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)?"

I know a Josie-full name Josephine, but she has been Josie from birth-she seems happy with this, but if she one day decides to be Jo or Josephine it is her choice.

I completely agree with that approach Exoticfruits which is partly why the teacher shortening DDs name irritates me.
I will suck it up when DD adopts a variation of her name or a nickname so the teacher should call DD what she wants to be called.

DS2 is Daniel but from day one DS1 called him Danny and its stuck. A friend said we should have named him Danny on the BC but my argument there is that although Danny as a baby is sweet, he still has the option of being Daniel or Dan when he is old enough to make up his own mind.

Exotic, I'm a teacher too and do exactly the same as you. Day 1, I call the register and tell students if they prefer me to use a nn to let me know and I write it down in my mark book, and use that name from then on.

However, the number of times I have been corrected by parents who at parents evening will say its the full name, always surprise me. I never use a nn unless the student tells me it's their preferred choice. Just how do so many parents not know that their own child prefers to use a different name? I teach secondary as well, so it is most odd, we're not talking 5 year olds here!

My 2 have ended up with nick names too.

Nothing to do with their actual names and not intentional, just happened over the years.

We have Tel and Dolly

I think baby names threads discuss nicknames precisely because you can't control nicknames. If you like William but hate Will, you'd have to work very hard to prevent its ever being used. Similarly, if you like Lottie but hate Charlie you might ask whether it was "safe" to use Charlotte on the birth certificate.

Mine have organic nicknames too. I like that better: although DS2 is sometimes known by his standard derivative, we don't use it at home.

DD is care and DS is boy.

DD used to pronounce her name as care lee which became care bear then just care.

DS is a boy

2 of my 3 have ended up with nick names one is vivi the other is nixy.

YA a bit U.

I can see the logic in working out whether you can cope with the customary abbreviation of any given name - if you hate "Tom" as a name then probably best to avoid calling your child Thomas. But you'll never be able to control what your child's actually nickname ends up being and for that reason, it's probably best not getting too prescriptive or bothered.

My two sons have traditional boys names which are often abbreviated. However, neither of them are called by anything vaguely like the customary abbreviation and it is difficult to see what I could ever have named them that might have avoided them being known as "Doodles" and "Moley".

I think traditionally if you wanted to call a child something like Beth or Meg or Susie you officially registered them under the full name of Elizabeth, Margaret or Susan but then always called them by the shortened version. I imagine when people use the term Nickname on Baby Names that's what they actually mean. Whereas normally when you talk of a nickname you mean something that just evolved and is often not an actual name eg Jimbo or Sooks or Boo.

My dd is called Katy. But her nn is Bernard. Sometimes Gerald. And occasionally Algernon.

Algernon dounds great youthecat i love that!

Sounds obviously..

I always get confused by children who are known as their middle name. Only because I always wonder: if the parents preferred the middle name then why wasn't it given as a first name? My dd has a two syllable name, there isn't really an option to shorten it to another name, and although we do shorten it, she couldnt use the nickname as a given name. Some times we call her 'Bear' because that is what she was known as in my tummy. I think nicknames should come naturally really.

YY OP.

I tried to ask for advice for suitable middle names in Baby Names when DD was very new and everyone tried to tell me I should put DDs full name on the birth certificate because I had shock horror not realised that it was short for something else

I hadn't actually realised and I nearly dumped the name because the full version is very close to my own

I'm still waiting for her NN to evolve naturally

Mardybra - YANBU . Sometimes you' ll get people asking (example) "Whats Polly the nickname for as we really like it and want to use it as a nickname" erm well why not call the child Polly then

Just went back and read that thread I started in Baby Names and actually it wasn't terrible - it was only crappy advice to my stupid, hormone addled brain.

Though no way was I calling her Jessamy

I was my full name all the way through primary school - corrected anyone who tried to shorten it. Went to a different secondary school to all my friends and my name got shortened and I went along with it. Took my parents a long time to adjust. Have been shortened version ever since.

Had a friend at school whose parents wanted to call her Claire but her initials would have spelled out C.A.T so on her birth certificate she was down as Angela Claire Thomas but she was always known as Claire (friend has been name changed).