Girl getting bullied in school.
Kids will find any reason to bully one another on the playground. One of the easiest ways for kids to insult each other is by making fun of their names. That’s why parents have to be very careful when choosing their child’s name, because it could become a form of torture when they get to school age.
When Danielle Remp, a mother in Tennessee, had a daughter in 2008, she wanted to name her Skye. But the father insisted on naming her Dixie. When she got older, the name became a problem because of its sexual connotation and its connection to the South during the Civil War.
“They call me things like ‘Dixie Dust,’ or ‘Dixie Normous,’” the soft-spoken high school junior told TODAY. “They just give it all sorts of crude meanings, and they’ll call me that in the hallway.” This constant bullying inspired Dixie to choose a new name, Skye, the one her mother originally intended for her.
In a viral video with over 800,000 views, Remp said she completely supports her daughter’s name change.
“She gets made fun of for it,” she wrote on TikTok. “I said yes, no questions asked.”
@barefooted_beauty89 I’ll always stand by her side no matter what 💙 #standbyyourkid #doitforthem #foryou #fyp #stopbullying
Some people in the comments criticized Remp for allowing her daughter to change her name, arguing that it taught her resilience. But many supported her decision because no one needs their life ruined because of a name they didn’t choose.
"As someone who was horrendously bullied for their birth name growing up and changed it as an adult, thank you," Jade wrote. “My name is Dixie, and I think it's great that you'll support her in changing her name! Growing up with the name Dixie was really embarrassing for me as a kid for two reasons,” Dixie added.
A plaque on the Mason and Dixon line.via Famartin/Wikimedia Commons
It’s believed that the South became known as Dixie Land because of the $10 “dix” banknotes (French for “ten”) issued in Louisiana, which spread throughout the region. It could also be due to the Mason-Dixon line, a boundary drawn between 1763-1767 by English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. The border would later become an unofficial boundary between the slave-holding states in the South and the free North. The song “Dixie” became the unofficial anthem for the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
In 2020, popular country group The Dixie Chicks shortened their name to The Chicks to avoid any association with the Confederacy.
Five years ago, a lively discussion on the Reddit NameNerds forum agreed that Dixie was a bad name to give a child because of the racist and sexual connotations. “As an American, yes, it’s completely unusable. I would instantly start wondering if it was a racist dog whistle,” the most popular commenter wrote. “There are very few names I would say are objectively bad. Dixie is one of them,” another added.
Even though Remp was kind to allow Skye to change her name, the decision ultimately rests in the daughter’s hands. Because in just two years, she’ll be legally able to do whatever she wants with her name, and she should be able to call herself exactly what she likes. How you refer to yourself is one of the most personal choices you can make, but funny enough, it’s left up to your parents. That’s why everyone should have the right to choose their name when they get older, whether their parents or angry folks on TikTok like it or not.