To think "Leo" isn't necessarily short for anything else?

[Caff2]

just that...

What about Leolan or Leollan?

I knew a Leo, his full name was Leonard.

Funny. We chose Theo as a middle name for DS1 as Leo wasn't acceptable to DH as a name. I would have Leo like a shot for a first name if I could.

I think Leo is a lovely name and always thought it was a name in its own right.

That apart, what does it actually matter whether a name is considered a 'real' name or a diminutive? Surely whatever you call your child is what your child's name is iyswim. If you want to call your child Steve or Cathy then that's the child's name.

Certainly no stranger than calling your child Apple - can't remember the name of the actress who thought that was a good idea.

It's not a diminutive, different name, different root different meaning from Leonard / Leopold, although you might find ppl with these names who shorten to Leo. DS is Leo. We've never been asked what it's short for.

I grew up with a different name on my birth cert to the one I grew up known as. I've never, ever been called the full version and hated having it, not because I minded the name but because it wasn't my name. Used to confuse school, banks etc when they saw the full version, have had cheques refused, different names on exam certs etc. It wasn't an uncommon shortening but not an obvious one - think Henry to Harry. When I was getting married and realised they had to call me the full version, I got so upset at being called a name that wasn't mine that I changed my name by deed poll, to the name I've always been known by. So if I was going to call my children a diminutive, I'd always use that on the birth certificate. I took care to give them names that didn't shorten!

My dad's name was Leo, just Leo, not short for anything. If I had had a son, I wanted to call him Leo after my dad. I got 2 dds though. YANBU.

I do like the name Leon.

My nephew is called Leo. Just Leo... I just see it as a different name to the ones it is short for.

My dc are called Tom & Kate.... Tom's name is Thomas but we call him Tom. Kate's is just Kate. when I told mil we were thinking of that name, she asked if it was going to be Katherine and got in a huff when I said no!

There is a difference between a nickname-name and name that is used as a nickname. I have the same problem with my DD's name. Like Leo it is a short stand alone name that is sometimes used as a nickname for several other names.
Unless someone is rudely insistent that the name is a nickname. I would just let it go. :)

People are awfully odd about names aren't they?

Leo is Leo, and it's bizarre that people are willing to make themselves look idiotic by stating otherwise with some strong opinions- although they haven't been bothered to look it up before stating their very important opinion.

I might ask a parent of a Theo if his full name was Theodore but I'd assume a Leo was a Leo. I don't think I've ever met a Leo whose full name was anything other than Leo. Most of the names that start with 'Leo' are really quite unusual (apart from Leonard maybe which I've never heard shortened to anything other than Len/Lennie).

That's what I think, nooka. For example, my Sam is indeed a Samuel on birth certificate but I wouldn't find it odd if someone (like a play scheme when he was younger or something) asked if Sam was his full name. But if he was, say John, or Nathan I wouldn't expect them to assume he had a longer name. Leo is just Leo surely, unless advised otherwise?

I worked with a Leo once and asked what it was short for. To me it just sounds short for something. Dh and i liked Leonidas for DS1 but opted for something else in the end, (mainly because the film 300 had been out recently) but Leo would have been ds's nn.

But it's not short for anything! Traditionally, Leo is just a name!

Like Jon COULD BE SHORT FOR Jonathan, and Nathan COULD BE SHORT FOR Nathaniel, but they're also just names?
Unlike Cathy (me) which is usually short for something. Or Sam (my son) which is usually short for something.

I don't get how such an ordinary, common and traditional name could be mistaken for a diminutive.

I'm sure it is Caff. I'm not disputing it. But i thought it would be in this instance. As i said it just sounds like it is to me. But that's probably affected by personal experience - I come from a long name family and we use the first syllable as our everyday name and have the long one for Sunday best.

People often ask me if my Alfie's full name is Alfred. No he's just Alfie.

See, Alfie is like Sam to me ( as you'll have seen, I have one). So I wouldn't be surprised if people thought it was a diminutive, even if it isn't. But Leo? Surely just a name?

I suppose it is because it can be a shortening or it can be the whole name that people ask. It is often assumed that the shortened version of my name which i use is my full name, as it can be a stand alone name too. People can get quite weird and cross when they find out i actually have a different name than they thought. I have been accused of lying before and pretending for attention

Like with Leo and similar sounding names - Arlo or Milo or Jago or Hugo. I would not think we're shortened, but Jimmy, Dave or Charlie I'd think maybe they were?

We liked Charlie, for example, but would have had Charles on BC - but if we wanted Milo, we wouldn't have had. Miles.

Excuse typos, please!

I get what you mean, Mrs Koala - my friend has an Anastasia usually known as Anna, but no one has ever said "Anna?" What's that short for?"

I think that's quite a good Leo analogy!

Leo looks and feels like a diminutive. It's short and ends with a vowel sound. And you could come up with a couple of names for which it could be used as a diminutive.

None of those things mean it is a diminutive in any specific case.

I'd say that Leo is a name in it's own right but it is also used when shortening other names, so she wasn't entirely unreasonable to ask if it was short for anything else as long as she wasn't insisting that it should be.

My name is a name in it's own right but it can, if you try quite hard, be used as a shortening or pet name for other, longer names. It's rare than anyone assumes I have one of those other names, there's a very famous person with my name and so it's not like nobody has ever heard of it as a name in it's own right. Most people with my name are not called something else.

But I did spend two years of school trying to convince one teacher my name was not Geraldine because of her assumption that my short but very real name was a shortened version of a name that sounds nothing like it

As a joke at work once, we referred to a customer who goes by the name of Mick as Mickolas (it was Christmas and he pretends to be a bit 'bah humbug' about it but secretly enjoys it so we were playing on Saint Nicholas) and now one person working there actually believes that Mickolas is his real, full name