To wonder why people pick a nickname for their child?

[HackerFucker22]

As in "baby is called Alexander, nn John" facetious example

I see it all the time here. You give your baby a name and any nn develop organically I'm sure?

If you want to call your child Eliza then name her that. Not Elizabeth nn Eliza.

Sorry to the poster whom I am dissing, I love Eliza and I love Elizabeth but baby only really needs one name.

I have a traditional name but df hates the usual nn. Wish they'd been more active in choosing a nn they liked rather than friends calling me at 14 yo and df telling them noone with that name lives here. I now go by their preferred nn so would have been easier if they'd specified sooner.

DD's nickname is several syllables longer than her actual name & the shortening we tend to use. I almost called her it in front of her school friends today but stopped myself!

Yes exactly that Suburban!

I did this. With a perfectly reasonable explanation.

My daughter is named after my grandmother. Grandmother's name was 'nickname' not the longer-version-but-called-nickname - by the way, for those suggesting this, she hated the fact that she didn't have a 'proper' name. I wanted to call my daughter the nickname, but with a different version for her real name - but not the usual longer name because I don't really like it.

So, rather than being Margaret-called-Peggy, I wanted something else that could be shortened to Peggy. So daughter wound up being Megan. (And ironically enough never has been known as the intended nickname, because when she was born she just wasn't a Peggy.)

In this sort of context I think it makes perfect sense.

People are forever asking if we shorten DSs name (it's related to my username)

Apparently 'Heath' is a lovely name...uh, yes it is, but that isn't actually his name.

However, I normally reply yes, we shorten it to Doofus.

To be fair if you ask him what his name is he replies Doofus.

I probably should call him by his real name more often...

My DCs nicknames have nothing at all to do with their names!
DS1 has a shortened version of a long name. I didn't give him the full length name as I didn't want him to be called that. I wanted him to be called the shortened version.
DDs name can be shortened, but no one cares as demon shouts at them (her nickname is demon) she's 2.
And DS2s can't really be shortened. My mum tried but if was awful and I looked at her. She hasn't done it since.

My name is Danielle. I was nicknamed Dee Dee or Dee by my immediate family as a wee girl. Very very occasionally; Dan.
No nicknames from anyone else as I was growing up.
People had a hard enough time saying my name properly anyway in the 70's, early 80's 😂😤
My nephew calls me Auntie Dee Dee, I made him which I love.

Strangely, my Dad, who instigated this nn, never calls me it now. Only ever calls me my name. My mum never really called me it as a child, it was mostly my Dad. She had a friend who always called me Dan and I liked that.
The only person who really calls me Dee Dee now is my SIL (nephew's mum)
I've known her since school and I love her to bits, it's really nice to still be called by my childhood nn.

But only called by my nn from someone I really love. I wouldn't like just anyone calling me it.

I call my daughter "little snout".

I am always bewildered by this too. I understand if you name your son Alexander and call him Alex or Xander, or your DD Elizabeth intending to call her Lizzie or Beth, but Eliza is a totally different, complete name in its own right. If you like Eliza just call her Eliza.

I understand if a nn or a pet name develops organically, and often it may bear no real relation to the actual name. One of my DCs has this, but it certainly wasn't anything we discussed or intended in advance!

It also annoys me when people come on here and say 'I want my DD to have the nn Bunty/Topsy - what proper name could that be short for please?'

And then you get loads of people saying 'Bunty could be short for Bonita or Beatrice or Barbara. Topsy could be Theresa or Thomasina or Tracey.

No it can't. Stop trying to shoe-horn an awkward and tenuous connection into it. Either call her Bunty or Topsy or don't, but stop trying to pretend it's a 'thing'. It's stupid.

As the proud owner of a one syllable, utterly unshortenable name (bestowed on me by parents who have long names, short version) I always wanted the versatility of an elegant Sunday name and a friendly shortening or two for everyday use.

Since a newborn can't express a preference it seems fair enough to decide on one to start out with, especially if you have a name that will be gorgeous on an adult but a mouthful for a little one. For example I recently got a birth announcement for an Edith,'Edie to her friends'. Seems fine to me.

Mousie, Dolly and Goat Boy here. (And no, their real names are not Michael, Dorothy and, erm, Peter?)
In fact, the only one of the three that has a long name that is traditionally shortened to a common diminutive is always called by the long version.
Mind you, he was nearly Sebastian. In the end I vetoed it, because I love Sebastian, but can't abide Seb or Baz.
We do the double double thing too (not TomTom, although that one made me laugh)

Obvious shortenings are fine, Florence to flo or whatever. Family's where oldest child has the same name in each generation, fine. Announcing your child is called Benjamin but will be known as Gary is just weird.

But Edith and Edie go together and make sense. That's perfectly fine. I agree some NNs are more suitable for children but are a bit twee on an adult. It's the very tenuous far-fetched NNs decided in advance I don't really understand.

We named DD thanks to a chosen nickname. The conversation went:

DH - I love the name Tilly
Me - I like it but it seems too girly for when she's an adult. Oh but I love Matilda.
DH - Matilda it is then, Tilly as a NN.

It wasn't even a two minute conversation. When DD is older she can be known as Tilly, Matilda or even Bob if she wants!
Not real name obviously.

As this thread is about my choice of name for my dd. I thought I'd better respond. I didn't ask for an opinion on whether you liked the name I was choosing I asked about how to sort official documents out.
The name Elizabeth means a lot to me and I like the name on its own but want her nn to be Eliza as I prefer that nn to any of the others when she is older if she choose to change it the any of the other nn that would be fine.
If your point is that Eliza can be a name in its own right then the same goes for Beth, Lizzie or Betty as my Nan used.

My DC all ha NN but they ere given after they were born and are a bit silly. Ds8 is Boo or Boo Boo bear! After a done used to sing to him when we were trying to get him asleep PFB was rocked. DS6 gets called Oz or Oz Snoz or Occa Doo ( he's disabled so gets lots of cutsie names) lots of people call him Oz too or Ozzie but we've never ever called him Ozzie.... Can you tell what his name is yet????
DD4 is called Moo or Moomie Mai or More Missie Moo. Silly Daddy calls her Moomazoo.

We are a bit silly though I think as DH calls me Babba-fish or just Babba and I call him Lu-Moo.

Totally outed myself here!!!!

No NN before birth though ... That's just silly !!!

Shortening a name is not a nick name - it's a known as name - very different to a daft nick name

Maybe nn was the wrong choice of words. Shortened version of a name may have been better. I didn't think it was an unusual or conservational thing to happen.

I did exactly what OP hates.

NN is for everyday use, and full name is for becoming Prime Minister.

Because it's preferable to have a real name for other purposes. I was given a dopey nickname instead of a real name. I would much rather be applying for jobs or submitting my dissertation with a proper name like Catherine or Margaret than to look like I'm an over-familiar fool, or a 5 year old, by having to apply with Kitty or Miggles or Schmoopy-Pie or some other informal contraction. Nicknames are for friends and family, not professional situations until you actually know someone.

I don't agree. Our DDs name is quite a formal traditional name that we both love, but it has a shortening that is commonly used and we call her this as it ends in a y and just sounds less formal! I like and use both names though, and planned to :)

Totally agree with pp who said its in case the child becomes Prime Minister... Or marries Prince George/Princess Charlotte

I don't get it.

A friend of mine has a daughter she called Amelia. However she only called her Millie. Why didn't you call her Millie then instead of Amelia

There is fluidity about which names are usually shortenings, and which are names in their own right, isn't there? Which complicates the picture.

Eliza is undoubtedly a development/shortening of Elizabeth, the same way Jack is a diminutive of John and Harry of Henry. But we have come to expect them as names in their own right - I'd be a bit surprised to find a Jack who was really a John. OTOH Id be equally rather surprised to find a Liz who wasn't actually Elizabeth, a Gill who wasn't a Gillian, or a Becky who wasn't Rebecca.

Millie, Evie, Sam are the sort of 'grey area' names where I would be prepared for either the long or short version.

Tolerance in the grey areas?!