call somebody names

アメリカでは子どもの「肥満」は深刻な問題となっているようです。この記事の少女のように、いじめに発展することもあるかもしれません。しかし、最近の日本の小・中学生は全然太っていないのに「ダイエットしなきゃ」なんて言っています。外見でのいじめから逃れるために必死なのでしょうか。様々な問題を孕んでいる気がします。

英検２級レベルのイディオムですが、nameが複数になっているため気になりました。LDOCEにはcall somebody namesの形で”person, company, or product that is very famous or is known by many people”とあります。「ののしる」といったところでしょう。

『ジーニアス英和辞典　第４版』には「…の悪口を言う」という訳が載っており、さらに具体的に「《◆namesはidiot, dope, foolのような言葉の総称》」の記述がありました。また、nameの前にはbadやrudeのような形容詞が置かれることもあるそうです。(Minnesota)

Breanna Bond, 9, Loses 66 Pounds

Breanna Bond weighed 186 pounds by the time she was 9 years old.

The extra weight made it difficult for her to breathe and move around. The California girl soon became a target for bullies. "Everybody at school would call me names," she said. "They would call me fatty, they would call me fat head."

Breanna's weight gain began when she was a baby, reaching 100 pounds by the time she got to kindergarten. She couldn't keep up with the friends who were running while they played.

"Her pediatrician always said that she'd grow into her body and then, after a while, we went and got other doctors' opinions," Breanna's mother, Heidi Bond of Clovis, Calif., said today on " Good Morning America." "We had her tested for everything from thyroid to diabetes - her endocrinology got tested - allergies, and everything came out fine so we knew at that point we had to step things up."

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/breanna-bond-9-loses-66-pounds-133918949--abc-news-health.html