Nicknames as names

[ChasingAdhdBrain]

My mom comes from a culture where we sometimes have more than 1-2 first/middles names, and sometimes take mother's maiden name as an additional surname. Not everyone but it wouldn't be considered weird to do so. And then we have nicknames. We loooove a nickname, sometimes the sillier the better. For example I have an Aunt called Baby, my nickname is the word for a small piece of corn (I was v petite growing up), you get the idea 😆

Lately though a number of my friends and family based in Ireland and UK have named their kids what I thought were nicknames.

Trying not to be outing, but let's say things like Jimmy instead of James, Bobby instead of Robert. Aibu to think people should have the option to have a more 'formal' version of their name?

I feel like a huge hypocrite because my mom's family are all about our crazy nicknames. But we also have 'normal' names for formal occasions.

And I realise I'm about to anger all the parents on this site who have named their child a cute nickname 😆

But aibu??

I can’t stand it when someone is given a name with no intention of it being used. Like when someone names their child Robert, but calls him Bobby.

It comes from having a name that has many common nicknames, which I have never used. If my parents had wanted to name me any of those names, they could have named me that way, but they didn’t. I got sick of insisting that I really did use my actual name. I’m in my 40s and people still ask me, “what do you go by”. I just told you my name. That is what I go by.

Coincidentally, My husband had the same problem. A long name, often shortened, but his name is the full version.

We purposefully chose a name for our child that has no alternate forms to avoid this issue entirely. If we had wanted to call our child Bobby though, it would have said Bobby on the birth certificate.

@Davros

I hate nicknames as names but it seems to be becoming more popular. I particularly dislike Liam as it is actually short for William but that seems to have got lost in the mists of time

Liam isn't just short for William . It's a name in its own right. All the Liams I know (from old men to young boys) are just Liam, it's an Irish name very common here in Ireland. My grandfather was called Liam and he was born in 1906!

@RobertSmithsLipstick

I don't understand giving a full name, but at the same time deciding what the nickname will be. It's quite a new phenomenon to an oldie like me.

It's quite an old thing. It was almost a necessity in big families when children were often named after relatives.

If father and some are both 'James' then it makes sense to call one Jimmy or Jamie.

The 'ie' or 'y' ending of diminutives used to mean 'little' so a James and a Jamie in a family would be father and son respectively.

I think this alo might be why middle names became a thing, and why some families use middle names as given names.

@Davros

MilduraS I know, my uncle Liam from Kilkenny was actually called William. It is an Irish nickname for William

It's derived from William but it's been used as a name in its own right for decades. My grandad is a Liam and he was born in 1939. I also have a couple of cousins in their 30's called Liam. I wonder if it's a regional thing to use it for William, we're from Limerick.