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

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?

Message edited 8/20/2011 3:40:15 PM.

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

I think that once a childs personality really emerges, then their "given name" may not necessarily reflect that. A friend named her son Thomas James and planned to call him Thomas.

As his spunky personality started to emerge, they started referring to him as TJ, now, if anyone says "Thomas", its weird, because he is a TJ, not a Thomas.

Does that make any sense????

LOL

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 just love the idea of nicknames, that's all I love the uniqueness of them. I also love knowing that if my DD ever wants to call herself something different, she can. If we named her Izzie, she wouldn't have that option. Now she can be, Izzie, Dora, Isadora, Isa, whatever she likes.

DH and I knew that DS would be Luca as soon as we knew he was a boy but I'm a little sad his name doesn't allow for a nickname!

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

Because many time - formal names might be hard to say for young children (esp younger siblings), longer names don't always fit a young child - but as the child gets older they would prefer the more grown up name.

I am Christine - but was Chrissie when I was really young - by 4th grade I wanted to be Christine. I know other Christine's that also felt that way.

DD#1 is Kaitlyn. DD#2 was 10 months she couldn't call her Kaitlyn so she called her KK. The name has stuck so we call her Kaitlyn AND KK interchangeably.

DD#2 is Madelyn - I can't wait for her to use that name but at 2 she prefers Maddie and that is what family and others call her as well.

This is MY take - but a name that you use with family or a nickname is just that - a nickname and many people when they get older like to have a more formal name for business etc - while some people might like to be called Katie - others once they are grown might prefer Kaitlyn or Katherine.

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

I think a full name gives you the option of names later in life...

My friend is named Cathy.

Professionally, she likes Catherine better now (SHE thinks Cathy is too informal), but no one is going to call a little girl "Catherine".

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 like the fact that a full name gives you options for later in life. For example, I call my youngest DD Millie (short for Amelia). Sure we could have named her that, but it doesn't really hold up as well as Amelia does in formal settings.

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

I am actually very against nicknames.
When we talked about baby names, it was never discussed what the nickname would be, because we knew the baby would go by its full name. Our feeling is that nicknames are something that someone should grow into, not be given.
That said, our boy name is very different and people keep asking us what we are going to call him. We keep answering the full name.

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

I agree 10000%. My girls are amelia and kate. I introduce them as such. I am not a fan of nicknames. We like the name kate, but I didn't like catherine, so we just named her kate.

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

DS is Jackson. I prefer that he is called Jackson, but sometimes we call him Jack Jack. I don't like calling him Jack (just one Jack, as opposed to Jack Jack), because really Jack is a different name.

However in general, I am not against nicknames. My name is Kimberly, but I've been called Kim, Kimmy and Kimber, however you have to be from a particular group of people to be allowed to call me Kimmy or Kimber. However when I was a kid, I liked being called Kimmy.

I like the option as you grow to have different names, yet it is all part of your 'real' name.

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

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

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 grew up being called Patty. My full name is Patricia.

As a young child, the name suited me. As I got older and into college, then the career world, Patty seemed so youthful to me. With my career, I started to go by Patricia.... which morphed into Trish or Tricia.

I just liked the idea of being able to use a full name in professional settings.

And BTW, my DS is Andrew. He will never be anything other than Andrew. WE do not like Andy and Drew seems so old. As he gets older and if he wants to go by a nickname, that's his choice.

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

DS is often called his middle name which is his Hawaiian name. His Hawaiian name has a beautiful meaning and it is very suiting. It is amazing that this has happened b/c it was given to him by a linguist in Hawaiian and decided upon by my MIL. There is no way people here would ever pronounce it correctly. I never would have just given him a Hawaiian name b/c I am not Hawaiian nor do we live there. Growing up my husband was also always called his Hawaiian name which nobody, not even his mother, uses today. I guess it was more of an endearing way to address him.

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

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

For us I wanted my DS to be named after my Grandfather that passed away! To me the name Francesco is quite an adult name, so we call him Frankie. I also do not like how Frankie goes with our last name- both end in the long E sound.

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

My son's given name is Kenneth, but we have not and will not ever call him that. He's Kenny. BUT we named him Kenneth because he's the 3rd in his family to be named that. So, keeping with tradition, we used it. I actually HATE the name Kenneth, but who knows? One day, he may decide he wants to be a Ken or Kenneth and that's his right.

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

I don't think you can choose a nickname before you're kid develops a personality. I think you have to like the whole name and every possible nickname that will come from it because you never know what the kid's friends will end up calling him/her. Our 1st DD is Natalie. I LOVE the name but was nervous people would call her "Nat" ..it reminds me of the cook from BH 90210 , but now we call her Natalie, Nat, Natty, ...whatever happens to come out of our mouth at the time !

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 flip flop between Alexa and Lexi...She's usually "Alexa" when she's getting in trouble

If I had no intention of ever calling her Alexa, I would have just went with Lexi, but I like both so we are safe

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

I see what you're saying. We know someone who's daughter's name is Sophia, but they call her Sophie. The name in wooden letters on her wall in her nursery....Sophie. That I don't get...but whatever they want to do

I'm not a big nickname fan for my kids, and neither of their names really have official nicknames. I call them other names at times, but others don't.

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

Posted by nbc188

I see what you're saying. We know someone who's daughter's name is Sophia, but they call her Sophie. The name in wooden letters on her wall in her nursery....Sophie. That I don't get...but whatever they want to do

I'm not a big nickname fan for my kids, and neither of their names really have official nicknames. I call them other names at times, but others don't.

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

I chose two pretty nickname proof names for my girls.

They are Sadie and Hannah.

I call Sadie, Sade (like jade) sometimes but she is mainly Sadie.

If Sadie was a boy she was going to be Nathan with the option of Nate as a nickname. I like nicknames better for boys for some reason.