To be perplexed when people give their children nicknames as proper names

[ElphabaTheGreen]

For example, there are a lot of little Charlies about at the moment - none are called Charles. Similarly, lots of Harries (none are Henry), Alfies (no Alfreds thank God) and a friend has given both of hers what I would consider to be nicknames (Evie and Libby, not Eve and Elizabeth).

Discuss.

It's a trend I personally would not follow. BTW, it seems to be very popular to do this in the UK but not in the US (don't know about Canada, Australia, other places where English is the main language). I do find it rather odd to name a child Charlie or Alfie instead of Charles or Alfred. To me, nicknames are just that: shortened forms of full names.

And I like the fact that the full names provide options. If a child is named Elizabeth, you can call her Liz, Lizzie, Beth, Bess, Libby, Lily, etc. If her name on her birth certificate is Beth, she's pretty much stuck with that.

Obviously, what people call their children is their business. It's all down to personal taste. But this trend is most certainly not to my taste. I would imagine it will disappear in the next decade or so, and all the Alfies, Archies, Freddies, etc. will be clearly marked as "early 21st century babies."

My DS is Alfred :(

I think I know what you mean: why bother calling your child Charles if everyone else is going to shorten it to Charlie...?

I know so many Isabella (lovely)s, but they all get their name shortened to Izzy (awful) by others.

I do think though that the "proper" names often get kept within the immediate family circle.

I'm always amused, in my family, when somebody (notably in-laws) refer to their OHs using the shortened name form when the "proper" version is always used within immediate family. And the ILs are always surprised to hear the proper names being use and tend to think that it's all very "formal" within the family!

My Dc's friends have started to use his shortened name now which I'm fine with - but only because I had thought that might happen and I chose a name that I could bear liked the shortened version of too!

We never use it in the family though, and not because we're trying to be "formal" or exclusive. It's just never happened (yet)

Kitchen isn't that always the case? Names do date a person to a certain extent. When was the last time you met a baby Joyce? Or Irene? Or Margaret? It's the nature of names.

I am a Philippa/known as Pip - I love Pip and everyone calls me this, but it could hardly be put on my birth certificate! I enjoy the dignity of Philippa when it suits me, I use it for work and when I need to sound like a grown up. YANBU

Sure, that's certainly true, MrsKeithRichards. I was just commenting that this particular trend probably won't be around for long. The Alfies and Archies of today will be as pegged to their generation as the Joyces of previous generations are.

BTW, I quite like the name Margaret. And all the possible nicknames: Maggie, Meg, Peggy. . .

I'm glad I've got a "proper" name. Like Katherine but not, there are lots of nicknames, most of which I tried as a teenager before settling on the one that suited me. I use the diminutive almost all the time, but the full version looks so much more professional in a work context. If my parents had called me Kitty, I wouldn't really have had the option to become Kate.

YABU
Why do you care

www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

go to the above website and enter in the name Teddy, Peggy or Kitty and give the years 1860-1910, don't enter a surname and enter birth - you will find this is a very long standing trend and i very much doubt it will die out any time soon

We thought about what we'd like them to be reading out at their graduation or wedding. So one has the long name, the other a shortened form - the long name didn't read right with the middle name and surname. It took us the full 9 months to find one name we both liked, she'd have been nameless if we held out for one where we liked both full and shortened forms!

Well I love the name Charlie, but I don't like the name Charles.

Why would you call your child a name that you dislike?

YABU.

My dd has a Nn as her name. It is Meg which I love, but I dislike Megan and Margaret.

Tough. YABU.

Why do you need a bigger name to fall back on? I'm Amy. That's it. It's a proper name without nickname possibilities. I've never felt hard done by for my lack of alternative name options.

My DS2 is Alfie, it's his name. I guess he could shorten to Alf if he felt so inclined.

And yes I'm sure in 40 years time everyone will be able to tell that he was an early 21st century child. Because he'll look in his 40's.

I'm a long name preferer. My given name was originally a diminutive, though a copmmon 'full name' now. My DCs both have 3-syllable classic names that are not shortened. DS may well choose to shorten his when he's older as I can see him suiting it. DD however most definitely does not suit the shortened forms of her name. A new teacher will try it once, and get a very withering correction from her!

I'm a teacher. I always ask new pupils what they prefer to be called and annotate my class lists accordingly. One class had James, Jamie and Jim with Ben and Benjamin, so having different forms of a name can be handy!

Lordy, Folk do loads of things that have no appeal to me. So what?
Wouldn't the world be dull if we all liked the exact same things?

I actually know someone with two sons whose names are James and Jimmy. I guess she really likes both the full name and the nickname. But FGS. What an odd thing to do to your kids. Imagine the confusion as they grow up.

My youngest DD has a nickname name, but the full version sounded ludicrous with our surname.

Was in the Co-op last Christmas when a mum called her two children over who went by the names of Raven and Willow. Just wondered what their nicknames would be.

What options? What they call themselves or the silly job opportunity options?

What about names like John or Mark - should they have been named Jonathan or Marcus so that they had the longer version of their names just in case they wanted more choice?

I don't think giving a child the most options in life has to include a name. Mine can't be shortened and I can't say it has ever bothered me.

The names John and Jonathan are completely separate names, unrelated to each other.