Alexander or Christopher?

My son’s called Alexander and I still absolutely love it. He’s called Xander or Xand for short but mainly his full name. I’m not keen on Alex and he corrects anyone if they call him that 🤭😀

Yes Chaucer, nun's priest tale.

I love listening to different accents and you can spot very subtle differences in dialect even from a few miles away, fascinating

@woodhill I was told this when I was taking a BA in English language and literature. We studied the a number of texts in the original dialect — you can spot changes in the pronunciation of some words by rhymes that don’t rhyme in Modern English, if you see what I meant.
The development of Old English through to Early modern and Modern is fascinating. Did you know that at the time of Chaucer (and earlier, of course) that many of the local dialects were unintelligible to people from another area. I love hearing the different speech of older people which is sadly dying out — the London accent is spreading too fast. Thank god the old RP accent used on the BBC up until about 1970 has died out — sounded so stiff and I empathetic (I didn’t grow up in the UK so maybe have a different perception from the local Brits).
Thanks for asking as I’m always happy to wax lyrical about our wonderful and flexible language

Kit short for Christopher becoming popular is fairly recent

no, it really isn't.
It has come back into fashion now, after Chris being more popular for a while, but Kit short for Christopher is very old, maybe even older than Chris.

Christopher Marlow, born 1563 (as in Shakespeare's rival) was commonly known as Kit.

I prefer Alexander because I'm mid 40s and there are soooooo many men my age called Christopher. Although both names are nice.

Kit short for Christopher becoming popular is fairly recent.
I know an adult one and there's Kit Hesketh-Harvey, but I suspect the recent popularity has something to do with a Mr Harington who was in GoT.

I'm not keen on it.

I've never met a Christopher who is 'Kit' and I know plenty. My Christopher is most certainly not Kit! Call him what you want. Use the nickname you want and when he starts school tell them that he's known as that. Neither of my DC is known by their full name, they're both known as the nicknames we gave them.

Christopher is getting shortened to Kit a lot yes. You could try and enforce "Chris" but it will get more tricky once he's at school but should be possible.

I find this a slightly odd comment to be honest, in my experience, people use the shortening you tell them to, especially when there are a variety available.
Can't imagine a situation where a child says - I'm called Chris and someone insists on calling them Kit!

Both of them are lovely . However, I prefer Alexander

Christopher is getting shortened to Kit a lot yes. You could try and enforce "Chris" but it will get more tricky once he's at school but should be possible.
I prefer Alexander

The 'any' in my post above was missing a 'm'. 😂 I know two Kits thinking about it, one of about 5 and one who would have been about 90 by now. It is definitely getting more common as a name, so I'm assuming they are Kit as a NN for Christopher.

I do prefer Alexander, NN Xander, Xandy, Alex, Sandy etc.

These are two of my all-time favourites. I think Alexander edges it for me.

I like both, and depends on the abbreviation for me.

I love Kit, it is a very old name, very classic and much prefer it to Chris which to me is a bit boring.

But then I also love Sasha for Alexander, but in UK that is usually for girls.

I think both are great names, and you can't go far wrong with either, or whatever shortening you use.

I really like both, but my vote goes to Christopher as it's less common nowadays - Alexander is top ten in London. Both are great names though.

Alex is lovely. I don't really like Chris, but love Kit.

I’m in central Scotland and I don’t know any Kits. Mine is the only baby Christopher I know but all the adults I’ve met are shortened to Chris. Maybe it depends where you are what you’ll get. I would expect if you call him Chris for short, people will follow your lead.

Alexander

If Christopher / Kit I’d go with that but if it has to be Chris I’d go with Alexander.

I don't know any of either tbh, which is no bad thing. I would go for Alexander, it feels more classic and traditional.

Alexander.

Thanks Cindy - really interesting about name and accents, how did you find out about the old style London accent

"Kit is a very old nickname for Christopher and a contemporary of William Shakespeare, Kit Marlowe, the poet and playwright was a Christopher. In fact I cannot recall hearing of anyone called Chris until comparatively recent times. One of my hobbies is genealogy so I see a lot of names in old documents and parish registers. Of course, people spoke differently several hundred years ago ( the London accent was more like today’s Midlands) and if the emphasis was put on Christ and the S was almost silent then you easily get to Kit.
I know a man who has been called Kit all his life (his father was an academic) and I find it much more pleasant than Chris"

Much prefer Alexander.

If it was nn Kit then definitely Christopher or even no nn but I can't stand Chris so will go with Alexander then I prefer nn Sacha or Zander, or Andie

Alexander