Deborah nn Dora?

Call her Dora if you like Dora.

If you call her Deborah, you'll need to swallow hard when she becomes known as Deb, Debs, Dee-dee, or whatever when she starts school. Dora isn't intuitive, so prepare yourself to respond calmly if it doesn't "take".

If you want to use Deborah to honour family, you will presumably be telling your family her b/cert name. Once they know, they may very well continue calling her that, and ignore your nn. Again, if you use the name, just prep yourself for disappointment...

Your name is Deborah - it never suited ya.

I agree that if you call her Dora from Day 1 then no-one will call her Deborah, Debbie or Deb. But that is because she is only EVER called Dora, and as far as everybidy is concerned that is her name. In which case, I'm not really sure why you felt the need to ask the question. To be honest, if you always call her Dora, introduce her as Dora, refer to her as Dora, it does not matter a hoot whether her actual name is Deborah or Gertrude or Mary.

But you were kind of implying that she would be called Deborah as a formal name, known at school by teachers etc as Deborah, with the option to use the nn Dora as an informal name - and that won't work, IMHO.

It is possible to try and control a name, and you can indeed use 'known as' on forms where that is possible. However you can't control what your child chooses to call themselves, or the inclination people have to shorten names given half the chance. I'm not sure why you think that Deb/Debbie/Debs is dying out? Deborah was very popular in the 70s/80s and so it is not a popular name now. When it swings back into popularity I am sure that so will Debbie etc, as these are the obvious nns.

It is perfectly possible that your potential dd might always and only be known as Dora. Or that they might opt for Deborah instead, or that they might choose to be called Debbie/Debs etc, or that some people might all them that. The only way to totally avoid the possibility is to choose another name.

Meant to type Devri, which is the nn a friend of DD1's used.

I love Deborah but I also love Sharon so feel free to ignore. If you want her to be called Dora then you need to name her Dora really.

It means bee in Hebrew. Not even queen bee, like the baby names books tell you so you think you're important. Nope, no siree. Just a plain old bee, as DH was so pleased to point out to me. Not bitter about this disillusion at all, no indeed.

Um, maths, Hebrew is D'vorah. I knows this coz I lived in Israel 6 years and that's what they all called me.

Good point about using Deborah as a second name if you don't want unwanted nicknames creeping out of the woodwork.

I have a niece Katherine whose mother was absolutely adamant that her nn would be Kate, but from the first day of school all the other children called her Kathy, the most 70s-ish nn you could imagine, and the one my exSIL most wanted to avoid and thought the 90s children would be least likely to use.

Deborah is biblical but it was very popular in the 60s, 70s and 80s (Deborah Kerr, Debbie Reynolds, Debbie Harry..)

I also wonder why you would put one name on the BC and call the child another name entirely. A limited version of this happened to me (named standard English version of a name, known by Irish version) and I still don't see the reason for it. In your case you are thinking of using an entirely different name -- if Deborah is a family name that you want to use then use it as a second name imo.

Or would you like to use
Devorah
Devora
Devra (Hebrew)
Binah (Yiddish)
?

If you want her to be known as Dora it makes sense to call her that in the first place.
People do call James, Jamie and William, Billy without it being their nickname. I took my DS into meet my old class when he was a few weeks old-within minutes he was being called a shortened version (that I never use) by the DCs. We thought we would be clever with DS2 and gave him a short name-he is known by his surname by all his friends! (he likes it).
You can't win-so no point in trying-go for what you like.

I know it's a biblical name, Indian but to most people it links with names like Karen and Tracey because so many girls were called Debbie or Debs,which the OP dislikes.Hannah has retained its charm.

Deborah is not '80s like Tracey and Karen', it is a biblical name. Popular in the 70s and 80s, agreed, but a Hannah is a more accurate analogy.

What is the point of naming her Deborah,family name or not,if she will always be known as Dora?

PS - OP, may I suggest Derah as a lovely alternative to Dora .

I agree that as the child gets older they may change their preferred name on their own, as I did. But some posters seem to be saying that folk will call the child Debbie or Debs instead of Dora before the child states her own preference, which doesn't happen in my experience. DD2 may well choose to take on any of the other various contractions of Alexandra when she's older, but for now, everyone uses the preferred name that we have chosen.

Because we do not as yet know what the DCs preferred name is Annie-it may not be Dora.

I'd have to disagree with you, Fellatio. The obvious contraction of DD2's name is Alex, but apart from my confused Dad who never sees her anyway, everyone calls her Allie, like we do. And no-one except my mum calls me Debs. Why would anyone call the OP's child Debs when it's made known that her preferred name is Dora?

Dora sounds frumpy and maiden-auntish,and Deborah is 1980s,similar to Tracey and Karen...sorry...

Fine, except that your dd might prefer Debbie and hate Dora, you can't do anything about that. And stop being so bloody aggressive. Don't ask if you don't want opinions.

I know a DC called Jamie by his parents-he was called it from birth and although he had James on his birth certificate, they had never intended to use it. When he was 8yrs he announced he was James, every time he got Jamie he corrected it. You can try Dora as a nickname-she might prefer Debbie.

I made it quite clear in my post that the only person to control is the DC themselves-they can insist. The parent has no control whatsoever, beyond in their own home and under 5yrs.

If you are so determined that you are right then why bother starting the thread?