A class list today is usually a real IQ challenge for a teacher. Gone are many names Alberta teachers might have known from their own childhood since there are now many from other cultures, names it might be hard to pronounce.  I like to try though, to read out the class list and ensure I say each name right. I like to give the personal touch and personal respect each student deserves. It is much harder to teach kids if you don’t know who they are.  So I am learning, with the kids’ help to say Yuliya, Eneida, Selenge, Weng Bo. I am learning to pronounce Siobhan, Ceilidh, Sian, and to ask if Theodore is Tayodoor or Theo-door.  I am learning to not assume gender of Regan or Toby, Jody, Terry, Robin and have taught Joe, Noah, Taylor, Sydney and Jordan who were girls.

 I like to also have  a seating plan. I know it may seem old-fashioned but it is a subtle way of helping kids learn. You can separate trouble makers. You can ensure those who need extra help are nearer the teacher or nearer someone who can help them. You can take requests and help a shy boy or girl sit next to someone they like. I like to change the seating plan every month to ensure that kids have to deal with a new social environment and get along with lots of people. It removes cliques and sets up a kind of camaraderie.

I find it a real mistake to let kids pick their own seats because they tend to gravitate to locations that might not help them learn. Friends stick together naturally and yet their playfulness may get in the way of doing the work.  Keen students tend to sit nearer the front, the less enthused, nearer the back, if you give them a choice .  think everyone should get a chance at sitting in the front and middle and back to understand the inherent advantages and challenges of those locations. In secondary, boys tend to mill together often at the back. I always try to break up groups that might get rowdy and a seating plan done for every student shows no bias about relocating anyone.

It intrigues me that in 2012 I am seeing kids with names of my own grandmother, names nobody was using for decades. It’s like a circle. Names go in and out of fashion. In the late 1940s during the baby boom  a popular Calgary church minister with first name  Andrew noticed that many of the babies he was baptizing were named Andrew. It was quite an honor.  Names of heroes in the news, popular movie stars get imitated too and then there is that pull to being innovative and naming the child River or Star, or the return to tradition using Joshua or Mohamed.

Classes, which are by definition composed  of kids  nearly the same age, often have several children with the same first name.  Some lately have a lot of Justins, Jessicas, Jacobs  as if there was a sale that year. It is tricky  to hand out material to James S. not James W.

The other thing that amuses me is the spelling of names for unique spellings are common. The child may be Brandi not Brandy or Cristal not Crystal,  Brittney, not Britney,  Ferras not Ferris, Karai not Carey. Madeline dose not want to be Madeleine and the  one who is Boni is not Bonnie or Bonny and cares deeply if you get it wrong.  I star and mark the attendance sheet for pronunciation every time I take attendance in a new class.   Dylan may want to be called “Die-lan” and there are children with names are Adolf, Igor, Sky, Pretty, Adlai, Abdullah, Blessing. I love that the kids themselves, and all their friends are so familiar with them by that name that all is normalized. It is a lovely acceptance.

But it appears that in earlier times it was not quite this free.  The formal name often had less range and that may be why a lot of kids got nicknames.

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In the 1700s in early Canada there were naming traditions from European roots. The first son was often named after the father, and the second and third sons after grandfathers. The first daughter might be named after the mother with second and third daughters after grandmothers.   The child’s name might be new but the middle name was often the traditional family name.

I think that pioneers must have had deep emotional pulls when they named their young to remind them of distant family. Just like they often named their villages, lakes and creeks after places back home, they seemed to name their children fondly, for family.

In 1880 common names for kids were William, John, James, George and for girls Mary,Anna, Emma, Elizabeth, Margaret, Minnie, Ida, Bertha.

In the 1890s there were baby names like Beatrice, Charlotte, Edith, Hannah, Lillie, Nellie. You’d see Nora, Phoebe, Virginia. Matilda, Maude, Winnifred.  The boys might be Owen, Ned, Simon, Wilfred, Matthew, Aaron ,Daniel, Enoch, Gus, Isaiah, Jacob.

In 1900 and 1910  there were names like Myrrtle, Tillie, Dorothy, Winona, Helen, Ann, Elizabeth,Louella, or for the boys Frank, John, William, James , Robert.By 1920 a few other names surfaced too like Charles, Edward, Joseph and for girls Betty, Ruth, Virginia, Doris, Frances, Mildred.

Calgary schools got a big influx of people from other countries at the turn of the century and by 1920 many of the names had German, Chinese or even Russian roots. It was common for the newcomers to pick an anglicized version here though. During the big waves of immigration some people even changed their last names. The story is told of German newcomers who were told a new name to use when the ship docked and having forgotten the name, said “I forgot” “Ich have es vergessen””.  The person writing names then sometimes just recorded them as Ferguson.

In 1940 baby names included Michael, Ronald, Larry, James, Robert, William David, Chares, Thomas. A lot of  baby girls were named Linda, Mary, Barbara, Patricia, Carol ,Sanda, Nancy, Sharon,  Judith.

In 1946 Calgary saw the first of its baby boom after soldiers came home from the war. In 1946 only  1338 children had turned up for grade one but by 1956 that number was 4200 children registering for the grade.

By 1960 baby boys were often named Michael, David, John, James, Robert, Mark,William, Richard, Thomas, Jeffrey, Steven.  Girls’ names included Mary, Susan, Karen, Kimberly, Patricia, Linda, Donna, Cynthia, Sandra.

When the 70s hit and the hippie era, names shifted again.  By 1980 girls were being named Jennifer, Jessica, Amanda, Ashley, Sarah, Melissa, Nicole, Tiffany, Michelle. Baby boys might be named some of the old  standards but also Justin, Jason, James,  Christopher.

By 2000 the names had changed again. Common baby names were Olivia, Hannah, Madison, Emily, Isabella, Samantha, Ashley, Alexis, Sarah. Boys might be Ethan, Andrew, William, Anthony and by 2010 the names Noah, Benjamin, Alexander, Tyler, Ashton, Keegan, Lucas, Abigail,  Ava, Chloe, Hannah, Megan, Brooklyn  were popular or popular again..

It’s odd how a name dates a person.

Another change has been how students address the teacher.  In earlier times the teacher was the school master or school mistress, the school  ‘marm’. We  have lost most of those terms, but teachers now have more  hierarchies like ‘department head’, ‘learning leader’ Kids rarely care about those.  They do know who is the principal, usually ,though amazingly, not always.

When students address the teacher that’s also changed.  They used to say “Please teacher..” or “Please Miss Jones..” with the last name. In 2012 it is as common to have elementary school students use the teacher’s first name.  They refer to Miss Melody, Miss Holly and in the French classes the corresponding Madame Claudette, Madame Sylvie.   Not all teachers like the first name being used so some are still addressed by last name. The kids are told which to use. They seem to adjust very quickly.   What kids often get wrong and don’t care about is marital status. Some single teachers along with married ones are  “Madame”.

In the 1920s or even the 1950s it a big secret o know the teacher’s first name but now it is common in elementary. In secondary the last names are still used and  that may be partly because in general elementary teachers are younger than secondary teachers and feel more comfortable having children address them informally.

Kids however are geniuses at creating names, nicknames and shortened names, especially behind the back of the person referred to.  We teachers hear these names less frequently of course but we do overhear them.  Some nicknames for students are earned labels, for some action recalled, or their appearance – Shorty, Stretch,  Flash, Happy.

In the schools we try to discourage nicknames and forbid insulting ones.  But truth be told many families  have nicknames for their own children, affectionate ones- Martin may also be Bart, Garth may also be Tim, Robert may be Bobby or Robby or Rob depending on who is speaking to them.  The schools pick up on what the child wants to be called. Kids often correct me from the formal attendance list name to the one they want to be called.

However there is the automatic shortening they may not have chosen.  Mr. Tanasichuk might be called Mr. T. It’s just easier.  The child in grade one may have been listed as Alexander but over a few months kids may have called him Zander, or Alex and as they say ‘the name stuck’.

I have a theory that people are linguistically efficient and that whatever formal label we give, people over time will shorten it to 3 syllables or less. They do this all the time for city names Calgary becomes Cowtown,  Drumheller is Drum, Fort McMurray may be Fort Mac.  Medicine Hat became The Hat and Vancouver, Van..  With school names we shorten too, Sir John A Macdonald is Sir John A, Western Canada High is Western.  The part to recall, to shorten is not always the person’s last name either and in some ways stops being even about a person but a label. Viscount Bennett became Viscount, Queen Elizabeth was Q.E.  Kids do the same with each other’s names and with teachers’ names. It is the office lingo, the ‘in crowd’ code for kids.

In fact the language kids and teachers use is a way to innovate but retains some surprising traditions.