Anthony used his middle name. It took him some getting used to.

[SarahW]

I'd guess it is a first/middle name thing, son shares dad's first name and mostly goes by middle name but also identifies as first name cause it goes on rosters and class rolls and such and people call him by it.

 

I think so. I actually do have a cousin who's name is Kevin Michael, and the whole family calls him "Kevin Michael" to distinguish him from his dad, who is just Kevin. But to people outside the family....I could see him choosing one name or the other if he wanted. "Kevin Michael" is a long name, especially for a kid. 

[Reefgazer]

Odd.

[sassenach]

I would assume it was a given/nickname issue. And kids sometimes decide to switch midstream.

 

It would never occur to me to be worried, concerned, or otherwise distressed about it.

[fairfarmhand]

I smell child custody issues, not necessarily creepy though.

 

Mom prefers one name and calls the boy by it.

 

Dad prefers the other name, and may be annoyed that mom calls him by the other name.

 

If mom has the child most of the time, this could lead to awkward pauses while the kid remembers which name which parent prefers.

[momto3innc]

Could be like my family member. So in my case both father and son are "Michael" but son goes by middle name to distinguish. But all rosters have first name (which is also dads name).

[Mimm]

My brother started going by his middle name around middle school age. It took a while for people to get used to it.

[Tap]

I am this dad.

 

DD9: In our house she (my great niece) goes by a  made up name, that has zero to do with her birth name. When she is with her bio-dad, he calls her by her birth name.  If I registered her for a sports team, it would be 'made up name' (unless I need her bio name for legal reasons)....if he registered her, it would only be 'bio name'.  

 

DD17 goes by her first name on legal paperwork but as her middle name for all other purposes. 

 

 

I work in pharmacy and deal with hundreds of names on a daily basis.  It is very, very common for people to go by a name that is different than their legal name. 

[AK_Mom4]

It would not bother me.

 

This winter I coached skiing and we had one little guy who was on our list under FirstName LastName, but when we asked him his name, he introduced himself as OtherName OtherLastName.  Took a bit to straighten out as he had some communication challenges (fun little guy to ski with though!)

 

Turns out he was in the middle of getting his adoption finalized and had opted to change both his first and last name.

 

Could be a kid who goes by his middle name, but official paperwork has his first name.  Could be custody issue as someone else mentioned.

 

I just call the kid by the name they tell me to....

[SKL]

New baseball team for littles. Pretty much all the parents and kids are strangers on day 1.

 

A dad walks up with his son, and the coach asks the boy his name.  Let's say the boy says "Michael" right there in front of his dad.  Later, the coach is trying to sort out his roster b/c there have been multiple team changes.  The dad asks if his son "Kevin" is on there.  Coach says no, I thought his name was Michael, and adds it.  Dad says nothing. Meanwhile, you look over and Dad has a giant "Michael" tattoo on his arm.  A little later, the coach is introducing all the kids to each other and asks the boy to tell everyone his name.  The boy hesitates a little bit, but confidently says Kevin, pause, lastname.

 

My brain can come up with several explanations for the situation, but my stomach isn't listening very well to any of them!  I'm paranoid, right?  If a crazy creep was doing something awful with a child, surely they wouldn't bring them to sports and accidentally register with one identity THEN make up another, right?

 

Sounds like there's a story behind it, but I wouldn't assume it was a scary story.

 

If the dad has a "Michael" tattoo on his arm, my first thought is that Michael might have been a lost child in the family.  And the little boy could be struggling with that in some way.

 

Sometimes kids want to be called something different from their real name - whether it's a nickname or just a made up name.  There's a little girl at horse riding who hates her name and utters a piercing scream anytime anyone uses it.  She must be called "O" for the time being.

 

Sometimes one of my kids (adopted) wants to be called by her birth name.

[Danestress]

Maybe dad has the tatoo in honor of a child or brother he lost. Or maybe he has a living son named Michael.

 

Either way, he is adopting this child and using the child's middle name because you can't have two boys with the same name or doesn't want to have it seem like this boy is a replacement.

[El...]

Our little neighbor kid tells me that her name is that of a Disney princess (it isn't).  She is 4yo.  It took me some time to catch on!  I call her by the Disney name.  :)

[Entropymama]

Funny story - ever heard of Charlotte Gambill? She's a pastor and speaker from the UK. She has a son named Noah but tells a story about how he went through a phase where he loved the name George. Named his stuffed animals George, etc. They go to parent/teacher conference and find out that little Noah has told his teacher and all his classmates that he prefers to be called George! Parents had no idea. 

 

When I was a kid my best friend and I went through a phase where we 'changed' our names. My mom played along and called us those names. 

 

I'd bet his name is Michael but he likes to be called Kevin. 

[Matryoshka]

I smell child custody issues, not necessarily creepy though.

 

Mom prefers one name and calls the boy by it.

 

Dad prefers the other name, and may be annoyed that mom calls him by the other name.

 

If mom has the child most of the time, this could lead to awkward pauses while the kid remembers which name which parent prefers.

 

Or parental kidnapping.  If it's the dad that prefers, 'Kevin', why get the 'Michael' tattoo?  If Michael is a brother, or his first/middle name but he normally goes by Kevin or otherwise prefers Kevin, why does the boy introduce himself as Michael, and have to be reminded his name is supposed to be Kevin?

 

Sounds more like someone trying to change the names and hide from an ex-spouse.

 

Could be innocent - but it sure does smell funny.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Matryoshka

[mathnerd]

Or parental kidnapping.  If it's the dad that prefers, 'Kevin', why get the 'Michael' tattoo?  If Michael is a brother, or his first/middle name but he normally goes by Kevin or otherwise prefers Kevin, why does the boy introduce himself as Michael, and have to be reminded his name is supposed to be Kevin?

 

Sounds more like someone trying to change the names and hide from an ex-spouse.

 

Could be innocent - but it sure does smell funny.

Could be that dad registered the kid for baseball using the first name he prefers to call his son by. But, perhaps kid lives with mom who uses the first name she prefers. Looks like child custody issues to me. Not suspicious to me.

[slackermom]

My daughter went through a phase where she introduced herself by a new name everyday at school. Who knows why? She has an incredibly lively imagination.

[maize]

I am quite surprised that so many people suspect something fishy or convoluted is going. In my experience it is quite common for kids to have more than one name in use.

[maize]

Oh, I just remembered, my oldest went through a phase when she was five years old or so of calling her little brother John. She kept calling to him one day at the playground and another mom commented on the fact that John was not responding. I laughed and explained that he wasn't responding because his name wasn't John :D

[Daria]

My child once told Immgration at the airport that his name was Dominic. Dominic is neither his first nor his middle name. It's a name he liked and he wanted to see what it felt like to be called Dominic. It would have been better to try it at the park though.

 

Having said that, I do not have a tattoo that says Dominic.

 

My guess is that he's playing down in little brother's spot.

[QueenCat]

My child once told Immgration at the airport that his name was Dominic. Dominic is neither his first nor his middle name. It's a name he liked and he wanted to see what it felt like to be called Dominic. It would have been better to try it at the park though.

 

Having said that, I do not have a tattoo that says Dominic.

 

My guess is that he's playing down in little brother's spot.

 

How much extra time did you get to spend in Immigration that day? Oye.........

[J-rap]

That is kind of strange!

 

My dd went through a period of calling herself "Dorothy," after The Wizard of Oz.   (Not her real name at all.)  Once she was at an event where a newspaper reporter pulled her aside and interviewed her.  They took her photo and put it on the front page of the newspaper.  The headline and article referred to her as "Dorothy" the whole time, because she told them her name was Dorothy.  

 

I hope I saved that article somewhere...

[happypamama]

The only thing I can think of is that maybe he has a long formal name: "Michael Kevin Last Name" and goes primarily by "Kevin," but registers under his legal first name of "Michael." This would be true for our kid. Hmmm.

That's what I was thinking as well.  We have friends who named their son something like "Anthony Dallas," where the dad and grandfather were both "Anthony David," and the parents wanted to keep the same initials but wanted something a little less common for the son's middle name.  They call him Dallas, but legally, his first name is Anthony.  

 

We have another friend whose daughter is something like Elizabeth Nicole, and she's flip-flopped over the years between going by Elizabeth and going by Nicole (and in fact, her mom calls her one thing, and her friends call her the other), but legally, her first name is Elizabeth.

 

I wouldn't really think that too odd for the kid in the OP's case.  I might keep an eye out for anything else that sounded odd, but it's probably just a case of kid going by middle name but being legally the other and needing to register under the legal name.  You could have a kid who always goes by Liam or Billy who is legally William, or an Andrew who has always gone by Drew, or an Elizabeth who knows nothing other than Betsy.

[Spryte]

It's probably a non-issue, maybe there's a funny story behind it. My fear would be parental kidnapping, but the chances of that being the case are pretty low. I only thought of it while looking for something to be "off" (thread title prompted that, for me). My guess is it's a legal name/preferred name issue.

 

DS (24) went through a phase wanting to use his first name vs his middle name, so I could se this type of stuff happening. Hmmmm. Maybe we were the subjects of internet discussions back in the day!

Edited April 21, 2016 by Spryte

[rocassie]

I do think it's odd and would catch my attention.  There is probably a reasonable and logical explanation that is none of my business.  However, because it may be something sketchy I would probably just keep a watchful eye during practice.

[Daria]

How much extra time did you get to spend in Immigration that day? Oye.........

 

Surprisingly they let us through.  I think I said something like "Really?  Today you decide to try out a new name?"  and he laughed, and they laughed.  

[PinkTulip]

Maybe you could ask him in a subtle way, like introducing yourself to the other team parents and asking what his child's name is. When he answers, you could say, "huh, I could have sworn I heard your son say his name was Kevin" or whatever. Then just look at him and see what he says.

 

It sounds weird to me!

[Paige]

I wouldn't be suspicious either. I would think the kid's given name may be Michael but for some reason he prefers to go by Kevin, but he sometimes knows he's supposed to use his legal name and gets confused about when he needs to and when he doesn't. One of my DDs goes by a nickname 99.9% of the time, but occasionally new people will call her by her first name. Rarely an official looking adult will ask her name and she will give her first name instead of nickname because she thinks that's what she's supposed to tell official looking adults. 

 

My Dad goes by a completely different name with his family than he does with anyone else and always has. At home and with extended family he was one name, and at school and with friends he was a different name. As a kid it took me a while to figure it out, and I bet there was some issues with my dad as a kid. He actually told his 1st grade teacher he didn't know what his name was when they called the roll! 

[Arcadia]

I would think the dad's name is Michael and the child's name is Michael Kevin instead of Michael Junior. So the child goes by Michael or Kevin or Michael Kevin.

 

I had a similar problem today collecting my music book order today from the music shop. The lady said she would tag the order with my first name but I have more than one first names and it is not hyphenated. End up my order was tag with my second first name when they couldn't find my order. My kids and hubby have two first names and encountered similar incidents.

[momto10blessings]

Is this through the county? I know someone who uses her sister's address/names to sign her kids up for sports and classes through her sister's county. County residents get half off, but I don't think it's worth making your kids lie. Though.. she tells the teachers that he goes by his middle name.

[lovinmyboys]

It is weird but the exact thing happened to my ds5 last year at his very first practice. The kid was registered under one name but the dad said he had a different name. Then the next week it was a nickname. It was so, so weird.

 

In his case, the boy had always gone by his middle name. His first name was shared with his dad. His parents were separated and the dad wanted his son to go by his first name (and the next week a nickname of the first name). Then the mom would come and call him by his middle name.

 

I was so confused. My son actually ended up being buddies with him, so I finally asked his mom what we were supposed to call him. She explained about the first and middle name and the disagreement about which to use.

 

Eta: going by two different names isn't weird, but I did find the no explanation and giving of multiple names weird. A simple "I am Aiden, but I go by my middle name Andrew" or whatever. Not this is Andrew, then next it is drew, then it is Aiden.

Edited April 22, 2016 by lovinmyboys

[foxbridgeacademy]

We do this.  Son's name is Christian Alexander but no one in his daily life has ever called him Christian.  The first time we go to a new Doctor (or the like) I will write it on the forms that he goes by Alex, but I've all but given up on actually getting people to call him that.  

[Carpe]

I actually have a friend whose son is "Kevin" but in actuality Kevin is his 4th name in a string 8 long. He has his dad's first and second names, dad's dad's first name, Kevin, mom's dad's first middle and last name, dad's last name.

So when he registers for things he's registered as his legal name, normally they have enough sense to warn the coaches etc that he uses a different name. It has happened that they forgot though.

[Baile]

I think it's a little odd that the father didn't explain the name situation, but I wouldn't be alarmed unless something else felt "off" about the father.

 

My nephew shares a first name with his stepfather, so at home he goes by a nickname that is completely unrelated to his actual name. At school, he goes by his first name. At sports, and other times when both friends and family are around, we hear both names. I'm sure there have been a few confused teammates and parents over the years. It probably doesn't help that my nephew's stepfather is clearly not his biological father, and that he switches between calling him Dad and Dave. 

[Carrie12345]

I am quite surprised that so many people suspect something fishy or convoluted is going. In my experience it is quite common for kids to have more than one name in use.

 

Like I said, I can think of all sorts of explanations, most of them posted here.  It just seems like most people would offer up an explanation, even if just simplifying it to "It is Michael, but we use Kevin."

 

I use nicknames with 2 of my kids that don't necessarily make much sense, and I've explained them to people who look confused or misheard. If my Haleigh wanted everyone to call her Bale, I'm pretty sure I'd give the adults around her a heads up instead of leaving them wondering who in the world she was, lol.

[Callie]

My brothers name is James we call him Jimmy.  At some point when he was a really little kid someone (we have no clue) started calling him John.  He now goes by John to everyone except really close relatives.  I've called him Jim around his friends and they are like "who"?.  Absolutely no one outside of his family know his name is James/Jimmy/Jim.

 

My dh was raised by his stepdad since he was 9 months old.  He was never adopted.  All of his legal paperwork (SS card/drivers license ect) used his step fathers last name.  We were married under that name.  In the early 90's we had to have everything changed when he needed security clearance for a job.

[Callie]

My brothers name is James we call him Jimmy.  At some point when he was a really little kid someone (we have no clue) started calling him John.  He now goes by John to everyone except really close relatives.  I've called him Jim around his friends and they are like "who"?.  Absolutely no one outside of his family know his name is James/Jimmy/Jim.

 

 

When we were teens I was "corrected" many times by people on his name.  Especially other teen girls who would give me a smug look and tell me his name.  Um no he's my brother I guess I know his name.

[EKS]

My son goes by a nickname that is only tangentially related to his given name.  For years, in airport lines I've whispered to him, "Remember your name is [given name]."