To expect people to use the nickname I chose?

[ReiofHope]

I’m 35 weeks pregnant and I’m having a little boy. Since I was a child I’ve loved the name Alexander James using AJ as a nickname. (I’ll admit it started as I loved the Backstreet Boys)
Now 20 on this generation of babies has a James and at least one other child with James as a middle name. So I changed the middle name for my son to jason but still want to call my baby AJ.
Over the last few weeks everyone from my step mum to the children on my partners side have been referring to him as Alex no matter how many times I correct them.

It’s not as if they’ve ever refused to use nicknames before we have an Ollie (oliver) harry (Harrison) Albie (Albert) and Mila (Emelia) so why is it that they’re refusing to use my chosen nickname?

Am I just being an unreasonable bitch to expect people to use a specific short form?

Why don't you call him 'AJ Backstreet'?

Blueskies, true. But at least the OP knows what she needs to do once the baby is born - don't mention the back story and stick with the AJ plan.

I find it odd that you are referring to your baby by his name when he hasn’t even been born yet. He might arrive and you think “oh I think he he looks like a Paul”. I wouldn’t tell people the name before the baby arrives anyway, but thats just me.

A good friend of mine chose names for her kids that were what I’d describe as old man names, when she announced the births she announced the full name and said “who will be known as...”. She wanted them to be known as the more modern shortened version, everyone got this and nobody uses their full names. They were real names though not just letters.

Lemon I never understood that line people trot out about waiting to see what their newborn looks like. All babies would be called Winston Churchill or Screamy MC Tomatoface by that logic.

Thing is, OP, you cannot police nicknames. They develop organically! AJ sounds so Americanised, it's like you are trying to give a 'cool' nickname to a baby. Not that I like using abbreviations as a nickname, it's all a bit try hard.

I know a girl called Joanne, people call her 'Jo', however, she is desperate to be known as 'Jo Jo' but despite her best efforts, everyone still calls her Jo. As I said, you cannot police nicknames, they are given as a term of endearment, and sadly, 'Jo' is a bit of a twat

I think the OP has two problems. One, she has referred to her preferred name as a nickname, when in fact she wants it to be the name her child is known by, which is not the same as a nickname. And two, she has told people the 'long form' of the name, thus confusing them.

It's not a nickname - it's the name that you want your child to be known as.

@m0therofdragons I have a daughter who's real name is quite glamourous who's known as Pie!

At school I had a friend whose name was Marigold.
Her parents called her Goldie, at school we called her Riggie and when she went to university and beyond she got called Ma, Mo, GG, GoGo and others besides. She embraced all of these