Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

I like nicknames, but, not much you can really do with Bryan and Carolynn.

My dad and brother are Frederick, but, they are never ever called that, it's Fred!

Other names we bounced around while I was pregnant were:

Alexander or Alexandra (and we'd call him/her Alex..Love it)

Christian (with this, I think we'd stick with Christian)

Cassandra (Cassie (love this too) )

Lauryn (again, no real nick name for this).

LOL guess we had a good mix of names with nicknames/no nicknames.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

DS's name is Nathaniel. We call him Natie. He's a baby/toddler. As he gets older he's not going to be Natie forever - he'll grow to Nate or Nathaniel. I can't imagine calling him Natie when he's an adult.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

We named my daughter Imogen with the intent of calling her Immi, we knew someone with the name and referred to herself as Immi. We like to call her both names, again, if she is the Prime Minister, Immi might not be the most appropriate name, but for a little kid, its very cute.

I think people should call their kids whatever they want, if they want to nake their kid Eggplant and call him Patrick, as a nickname. Good for them!

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

Our DD is Katelyn and we NEVER call her that. We only call her Katie. Sometimes we think we should have just named her Katie, but I wanted to give her the choice, when she is older, to be Katelyn, Katie or Katie.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

I guess in my case its not really cutting her name short, but DD's name is Isabelle, and we call her Isabellie, I guess it's just a "cutesy" way since she is a baby (6 months)

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

I guess it leaves room for the child to grow into their name.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

If I have a girl next I want to name her Emerson and call her Eme. I thought of just naming her Eme, but I wanted to give her the option if using her full name when she gets older.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

Genevieve and William were always supposed to be Genevieve and William.

Genevieve is still Genevieve to me, but her friends and alot of people (all non-family) call her Gen. She actually asked for her backpack to have Gen as the monogram. I was so mad

William became Billy almost instantly, because it just fit him better.

And as for Charlotte, she would hve been just Charlie if I had my say. DH did not want to name her a "boy's" name, so I compromised and said we can name her Charlotte, but I'd call her Charlie. No one EVER calls her Charlotte, except when she does something wrong

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

I've always liked having the option of a more formal type name vs. a nickname. I'm Kimberly but to my family I'm Kim or Kimmy, friends always called me Kim. I'm glad my parents went with Kimberly despite always calling me by my nickname. I met another Kim once and she was just Kim and said how she wished her parents named her Kimberly instead so she would have an option.

My ds is Charles but I knew from the moment we saw him and had decided on that name he would be Charlie to us. If he decides one day he'd rather be Charles that's fine with us too. I just couldn't picture calling an infant Charles

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

My concern with Riley's name now that I think of it, is that it almost sounds nicknamey in itself. It's funny cuz in the beginning I hated when people started calling her RiRi. Then I found myself doing it as she grew into a toddler. I know she's gonna ask to drop that nickname eventually. when she was a baby I had a conversation with another mom who asked if there was a way to shorten her name. I said no, but here I am doing it. It just fits.

One trend that confuses me is when you call the child by middle name. I imagine in some cases it's to differentiate between others in the family with the same name. I have a family in my school where both the brother and sister go by their middle names.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

My DD is Josie. I always loved the name, and it never even crossed my mind to name her Josephine and call her Josie for short. While I LOVE Josie, I'm not crazy about Josephine.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

I pretty much only look at names that don't have nicknames DH is Anthony and only goes by Tony and it just seems crazy to me that he has two names! But I do understand why people use nicknames and the purpose of a more formal name.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

We names DS Alexander but have always called him Alex. I figured that when hes older, if he wants to use his full name professionally or otherwise he can. Hell maybe when hes 40 he'll want to be called Al.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

i did this. my DH insisted on naming our son William after his dad, who passed away. My issue was that is also DH's name, and DH is a third. Not only did I not want a fourth, I didn't want our son to be called William (which is what I call DH) or Bill, Billy, Will etc. So we named him William, gave him a middle name but call him and introduce him as Liam.

DH was fine with this, so I was kind of like why can't we just name him Liam but I guess he felt better that it said William on the birth certificate? It was a battle I didn't want to fight though.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

bc, why not? Nicknames have been around forever. DS name is Edward, we call him Eddie. I can do this with almost every person I know.

Message edited 8/21/2011 10:56:14 PM.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

Just to offer a different perspective...my full first name is actually a nickname. So all my life people have always asked me "oh, is your real name so and so" which it isn't. It gets really annoying. I have always wished that I had a more "formal" first name especially for purposes of diplomas, career etc.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

never even thought about it. nickname or no nickname.
i am elizabeth and have been called lizzy, beth, liz etc. i am so used to it.
i wanted to name DD Lily and just that. when she was born DH wrote down her name as Elizabeth for her birth certificate...but we still only ever call her Lily. a lot of people are over this but really who cares?
she's Lily, but on her birth certificate she'll always have the same name as me, her mother.

also wanted to add that i never understood names that sound like last names-Emerson, Reilly etc..but then i went and named my DS Quinn. sometimes you just wind up picking a name and thats what happens.

ETA that i LOVE the names Emerson an Reilly! they are adorable and was just using them as examples!

Message edited 8/21/2011 10:52:52 PM.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

I love nicknames! I admit there are some that are not cute but generally they are cute and don't see the big deal in them. My name is Giovanna...People call me Gio or G...

My son's name is Matthew. We call him Matty or Mat and some of our own cute nicknames that has nothing to do with his name...LOL

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

Im a big nickname fan My son is Francesco but we call him Frankie (which is my favorite name in the world). I didnt name him just Frankie b/c like pp I wanted him to have options when he gets older and I like more "proper" names on Birth certificates. My dd is Mackenzie but we call her Kenzie.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

Posted by ChrisDee

I do not mean this in a rude way,so please do not take offense but if you planned on calling your child something else other then their full given name, then why not just name them that? It confuses me.
For example, when we were team green we tossed around the name Andrew. DH did not want the kid to be called Andy, he would rather Drew. So we decided if it were a boy,we would just name him Drew if that was what we were gonna call him anyway. KWIM? My friend named her
DD Kaitlin and exclusively calls her Katie. So why not just name her Katie?

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

DD is Alexandra. She is called Alexandra, Lexi, Alexa, Lexa and Lex.

I wanted her name to be Alexa, but I chose Alexandra so if she is ever a lawyer or doctor or something she has a more professional sounding name.

Re: Question about given names and the name you call your child.

I wish I had a shorter name ha! Veronica feels like such an old name. I feel more like a Ronie and most close to me call me that. But yes, for work and others I am "Veronica"

Full names just give more options as all the PP said.

Reversely, Jim's real name is actually "Jimmy" legally that's his name. But no one calls him that. He goes by Jim. Some will call him James because they assume that Jim is short for James. So you could say that if you name a child by a nick name instead of a full version of the same you'll get a lot of "Oh is that short for..........."

Starting off with a full name at least gives that option of staying with it or not.

What *I* want to call AJ may not be what she wants to call herself later. She actually will refer to herself as both right now. AJ & Arianna. To me she'll always be AJ. When I named her I took that into consideration. I knew from before she was born she'd either be Jezzie or AJ. Its fun thinking of her becoming some uber successful business woman who people will know as AJ (XX) and always assume she's a man (ha) and find out she's just one tough cookie of a woman! haha dreams and fantasies, I guess.