Why do so many baby naming threads insist on a nickname?

[MardyBra]

It didn't happen in my day.

And why do they never seem to bear any resemblance to the longer name?

As in "What do you think of Josephine (nn Frank)?"

yy to evolving NNs

No1 NN is Bob, even though there is no Robert anywhere in his name

No2 NN is Squirt. Or sometime Oot. Like Foot without the F. Don't ask.

This thread reminds me, only last month did I realise, at the grand old age of 9 my dc2 thought his middle name was "Ander".

Alex Ander.

You can tell his full name has rarely been used.

I've never understood the William - Billy link, how can Billy be a shortened version of William? Surely it would be Willy?

In yer dreams, Mards.

Ah ok OP, I had a panic and thought this was about me!

Absolutely not catching. I've seen your thread and think it's lovely that you are you thinking about your son.

I really hate

Charlotte (Lottie)

If you like Lottie use that. You dont have to use Charlotte. Its really common on here to see that.

BTW DD1 is Charlotte. Unshortened. :o

Our dog gets Samosa. It has nothing to do with his actual name. He gets a million variants and Samosa is a nonsensical elongation of a variant.

I agree that you can't force a nickname. That's cheating.

wannabe we had a dog called squidgie, nowt like her actual name. She responded to it joing, no idea where it came from.

The bet nns evolve IMO. I'm excited to have dc's and see what they end up with!!

They do it because they don't yet understand that they have no control over the nickname.

Mine are Zozo and Ads. Never would have planned those lame nns. My mum's nickname to me is in my username.

Also get called Looj.

I think it's very sensible.

I speak as someone who hates their name, and is known by a nn that derives from but not just a shortened version of my name.

When I named my children, I was acutely aware that whilst I named them, it wasn't me who had to live with the name... The child did, and so I wanted something that the child could take and mould into their own name. So, when choosing names we carefully considered all the typical nicknames that come from that name, and if we didn't like them, we binned the name.

Posted too soon, by my DDs are now known by nicknames that they chose, that suit their personalities. That's the main thing. Would the nns be the ones I would choose, no probably not. But it's not my name, so that's kind of irrelevant really. I think too often people forget their naming another person, and its not just about what you like, it's about finding a name that suits the child, IMHO.

Eek, they're not their - iPhone disaster!

I find the people looking for names THAT CAN NOT BE SHORTENED! A bit controlling. Also the people who get very upset about a teacher calling little Thomas Tom I feel take their child's name a little too seriously.

We have started calling ds Elvis, it does make sense for his name but we had mo intention of using it as his nn.

If a teacher called my (hypothetical) Thomas Tom then I would take issue. Not because I am controlling, but because its not a teachers place to assign nicknames. Will the refer to William as Willy? Or John as Jonny?

I just gave dd a 'nickname' on the BC (Meg); but she gets all sorts - Meggy Moo, Meglet, Megamuffin, Peggy

DD is Moochie moo-chachi.
God knows how that happened but here I am, shouting it at matches.

I am with wannabe here.

I call my DD by her full name. I never shorten it. I am relaxed about her friends shortening it.i am relaxed about people shortening it because they sort of assume, but usually when I - and DD - refer to her as her full name ,they usually start using long name too.

But a few people just persist and although it doesn't bother me enormously I do find it a bit rude.

One teacher even emails me like this

Me : can [dd fullname] be dropped back at school after the trip
Teacher : of course [nickname] can come back with me
Me: can you also remind [dd fullname] to use her inhaler before she swims
Teacher : yes. [nickname] is pretty good at remembering but I will mention it to be sure.

It's just a bit....well rude is too strong. But odd really

( nb. I don't really ask teachers to remind her to use her inhaler before I get the pushy entitled cow posts)

both of my dds have nicknames that are longer than their actual names

kids!

My ds is Fraser, I've never shortened it.
But his mates call him Frazzle

I wish my parents had not shortened my name. To make it worse my name is more commonly shortened to take the first half of the name so I have several conversations along the lines of (with Rosemary as an example name):

Manager on first day at work "Hello everyone. This is Rose and it's her first day at work?"
Me "Um, it's Mary actually"
Co-worker "But Rosemary is such a pretty name why would you call yourself Mary?"

or

Call centre person "Can I call you Rose?"
Me "If you like but no one else does"

I use my full name in formal settings such as interviews, bank etc. I don't mind people calling me either my full name or the shortened version I use but I hate people assuming that I am called "Rose".

As a supply teacher I take the register and ask the child to tell me if they are called by a different name, because I can't possibly know if a Samuel is always that or always Sam. I don't know the parent and therefore I go with the DC. I call my DS by his full name but I am the only one- so teachers always tended to use the short form in reply to my full one. This was to be expected-DC was happy and he was the one with the name. It is what I meant earlier-it takes new parents a while to realise that the DC can have control but they have no control at all. I can't see why they should. My parents chose my name-what I do with it is up to me and not them!