Baby boy name - Please help! Which is better?

@Hadtocomment Like I said, a nickname along the lines of Assy would be pronounced Azzy with my accent and is unremarkable and quite cute.

My point was purely that nicknames, once kids are at school, are unenforceable and are often just...the simplest shortening for a 7 year old. There's no guarantee that the 30 other children your child is surrounded by will agree that Ari is the best and most sensible shortening of Asterios. So you can decide your child's nickname will be Ari or Rio or whatever else, but you can't make it happen.

And to the poster saying Assy as a good nickname...well I think that's really not if you're a kid in school. Asti is nice but the OP says she wants something that works in her home language too and Ari works in both. I think Ari is great.

I disagree. I have a short name that isn't my full bc name. Everyone calls me it and have not given me a different nn. If he's introed as asterios known as Ari I think people will call him Ari! People on here concentrate a lot on negative nicknames. Yes if someone wants to be horrible they will come up with something and it probably won't even be related to his name. But most nicknames and shortenings of longer names are affectionate. And most end in ie or ee sound. Or else are one syllable. Ari is like this naturally. If someone was Henry known as Harry people tend to call them Harry as school or whatever. If someone is Wilfred known as Wilf people will tend to call them Wilf, its silly to pretend that shortenings of longer names are nothing the parents or child have anything to do with.

I think you're overthinking the nickname situation (as do a lot of people on MN!). You can't control what nickname your child ends up with, it will just happen organically. There is a chance at some point, someone, somewhere, will call your son 'ass' but...🤷🏼‍♀️ he'll survive. The most likely NN to me is Assy which to me would be 'azzy' and is perfectly lovely.

I also wanted to name my DD Evelyn until someone here said that she may be called Evil-lyn and than stuck with me

Just ridiculous. Why would anyone call her evil-lyn, it doesn't even make sense. These 'sounds likes' are such a stretch.

Asterios, but I'd call him Asti! Cute

You will have almost no influence over his nn when he starts school op. Whether it's usual in your home country or not.

I have a long name and a completely different short name that don't even relate! So I do understand. It is very conventional to have a long and short related name in the UK though. And you prob won't be totally able to control this. I think that I'd go with Asterios long name known as Ari particularly as you don't like the other possible shortenings. I think Ari is great anyway. And then you can use Asterios whenever you please for family occasions or more formal occasions or if he wants to use it more when he's older or whatever. I think in English it's harder to keep long names long. I think it's partly that it's a slower language than some and partly due to the formal and informal thing. People insisting on long names being used in full sometimes can seem a bit formal. And sometimes it's only the parents using the name in full leading to eyerolling from the child in question. I'd prob just intro as Asterios, Ari for short. And he can decide when he's older and gives him options.

Asterios is a great name! Easy to pronounce and cool sounding!

My dd has a 3 syllable name that never gets shortened!

I really don't like Ari, especially a boy.

It's a lovely name and easy to pronounce
What about Rios as a nn?
Ree oss

If you really like the name Asterios then use it and introduce him as such. Nicknames are unlikely to evolve until he’s at school and to be fair whatever you called him you’d have little control over what other kids come up with. Use what you love!

I really like the look of it. I said it in my head as Az-teh-ree-oss. Is that right?

I don't shorten people's names unless they say so, I can't imagine any of my friends or family shortening a name unless told to either and I''m UK.

:)

Or even Terry! We have a Cypriot friend who is known as Terry though the “Teri” part of the name is in the middle.

I also think Asterios, were he to use it as a given name, would more like be shortened to “Az” than “Ass”.

Very similar to @MoreThanRubies - DD has a given name and a nickname, and only ever uses her nickname. When unfamiliar teachers use her given name (when doing the register for example), she tells them the name she’s known by. I honestly don’t think this is going to be an issue at all OP - give him the name Asterios and introduce him as Ari, and go from there. Schools will record “known as” names alongside given names.

Re: the two names issue: I have a long formal name (e.g. Catherine), and a diminutive (e.g. Katie). All through school I used “Catherine” on written work, but I decided I wanted to be known and addressed as “Katie”, which my parents called me, in general speech. It didn’t cause any issues at school and I don’t remember any identity problems. As an adult I love being “Katie” to my friends and family, and having the option to be “Catherine” in a work context. Both names are my name. Most people are fine with using either/or. I think children can be more adaptable than we might expect. (I want to acknowledge that these are both English names, in England, which might have made things easier than in your case though).

Both names sound fab btw, great choices!

I would say in the UK at least Ari wouldn't be the obvious nickname for Asterios, so you would have to engineer this yourself, and then people might be a bit confused when his full name doesn't seem to give the natural diminutive of Ari - I would expect Ari's full name to be Aristotle or something where the 'a' and the 'r' are at least next to each other in the spelling of the name.

Also Ari is a cute nickname for a small boy but he may not be so keen on it when he is a teenager, particularly as girls names like Ariana, Arabella etc where they are often nicknamed Ari are quite popular.

Both are nice. I think it will likely be shortened because Asterios is a long four-syllable name which is quite long. I don't quite understand why he can't be Asterios shortened to Ari as you say Ari is already a common nn in your home country. Are you saying it's a nn but not for Asterios? I don't know why he can't be both. Isn't that the point of a full name and a nn? Wouldn't that solve the dilemma? What am I missing. Good luck OP.

I prefer Asterios because I like Greek names, and Ari in my area sounds like Harry because people don't pronounce their H's.

I know loads of names which aren't shortened too!