Did your child’s nickname end up different from the one you planned?

We had something similar in that a nn has evolved, we don't objectively like it, never planned for it, but have to admit it came from us!

Luckily people outside the immediate family have not picked up on it, but we do still use it at home.

I have a longer name but have always gone by a shortening of it. There are a few different ways you can shorten it, but only one my mum really dislikes. When I was 16 I changed schools and asked everyone to call me by that particular shortening. By the time I was at uni I was back to the normal name!

Teens are hideous beings 🤪

My kids have short names, but inexplicably and without conscious thought I lengthened dc1's name to what was coincidentally actually a different name when talking to her as a pre-verbal baby, and caused other people immense confusion (luckily she miraculously didn't get confused so I must have used her actual name more than the lengthened version). Neither of my girls have gone by nicknames with their friends and their friends mostly go by full name unless it's a long name with a standard short form.

My eldest son has had all sorts of nicknames, including (also inexplicable) a primary school phase when his friends called him a fusion of his name and ds2's, even though ds2 retained his full name 🧐 It didn't bother ds1 but his attempt to explain it was a bit fuzzy.

All ds1's friends now have nicknames, but ds2's go by their full names (both teens). I think it's different "types" of friendship groups, but there's not much you can do, nor should you, once they're teens!

With one of my children, I avoided naming her Madeleine (my top choice) because I did not want her to become the dreaded Maddie. I picked a different name that has multiple shortenings and planned to use the shortening that I liked the most. I can't imagine NOT planning or even thinking about shortenings if you've picked or are considering a longer name. Certain names are just bound to be shortened by other people (even if you don't want them to be). What if you hate the common shortening(s) of that name?

My daughter has a 4 letter name with no other recognised spelling. When she was about 14 she did the teenage rebellion thing and decided on an alternative spelling with 6 letters 🙄

Not so much a nickname more a shorter version that I definitely wouldn't have gone with.

I'd like to think that my DH and I are pretty normal average people, and we planned for our son to be called Nico, short for Nicholas. 🤔

You can't really pick an unrelated nickname, they tend to form organically, but you can totally pick a diminutive/shortening.

The vast majority of people will call your child what you introduce them as so if you say 'this is Lizzie' they'll call her Lizzie. They're not going to demand to see a birth certificate and call her Elizabeth. You can put 'known as' on school documents etc. it's totally possible to choose your child's day to day name if that different to their full name. Once they're old enough to have a say then of course it's up to them!

We gave DS a nickname when I was pregnant with him as we didn't feel comfortable saying "it" and "baby" just sounded odd.

We assumed it would stick once he was born & properly named but we dropped it near on immediately.

His name is something that cannot really be shortened either, so no natural nickname there either

This. We're naming our DD Camille but will also be calling her Millie starting at birth. What other people think about this doesn't really matter to me because it doesn't affect them. I love both names and like that she will have the option to go by either as she gets older. It just makes sense to me. I have a short name that I'm not keen on and always hated the fact that I was stuck with it and had no other obvious options.

Yes, thank you! 'We're calling her Katherine, nickname Kate'. NO, Kate is SHORT FOR KATHERINE. Her nick name will probably be 'Stick' or 'Froggy'. Kate is just a shortening. Many kids don't shorten their names the way their parents want to, but that's nothing to do with nicknames.

OP is referring to shortenings/diminutives such as Elizabeth - Lizzie, Alexandra - Allie, etc.

My sister has a Lizzie who we used to call Lizzie dripping now we just shorten it and she's known throughout the family as drips.

I don't think there's anything wrong with planning a diminutive. If you know that you want to name your child Margaret and plan to call her Maggie because you like both names, what's wrong with that? I can't figure out why people are so against it.

@RaraRachael I did the same. Now they get lengthened instead 🤪🤣😅

I think this might be because so often people like the name Kit/Zach but then there are posts saying 'this isn't a name, use the proper name on the birth certificate and shorten it', so maybe causes seeds of doubt for people. I really liked the name Kitt but saw SO many comments about how it isn't a 'proper' name that it eventually fell off the consideration list.

I think people conflate nicknames with diminutives.

My cousin couldn't pronounce my name when I was about 5 and he was just starting to babble. I'm 35 now and everyone still call me it. It followed me through school, and then through work. I never introduce myself as it so it's annoying as fuck. Although, it is very weird when I'm called my actual name by my gp/boss ect.

I purposely tried to give my eldest child a name that couldn't be shortened. But he still ended up with random names from various family members.

My other 2 just go by their shorter versions - for example, Jess/Jessie.

I chose names that couldn't be shortened.

We have no idea how my daughter got her nicknames.
My son's evolved from a sound he made as a baby. Seemingly it's actually a name in Greece.

Yes my daughter has a longish name similar to Isabella and I had intended to call her Issie for short. We know a lot of Bellas and I wanted to avoid that as a diminutive.

But in her first week of life she got nicknamed The Bundle as she was so tiny (and hated the pram) so I used to carry her around bundled up in a blanket. Then that morphed into Bunny and she's always Bunny to family and close friends.

Meanwhile her school friends have ended up calling her Bella anyway.

We used a nickname for him when I was pregnant with ds. We ended up naming him the name but have called him the nn/shortened version since before he was born!

My oldest has a name that can be shortened to Jay. Apart from me, and a neighbour when he was newborn, no one else has ever called him Jay. He's called by his full name by everyone.

My youngest on the other hand has always been called by a shortened version of his full name, so much so that people are always surprised find it isn't his actual name. Even his friends haven't realised.

Aside from that I call them all sorts of random nicknames, which they answer to. Or I still call them Baby Their Name, and they answer, even though they are all adults. Still my babies😂

Our children are:

Henry - we nicknamed Harry from birth. Most people know I'm as Henry (by his choice since starting school) bar family where it is Harry. Some sports or activities have given him a variety of nicknames including H, Hedders, Hens, Hazer.

Charlotte - we nicknamed Charlie. Mostly is Charlie but family sometimes say Charlie-Boo. She's still only 4 though so I expect the variations to start when she starts school and more activities.

I still sometimes default to Baba (South African for baby) for either of my children.

I gave my DDs names that couldn't be shortened. DD1 gets lengthened by lots of people to non-names that rhythm with her name, DD2 people assume it's a shortening and lengthen it to another unrelated name (think Emma being called Emmeline), DS has a name that can be shortened but most people don't - except me. But the nice thing is because there's not an obvious nicknames their nicknames are names they associate with the people who called them that.