If my child has made it to 2.5

[morgoan]

Without having their name shortened do you think this will continue? Or does make shortening tend to start at school?

He has a name which is very very commonly shortened. Think chris/Christopher, joe/Joseph, Ben/Benjamin type thing.

He's always been called by his "full"/proper name until now. Do we think it'll stay this way?

Dc1 has always gone by the long version and got cross when (usually teachers) shortened it.
A sibling of mine is known to family as full name, friends as a shortened version. This started probably mid primary school.

Nicknames should just evolve, really. I love a nickname with a real story, rather than just 'calling DS Joseph, prefer Seph to Jo as a nn though' nonsense.

It's gone the other way with my DD who is nearly 7. We always used 2 shortened name variations when she was a baby/toddler, nursery did a lot too (think Liz/Lizzie rather than Elizabeth).
But she now tells people that she prefers 'Elizabeth' so actually the shortened version is used a lot less.

Starts at school usually unless you correct.

My son is a James he became a Jim at 26

My DS has a commonly shortened name (the same name as DH) DH uses the shortened form always. DS is the long version to family but the short form to everyone else (since school). DGS has another long name that can be shortened but so far no-one has (only started pre-school recently) but wouldn't surprise me if this happened eventually.

Ds wasn't shortened until secondary school. He's also sometimes called by a nickname, which sounds insulting but isn't meant that way (he assures me!)
I wasn't shortened until uni, and now I almost never use the full version except on official forms.

Yes! My son has a nickname / shortened version that only I ever use and oddly it's a name I disliked and promised to never ever use

Weirdly, my friend’s DSs have a similar name & are both called the shortened version at home but the full version everywhere else 🤣

Nicknames are surely things like Beany, Zazzle, Rosyposy etc. My kid has actually only ever gone by his shortening never his official name 🤷🏻‍♀️ had lots of ‘wow I never knew you were a [full name]!’ on the odd occasion it comes up. Works totally fine!

Another of my kids is only ever his birth cert name.

Another goes by a name totally unrelated to her 3-letter official name.

All totally fine and not nonsense.

I think it’s often secondary school where a name changes a bit, either a shortening or a nickname or a surname. It depends though, if there are lots of boys called ‘Seb’ then one might get called Sebastian to differentiate or similar.

I shortened mine age 10 - I'd moved across the country and my new teacher asked me if I went by full name or shortened name. I'd never been given the choice before, so I asked if I could be known as the shortened version and it's stuck. With people who know me really well, that name also gets shortened to 3 letters! Even my family use the 3 letter name.

Only place that uses my full name is work and that's only because I didn't know I could go by the shortened one when I started.