A Tennessee mom is going viral for saying “yes, no questions asked” to something most parents would debate over for months.
Danielle Remp, 35, shared the story of how and why she let her teenage daughter change her name.
The 16-year-old daughter also spoke about getting relentlessly bullied in school for a name that some people see as racist.
Highlights
- Danielle Remp, 35, shared the story of how and why she let her teenage daughter change her name.
- The Burger King shift manager is now saving up $200 to cover the cost of legally changing the name.
- Her teenage daughter, 16, spoke about the different names her fellow high schoolers call her to bully her.
A Tennessee mom is going viral for saying “yes, no questions asked” to something most parents would debate for months
Image credits: Danielle Marie
Danielle Remp shared a video on TikTok about why she wholeheartedly allowed her daughter to change her name.
For the mother, her teen daughter’s happiness was her priority, and she knew her daughter would “feel better” with a different name.
So, the Burger King shift manager is saving up $200 to cover the cost of legally changing the name.
Image credits: Getty Images/Unsplash (not the actual photo)
“She’s a good kid,” Danielle told TODAY in an interview with her daughter.
“She’s doing great in school, she doesn’t give me trouble. So if changing her name makes her feel better about herself, why would I say no?” the mother added.
The mother and daughter spoke about how students would bully the teenager for her original name
Image credits: barefooted_beauty89
The mother-daughter duo explained that the teenager's original name was Dixie.
It was a name picked out by her father when she was born in 2008, but Danielle wanted to name her Skye.
The teenager grew up as Dixie, but faced relentless bullying in school for what many see as a racist name.
“She gets made fun of for it,” the mother said in her TikTok video. “I said yes, no questions asked.”
Image credits: Danielle Marie
The soft-spoken high school junior spoke about the bullying in school, saying: “They call me things like ‘Dixie Dust,’ or ‘Dixie Normous.’”
“They just give it all sorts of crude meanings, and they’ll call me that in the hallway,” she added.
With the blessings of her mother, the teenager said she wanted to change her name to Skye.
“My mom was going to name me Skye when I was born, but my dad chose Dixie instead,” she told the outlet. “Skye feels like me. It’s who I am, and it makes me feel happy to go by that name.”
The name “Dixie” is “correlated with something a lot darker than just history,” an expert said
Image credits: Gabriele Maltinti/stock.adobe.com
Many people strongly associate the name Dixie with racism because it is a nickname for the American South, especially the Confederate South, during the Civil War era.
The Confederacy is the group of Southern states that broke away from the US in 1861, with one of the core reasons being the agenda to preserve sl*very.
The term “Dixie” is often linked to America’s Mason–Dixon line, which is the historic boundary that was later symbolically known as the dividing line between the Northern “free” states and the Southern “sl*ve” states (states that allowed sl*very).
In 1859, Daniel Decatur Emmett composed a minstrel song known as “Dixie,” which became the most popular marching song for the Confederate Army and was seen as the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy
Image credits: Danielle Marie
In addition to the song, minstrel shows in the 19th century would include White performers in blackface and raggedy clothes, putting on performances meant to be funny for White people. But the Black community saw these shows as extremely demeaning and distressing.
“Most historians would agree that Dixie is a word people understand as obviously a reference not just to a place, but a certain kind of ideology,” Tammy Ingram, author of Dixie Highway: Road Building and the Making of the Modern South, 1900-1930, previously told CNN.
“There’s no mystery around all this,” added the history professor. “People’s instincts about this being a problematic term is definitely correct. It’s correlated with something a lot darker than just history.”
In light of the US grappling with racial injustice in recent times, Danielle’s daughter wouldn’t be the only one changing her name Dixie to something else.
The popular country band, The Dixie Chicks, changed their name to The Chicks in 2020.
The same year, the oldest brewery in New Orleans, called “Dixie Brewery,” announced that they were changing their name to a new brand that “best represents [their] culture and community.”
Country band The Dixie Chicks changed their name to The Chicks in 2020
Image credits: J.Sciulli/WireImage
After Danielle went viral for allowing her daughter to change her name to Skye, netizens had mixed reactions.
“Everyone should get one free name change. Not just at marriage,” one said, while another wrote, “I hate my name & have never felt connected to it. I wish my mom would’ve let me change it when I was younger. I’m 30 now & feel it’s too late. Happy for Skye.”
“What no. Teach your child resilience,” a critic said. “If you let her change her name what else will she want to change about herself?”
Another wrote, “As someone who was horrendously bullied for their birth name growing up and changed it as an adult, thank you.”
Image credits: The Howard Stern Show
“My name is Dixie and I think it’s great that you’ll support her in changing her name!” wrote another. “Growing up with the name Dixie was really embarrassing for me as a kid for 2 reasons. 1. it’s an extremely common dog name and 2, there’s lots of inappropriate jokes that can be made about the name.”
“Nah. teach her self confidence. if it isn't her name it'll be her body. ppl will always have something to make fun of ppl for. and unless you plan to continually get surgery etc for everything then,” said another.
Danielle responded to some of the critics in the comments section and said, “To the ones hating.. I guess it’s a good thing she is MY DAUGHTER and not y’all’s :) it’s just a name change.. not a nose job or some major surgery!”
“It really is important to understand what words mean before we name children,” one said online
