Annie Walton Doyle
A man who had spent his life being bullied for his unusual name has discovered it has a rather unique meaning.
Choosing the name of a child is one of the biggest responsibilities a parent can have.
Whether they like it or not, a child’s name will stick with them. And we all know that other kids can be pretty brutal.
Now one man who was bullied for his unusual name has done some research and discovered it has a surprising meaning behind it.
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The man in question, who goes by @mrwilliamsprek on TikTok, has revealed that this isn’t the name he was born with.
In fact, he made a whole video on the thorny topic of his name, captioned: “My parents named me something AWFUL.”
He claims his parents ‘did him dirty’, but first explained the meanings behind the names of his siblings.
He first mentions a sister called Amber (meaning jewel or golden colour) which he calls ‘beautiful’.
He then draws attention to Natasha, whose name means Christmas or born on Christmas, and jokes ‘ho ho ho b***h, we love a holiday’.
The third sister is called Kimberly, which he believes means ‘something about royalty or nature’.
“I don’t know, it’s regal,” he concludes.
The man is jealous of his siblings’ more ‘run of the mill names’, claiming his is much more ‘unique’.
The name in question is … Tell.
“It’s not short for anything, that’s it,” he says. “Because my name’s like a word I never looked it up before, it’s a verb, sometimes it’s a noun.”
He decides to look up his name and finds it’s German in origin.
“Which is fine but confusing because we’re Puerto Rican,” he laughs.
@mrwilliamsprek Well.. we learned a lot today #babynames #namegame #learnontiktok #teachertok #teachersoftiktok ♬ Cena Engraçada e Inusitada de 3 Minutos – HarmonicoHCO
He then reveals that Tell actually means ‘to gorge, like to gorge on food‘.
Tell goes on: “As a kid, I was a gay Puerto Rican living in North Indiana. Mike Pence was our governor; it was hard enough to be me.
“And then on top of that, my name was Tell. They called me Telly Tubby, they called me Tell the Tattletale, they sang ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’ every time I walked by.
“But I always told myself ‘Tell don’t worry about, it’s unique, it’s you, it’s beautiful’.
“It means to GORGE.”
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However, commenters were quick to offer Tell some words of solace.
One quips: “It’s gorge like short for gorgeous.”
A second adds to the joke: “Parents: oh, he’s going to EAT.”
A third commenter pointed out a strange coincidence, writing: “But is your last name really William? As in William, Tell? As in an overture???”
Another onomatologist adds: “Another meaning of Tell is of Slavic origin and means ‘bright or of the Sun, speaker of old stories and myths’.”
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