To think that deciding on a shortening/nickname for a DC's name is actually quite common?

[Thurlow]

Apologies, this is half a thread about a thread. Or lots of threads.

I feel like I read loads on times on Baby Names comments that 'nicknames develop over time', or how you shouldn't start with a shortened version and work out to a longer name.

Obviously this applies when your child is still known as Moo because she made a noise like a cow when she was a baby... But not when you're thinking that you want to call your daughter Katie, and then work out to decide of they should be a Katherine, Kathryn etc.

Is it just me, or is it actually quite common in RL to decide at the start that you want a Benjamin nn Ben, William nn Billy, Elizabeth nn Libby etc?

(I should qualify that this isn't exactly bothering me. I'm slightly bored this afternoon...)

[MoominAndMiniMoom]

No-one ever calls me by my full first name, not even my parents (they call me by a nickname that isn't even related to my real name!), but I'm glad I have my full name on my birth certificate, because I do have options when I grow up (it's one of those shortenings that some people think only works on little kids - think Abby, short for Abigail kind of thing)

[2rebecca]

I gave Neil as an example of a name that didn't have options, not a name that was a nickname, sorry worded it badly.

[NatashaGurdin]

Cardinal
So if you hate the nickname Joe, but want to use Joseph, I don't think you've got a cat in hells chance.

My cousins have long names that have popular short forms, my aunt and uncle were determined they would not be called the short form but of course that went out of the window as soon as they went to school.

My Dad is David officially but everyone calls him Dave and that's what he calls himself when introducing himself. It's because he looks like a Dave not a David!

My brother and sister in law were the same as my uncle and aunt (long names with a popular short form) but my nieces did the same as my cousins.

I have a three syllable first name that has several well known short forms and a two syllable second name. The latter is a family name my Mum wanted to use and the long name complements the second name, the short forms don't suit it. My first name is a really well known one but for some reason not a particularly popular or unpopular one. Think the short forms of it are used more often these days. I use the long form officially and the short form for everyday. (Although I did change the spelling (though not the pronounciation) of my informal name when I was a teenager to one I preferred and use today).

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

My DD is never called by her name. Which is a very short name, in fact when we registered her birth, the registrar asked what it was short for, to which I replied "nothing"he looked over his glasses and said "how can it be short for nothing?"

I replied "it is short for nothing as it is a short name - not abbreviated!"

He wasn't happy about it especially as it has an accent in it and he couldn't figure out how to do that on his computer!

Over the years DD has been known as "name-ster" "name-name" (repeated) and her friends have even managed to abbreviate it which I didn't think was possible. She's had nicknames too which are nothing like her real name - the latest which has stuck firmly is one that I called her in jest because she wasn't listening to me and I called her the last word I had heard on TV as in "you're a hobnob" (hobnob isn't the nn, just an example) and she actually liked it and now is "hobnob" "hobnobster" "The Hobnob" etc.

My name is a long name and friends call me by the short version. At work I am the long name - I think it sounds more professional. My last team leader did call me a longer name which is not mine - he thought that as my short name was "Egg" (example) that my full name was Eggletina and not Eggnog. He even went and checked with HR what my bloody real name was as he didn't believe me!

If someone I don't know well calls me Egg when I have introduced myself as Eggnog, I do correct them.