Testimonies. Dorothée, Jean-Marie, Peggy... When your first name becomes a burden

"Given my first name, do I really need to explain?" Peggy's tone clearly shows the frequency and intensity of the mockery she has endured. The Dijon native, who responded to our call for testimonies, had the misfortune of sharing her name with one of the iconic puppets from the Muppet show. "I tried to explain that the puppet was called Piggy (Pig as in pig) and that Peggy was a diminutive (or the translation), but it still haunts me," the fifty-year-old exasperatedly says.

And her case is far from isolated. Many people have a first name close to or similar to a popular personality or fictional character. And it's often only a short step from this to harassment.

Being called Dorothée in the 80s

"It wasn't easy every day," admits Dorothée, 41. Born in the 1980s, the Isère native grew up during the golden age of the show Club Dorothée and its famous host. "I was asked to sing the artist's entire repertoire as if I were the official jukebox of the class, the camp, or wherever I happened to be," says the forty-year-old. "Adults, children, everyone had fun with my name. Sometimes it was harmless, but other times it was deeply mean. For a child, that can be hard!" she recalls.

Alyson also has bad memories of her early school years. In the early 90s, a true musical phenomenon dominated the charts: Jordy and his famous "Dur, dur d'être un bébé!" And to the great dismay of the 37-year-old, the "baby" singer, son of producer Claude Lemoine, released a second single in 1993: Alison (She's My Girlfriend). "The song followed me through kindergarten and elementary school, and I suffered from it," she says today.

There are some for whom the mockery has never stopped. "It's my work colleagues' turn to take up the torch," says Gwendoline, already tormented at school. At the time, this 45-year-old resident of Beaujolais was being accosted because of the Japanese cartoon Gwendoline, which aired in France from 1989.

"[…] My classmates never failed to remind me of the existence of the soap opera, by singing me the theme song," she recalls. Today, it is other references that torment her, notably "the famous Gwendoline who was devoured by wolves" from the film Les Visiteurs (1993). "It often refers to a person who is a bit uptight and haughty, which doesn't fit at all," she adds. For Natacha, 22, the problem is that "my first name is very often associated with sex workers, it's something people have said to me since I was little," regrets the Alsatian.

"I learned to love him"

Finally, for others, it was directly public figures who caused them harm. For Jean-Marie, obviously, it caused him some problems to be "associated with a famous fascist party leader." But, by his own admission, the 62-year-old from Drôme didn't let it happen.

"I wanted to turn this weakness into a strength. It built my character," he boasts. Peggy, mentioned earlier, also admits that the teasing "contributed to the development of a second or even third degree in me, and a foolproof repartee!" The same goes for Dorothée, who now takes pride in her first name. "I learned to love it. It makes me who I am, and having a less common name than some gives us a little something extra."