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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Do you see James and Jamie as separate names?

62 replies

ThatllDoPig · 03/07/2012 13:10

Or Jamie as NN? Just wondering

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usualsuspect · 03/07/2012 14:23

I just find it odd to give a child 2 names tbh.

lottiegb · 03/07/2012 14:20

Oh ok, it isn't! That's what I find odd about it then. I'm with the 'proper name on birth certificate' camp. I'd find being given only a nickname a bit limiting.

usualsuspect · 03/07/2012 14:18

Sorry I never put it across very well . I knew what I meant Grin

susitwoshoes · 03/07/2012 14:17

usual - your OP (I hadn't read the others when I OP'd) said 'Only on MN have I heard the one name on the birth certificate and another for everyday use thing.' - which I understood (as others did) to mean that you'd never heard of someone being named James but called Jamie. Apologies for the misunderstanding.

lottiegb · 03/07/2012 14:17

Other than Prince Harry, I do know what usualsuspect means. It's the idea that you can decide what your child's nickname will be, which I see expressed a lot here. Whereas I always thought the point of nicknames was that they evolved out of familiarity and affection, often reflecting the personality of the person bestowing them as much as the one on whom they are bestowed, so you can be a different nickname to different people.

usualsuspect · 03/07/2012 14:16

I know quite a lot of Alfies, they all have Alfie not Alfred on their BC

Thats what I meant, on MN people would say you must use the full name on his BC

susitwoshoes · 03/07/2012 14:15

sorry. x-post there - I see what you're saying, that it's odd to name with one name but use another name right from the start - yes, that is a bit odd and I guess it's people who don't consider (for example) Jamie to be a 'real' name that appears on a birth certificate, but want their child to be called it, not James.

PenisVanLesbian · 03/07/2012 14:13

actual it would have been quite common many years ago to have a name on the birth cert and use another completely different name (or a quite tangential derivative of the given name) in everyday life, right from the start.

usualsuspect · 03/07/2012 14:13

Did you read my posts at all. I never said that

lottiegb · 03/07/2012 14:12

Like Prince Henry (to be known as Harry).

Same name, definitely. What really confuses me is the female version Jaime, which I read as 'Jaim' not 'Jai-mee' and was surprised to hear pronounced so!

susitwoshoes · 03/07/2012 14:12

usualsuspect - you've never heard of nicknames or shortened forms of names outside of MN?????? Really??? No Daniel / Dan or Rebecca / Becky or Catherine / Cathy / Katie / Kate or . . . or . . . or . . . ? in your world? How very extraordinary if I may say so Smile

Mine is a shortened form, my sister, her DP, my DH, god, off the top of my head I can think of so many people who have a full name and a shortened one. DH's friends mainly use his nickname, his family his full name. He likes having 2. I hate my full name and am never called by it, but there's another short for it I can't bear and never use myself though my bloody family use it grrrrrr!

I see Jamie as a short for James and I think if you do name a child a shortened form they are probably going to have to explain that it isn't a nickname quite a lot, which for me would put me off using it.

Hulababy · 03/07/2012 14:09

I would assume Jamie was a nn for James.

Have know adults with Jamie as a nn and it has been fine and worked well. But I don't tend to discriminate on name tbh and take people for who they are.

usualsuspect · 03/07/2012 14:07

My own children have nicknames but I didn't choose their NNs , different people call them different nicknames

usualsuspect · 03/07/2012 14:06

No their nicknames just evolved iyswim. They didn't state this is James to be known as Jamie when the names were announced.

mayanna123 · 03/07/2012 14:03

Jack and John sound completely different and I bet many people don't even know that Jack is originally a nickname for John.

Jamie, on the other hand, sounds like the cutesy version of James.

mayanna123 · 03/07/2012 14:03

I know a girl Jamie.

I would name a boy James (and perhaps use Jamie as a nickname when he's little).

suzikettles · 03/07/2012 14:00

Really usualsuspect?

Not any of your grandparents/great uncles & aunts etc?

We had half a dozen Marys, Elizabeths & Annes in our family a couple of generations back so they were variously called Nan, Nancy, Bessie, Betty, Beth, Elsie, Meg, Molly etc etc etc.

VolAuVent · 03/07/2012 14:00

I see Jamie as a nickname for James. Prefer just James though.

suzikettles · 03/07/2012 13:58

Jamie is a nickname but obv can be a name in its own right, and quite commonly is these days.

Same as Jack which is a nickname for John. I suspect 99% of Jacks are "Jack" on their birth certificate whereas 50 years ago I bet 99% would have originally been named "John".

usualsuspect · 03/07/2012 13:57

Only on MN have I heard the one name on the birth certificate and another for everyday use thing.

As far as I'm concerned Jamie is a name in its own right.

LemonEmmaP · 03/07/2012 13:55

I have a Jamie - it's his full name, not James. Obviously I will say that I think Jamie can stand alone as a name in its own right! However, I also recognise that it is a derivative of James - but my son is not a James, he is a Jamie! A colleague referred to him as James and it just felt wrong.

NarkedRaspberry · 03/07/2012 13:50

Same name.

Original poster
ThatllDoPig · 03/07/2012 13:49

Grin@ Cuppa I'm wondering which type mine will turn out to be!

OP posts:
smogwod · 03/07/2012 13:48

Definitely the same!

PedanticPanda · 03/07/2012 13:44

They are the same name, Jamie is a nickname.