Nicknames - post has nothing to do with being self sufficient LOL

[Quail_Antwerp]

So I'm kinda weird, I guess, when it comes to naming my children.

I don't believe in Nicknames.

I name my kids what I want them to be called. Granted, all of the kids have had pet names here and there (DD was our little Belle - not a part of her name at all - and our oldest DS was Turtle as a baby, we've called one Squeakers, another one was Boo for awhile...you get the idea)

But I've never chose a given name for them that we shortened down. In fact, I worked REALLY hard to give each of my kids names that COULDN'T be shortened down - Except DD, who's name *could* be shortened, but I've fought tooth and nail not to let it be.

What I'm running into now is people asking if her name is short for _____________. Nope. Her given name really is _____________ because that is what I wanted her to be called.

So yes, I know I'm weird, but I choose a name for my child for a reason.

Guess I was just wondering what everyone else thought about nicknames?

 

[savingdogs]

When I was naming my children, I thought about nicknames alot. I went the other route and gave my sons names that have a specific and obvious nickname which is a shortening of their full name. Example: Thomas = Tom (but it isn't Thomas). With the boys, I picked "normal" names because I don't think boys like to have a weird or unusual name. With my daughter, I thought there was no way to shorten her particular name, which is more unusual, but we do, somehow she ended up with the nickname "Bud" because her lips were like little rosebuds, and we actually call her that all the time instead of her pretty and beautiful true first name which is two syllables and the word "Bud" is not part of her name at all.

What I thought was strange is that I chose names I thought were common but not overused, and after I named my children those names, the names became very popular. With my younger son whom I refer to as Trouble, there were THREE other boys with his name in his kindergarten class. Since his name has an obvious nickname, they all went by that nickname. Poor teacher! Good thing she is a saint. She had to use their first and last names.

My granddaughter has a very short and very unusual name so she will never need a nickname. My daughter did really well choosing something unique! I think girls enjoy their name being unique and boys do NOT.

 

[Beekissed]

I only have one that gets shortened and it was purely intentional. Eli is what we call Elijah and I don't mind the shortened version as much as I would have people asking if it was short for Elijah or Elias. I like the meaning of the name Elijah...I don't mind that it's easier to say Eli instead of Elijah.

Joel and Jon didn't get the luxury of shortened names...they were short enough already. They eventually turned into Joelly or Jonny anyway....I guess one can't control how life takes a name or personality and changes it sometimes.

I feel sorry for grown men called "Jamie" or "Jonny"....just doesn't seem appropriate after the age of 25.

 

[Henrietta23]

We chose DS's name because we liked both the full name and nickname and put quite a bit of thought into that. We made sure both sounded good with our last name. I have a cousin whose parents named her Candace. Their last name is Kane. They too put thought into it. Poor girl went through childhood as Candy Kane.
My full name is Kristin which was not as common when I was little as it was in the 80s. I was very shy when I was a kid and hated being called Kris because then people would assume it was Chris or Christine and I felt very self conscious speaking up to correct them.
DH is James. He was Jimmy as a kid and his cousins and aunt still call him that. At 52 and 6'3" it sounds a little silly! He lived in England when he was in 3rd grade and the school insisted he use his full name. It stuck and he's been James with family and close friends ever since. Most people at work automatically shorten it to Jim and he usually doesn't bother to correct them.

 

[i_am2bz]

My sister named her second daughter "Amelia", which everyone in the family objected to because it can't be shortened!! (Or so we thought.) (There is a character in the novel 'Vanity Fair' named Amelia that everyone called Amy, but that didn't seem right.) (I promoted "Justine" as a middle name so we could call her "AJ" but my BIL wanted nothing to do with that.)

Anyway, she's 12 now, & there was a fad going around her school that everyone had a "rap" name, kinda like Jennifer Lopez became J Lo. Her rap name became Mel D, so now we call her Mel. It only took 12 years but we finally got her a nickname!

Strangely, I always wanted a nickname, & my name can be shortened, but nobody ever does!

 

[abifae]

I never wanted a nickname. I thought it was a rewriting of the person.

But now that I'm older and wiser (go autism! lol), I have learned that pet names and nicknames are meant to be affectionate. I don't like a nickname in laziness, so much, but I don't mind pet names any more.

 

[Lady Henevere]

I purposely gave my daughter a name that has many nicknames. It's a long name with several options, like Elizabeth can be Liz, Eliza, Beth, etc. I hated my nickname as a child, and happily changed to my full name as a teenager when I moved to a new school. I suppose I wanted to give her the option to do something similar if she felt the same way. So I gave her a name that would grow with her and change--or not--as she sees fit.

 

[pinkfox]

lol my sister never wanted her name shortend in the traditional way...
her name is elizabeth and of course eveyrone would try and shorten it to Lizzy...
she woudl ALWAYS correct them "my name is elizabeth" would be her responce...i think she just hated the name lizzy.
but then one day her teacher statredt calling her a busy bumblebee, because she never sat still...
and it quickly became "bizzy" and shes been "Bizzy" ever since and shes quite happy with that. everyone calles her bizzy and has done since she was about 4 lol. (shell be 21 in may lol)

i think when people shorten your name out of lazyness, it realy bothers me...
i feel if you dont KNOW someone dont shorten their name, its rude...unless you have been introduced to that person as their nickname or a shortend version then as an aquaintence only, use thier given name...
however close frineds and family i have no problem using nicknames of shortening in endearing ways.

 

[~gd]

Well pre school I was Bobby, grade school Bob, High school Robert, in the military I was called by last name only. After that I insisted on Mr Lastname, but was called The Dragon behind my back, Now as a old man in the South I get called Pops or Sir [I am not sure which I hate worse] ~gd

 

[ORChick]

When I was naming my children, I thought about nicknames alot. I went the other route and gave my sons names that have a specific and obvious nickname which is a shortening of their full name. Example: Thomas = Tom (but it isn't Thomas). With the boys, I picked "normal" names because I don't think boys like to have a weird or unusual name. With my daughter, I thought there was no way to shorten her particular name, which is more unusual, but we do, somehow she ended up with the nickname "Bud" because her lips were like little rosebuds, and we actually call her that all the time instead of her pretty and beautiful true first name which is two syllables and the word "Bud" is not part of her name at all.

What I thought was strange is that I chose names I thought were common but not overused, and after I named my children those names, the names became very popular. With my younger son whom I refer to as Trouble, there were THREE other boys with his name in his kindergarten class. Since his name has an obvious nickname, they all went by that nickname. Poor teacher! Good thing she is a saint. She had to use their first and last names.

My granddaughter has a very short and very unusual name so she will never need a nickname. My daughter did really well choosing something unique! I think girls enjoy their name being unique and boys do NOT.

I have an unusual name, not unique, but very seldom found in this country, and not all that often even in Ireland where it came from. I have been in the same room with another person with the same name not more than 5 times in my almost 60 years. It is also very short, so it doesn't get shortened, though it sometimes gets purposefully mispronounced (more often the mispronunciation is inadvertent). I'm also a redhead (or was ) so I got called *freckles* a lot. But as a child I did NOT like having an unusual name. Now I appreciate that when I hear my name I know that it is me being addressed, but in grade school it would have been nice to have had an *ordinary* name like my friends. My brothers all have unusual names as well - all 3 were given surnames from back in the family tree. All can be shortened to more *ordinary* sounding names, but none of my brothers chose to do that, insisting in fact to have people call them by their given names.