A nursery infuriated a proud mum, who had given her daughter a name that reflected her Maori roots and culture, by changing it, claiming it was too hard to say
An enraged mum is urging children to be confident in their name after a nightmare nursery experience with her little girl.
After discovering her daughter’s nursery has shortened her little girl’s name because it is ‘too hard to pronounce’, a furious mum decided to speak out in the hope of inspiring others.
Mahinarangi Tautu had just started to attend the day centre in New Zealand in 2021 when her Maori mum Paris was told that staff would call the then five-year-old “Rangi”. They told the horrified parent they found Mahinarangi’s traditional Maori name, which means ‘moon in the sky’, too hard to pronounce. She pulled her out of the nursery shortly afterwards.
In a further twist Paris said cruel children laughed at her daughter’s traditional name and didn’t even bother to try and pronounce it. The bullying left Mahinarangi so distraught she no longer tried to correct people when they said her name wrong. Paris said her daughter’s name from the Ngāti Raukawa heritage had been passed down through several generations and has a deep line of descent, known as whakapapa, which often shows where someone is from.
Not giving someone their full name can be seen as a lack of respect. In a community Facebook post, Paris said: “Can you imagine your child being too embarrassed to say their name because people won’t make a decent effort to pronounce it properly?”
“I am sad that in 2021, in Aotearoa, a 5-year-old girl has lost the pride that comes with her beautiful name. It made me so angry, especially because they’d use Maori resources in her classes.” Paris told New Zealand Herald that her ancestors endured a similar experience which made her even more determined to make sure her daughter’s name was pronounced correctly and not changed.
She said: “My ancestors changed their original name from Perepe-Perana to Phillips because of colonisation. I will not let something similar happen with my daughter.” Paris said she taught Mahinarangi to break down her name into single syllables to educate people and help them to say her name correctly.
She also urged other parents to remind their children about the importance of their name if it is traditional and part of their culture. “It’s important for our kids to be confident in their names, regardless of their ethnicity,” she said.
A version of this story was first published in 2023.
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