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.

[Sparklingbrook]

How do you all know what is on a child's birth certificate?

[MoonriseKingdom]

I always thought a Sunday best name in case they want to become Prime Minister etc. However I was just thinking about recent politicians and actually no one refers to Anthony Blair or Edward Milliband so maybe times have changed. The tabloids would say Maggie Thatcher but she was always Margaret on the BBC and I bet not many people would have dared say Maggie to her face.

[marshmallowpies]

Ninja I had the same dilemma over Margaret/Peggy - my beloved granny was Margaret, always known as Peggy, and I would have loved to have named a child after her. But Margaret doesn't go with our surname at all.

I mentioned this to my mum, and she said 'You could just call her Peggy' - to which I said no, I could never use Peggy as a proper name, as much as I love it. I would've used Margaret as a middle name but it just didn't fit there either.

We got in a muddle with MNs as DH wanted his mothers name as a MN and I wanted Jane, so as Jane is short we just have DD1 2 MNs. Then DD2 came along and we had to think of 2 MNs for her, to treat them fairly, I didn't want DD2 to grow up thinking she's not special enough for 2 MNs. So DD2 is stuck with a ridiculous long set of names that don't really flow, as we just couldn't find a combination that sounded right.

[NataliaOsipova]

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?

We did this (something similar). Basically because while Millie is a lovely name on a six year old, it might not suit a 45 year old - it gives her options when she's older. Also (and I know I may get flamed for this and, absolutely, it shouldn't be this way....) but people do make assumptions about you based on your name and it can be a massive signifier, which makes the "options" even more valuable in later life, I think.

[breezydoesit]

I think some people prefer "the proper" name on a birth certificate so it perhaps looks more professional when they're older? I know a little lad Billy but it's William on his birth certificate for that very reason

[HeteronormativeHaybales]

Putting, say, Jonathan on the birth certificate and referring to the child as Jon is fine. What I find a little odd is the posts on here where a name is looked for as a derivation for a particular 'nicknamey' (or not) name, even if th derivation is not a natural one at all, and I think that's what OP is talking about. Along the lines of 'What names can I have for a nn of Kitty - not Katherine though'. The OP's Elizabeth/Eliza example is a case in point - I would say Eliza is a name in its own right (cf. the different pronunciation of the i in the two names), not a shortening or diminutive of Elizabeth, although it might have originated from it.

[ThatsNotMyRabbit]

Sometimesithinkimbonkers - I'm cringeing at all the silly nicknames! Do you call each other them in public? 😮

[Hackedoffevenmore]

I must be the only person who likes shortenings & nicknames.
Sebastian & Maximilian will surely always be Seb & Max?

[descalina]

I think looking for a long name to go with a shortened name you like more is fine.

I wouldn't call my child a "nickname", say Meg or Seb, to me they just look incomplete. And if I saw it on a CV I would wonder if it was their actual name or if they just didn't know when it wasn't appropriate to use a nickname. Before I joined MN I would definitely have assumed the latter.

[descalina]

Meant to say in my post above, I do really like shortened names! I use a shortened name and it feels much more "me" than my full name - partly because I had an element of choice in it. But I wouldn't like to not have the option of my full name for more formal purposes

[isitginoclock]

Yabu. Yes so it's a really weird and nobby thing to do. But let people get on with their own weird naming conventions for their own children. More for the rest of us to laugh at.

[ZiggyFartdust]

Yabu. Yes so it's a really weird and nobby thing to do. But let people get on with their own weird naming conventions for their own children. More for the rest of us to laugh at

You must have the dullest life I can imagine, if this is what you laugh at, the perfectly normal, since the dawn of time, phenomena of children having names and nicknames.
People are fucking weird.

[PaulAnkaTheDog]

I know someone who named her daughter something like Catherine and calls her Coco. Also someone who called her daughter Olive and calls her Olsi. I don't get it. Those nicknames don't occur naturally. They're just picked to be 'cutesy'.

[MitzyLeFrouf]

I think it's a bit wanky too.

If you like Kate just call your daughter Kate. She doesn't need the 'options' (ugh) of Katherine. Who has ever looked at the name Kate and thought. 'Well that's a frivolous and career limiting name'

[contrary13]

I gave my children long first names which could be shortened (weirdly, both first names have 9 letters, with both shortened versions being only 4 letters), purely because of the fact that I have a name which can't be shortened - and I never knew when I was in trouble, growing up... and hated it! When my children hear the long version of their first name, then they know they're pushing the boundaries somewhat and might like to think about what they're doing/saying, particularly if we're in public. As a child, I didn't have that sort of traffic light system (as my DB refers to it - he's done the same with my nephew, who is officially William, but called Billy) growing up. It's useful.

Nicknames, on the other hand... my DD (19) calls my DS (11) "Baa-Baa", whilst he calls her "Moo-Moo". I'm still not entirely sure why, if indeed I ever knew. It's just their way of being affectionate, and purely between them - I have entirely different monikers for them both

[cakesandphotos]

I have a friend who has a name which would be considered the short version of a longer name. She wishes her actual name was the longer version because everyone assumes it is anyway.

[Sparklingbrook]

Some of the comments on this thread are very strange. There's an awful lot of overthinking going on.

[NickiFury]

Hmm, I was just about to agree but then I realised I did exactly this. Dd has a very classic name which I knew would be shortened. But I loved the full length name too. One way of shortening it sounds like a stripper, I am sorry but it does, so that was never going to be an option. She was called by MY choice of her shortened name from the day she arrived and that was insisted upon with steely determination. It's not a cutsie nickname though it's very sensible.

[Tabsicle]

My parents did this to me. They said it was because they liked the short nickname version (imagine 'Millie Molly Mandy') but thought I might resent having a childish sounding name if I wanted to be a judge when I was 35 and so put "Millicent Margaret Amanda" on my birth certificate. It was to give me a choice.

FiL was named after a saint as his family were very religious but it wasn't a feasible name for every day (think 'Ignatius') they gave him nick name but it was very important to them that he have the saint's name before God.

People do it for lots of reasons.

[MistressDeeCee]

Cultural thing for me, everyone has a nickname. My real name is on all my documents and there's something quite endearing about nicknames, I find. Im not fussed about it at all

[tenbluebottles]

I'm known by my nickname that has no resemblance to my given name.
The only time it's tricky is on official forms and professional registration.

I just explain that I'm 'known as' and it's never been an issue.

[Sometimesithinkimbonkers]

Thatsnotmyrabbit Obvs DH and I don't use in public but I might say boo or Moo... Oz is Oz or Ozsnoz in public, private or anywhere ... Most of my friends and even his teachers call him Oz (he does have Sen )

[WitchWay]

Agree with PP who have said a shortened version is not a nickname.

DS has had various nicknames - Smally, Little Face, Bunny, Bun, Fruit Bun, Fruit, Little Fruit, Sausage

He's 18 now & the only one I can still get away with is Bun

Mostly I call him by his proper name & his friends call him by a shortened version, or by his surname.

[Twixthecat]

I'm the opposite opinion - I don't get giving a child an abbreviation rather than the full name. E.g. Kate is short for Katherine, Alfie is short for Alfred etc etc So give them the full name and then call them the abbreviation if you want to! I think giving a child the option to mess about with their name a bit if they want to when they're old enough to choose. E.g. A Katherine can choose to be Kate, Katie, Kathy, Kat etc if they want to when they're older and not stuck with a short name if they decide they don't like it! I've got a short name that can't really be abbreviated and as a teenager wished I had a better name so I could call myself something different. But then half of my family are known by a name slightly different or abbreviated than what's on our birth certificates!