Shortened/NN's on birth certificate?

[LadyCLC]

If your choice of name is a shortened name/NN e.g.

Jamie (James)
Tommy (Thomas)
Will (William)
Ollie (Oliver) etc

& the shortened version is the name you wish everyone to call the child should you put that on the birth cert or put the long version for official documents? thoughts please?

Thanks

[nickelbabysnatcher]

I like Wilfred.

[LadyCLC]

Thanks...

we quite liked Wilson but then when I asked for opinions on here I got a lot of people saying it was a Surname and it seems very unpopular - I dont want the poor boy to have 'mick' taken out of him because of his name - its a tough one

[PepsiPopcorn]

There are a few other boys names that Tom or Will could be short for, but some of them are more unusual... Tomlin, Tomkin, Tomeo, Tomaso, Wilfred, Wilbur, Wilson, Wilford, Wilmore.

[LadyCLC]

I have to say I think I agree with having the long version on certificate but trying to convince DH of this is another matter! The 2 names we love are Tommy and Will but he doesnt want to put Thomas as our nephew is Thomas and he doesnt like William!! So he will only go with the short names, are there any other long names these could be nicknames for??? Please help, I am driving myself mad with this dilemna now..... thanks

[nickelbabysnatcher]

I deliberatly used Tommy rather than Tom in my example, because Tom is fine as a full name. :)

[maxpower]

Two of my nephews have shortened names which are on their birth certficates.

My sister has her full name on her birth certificate and hates it - so she's got her shortened version on anything she can get away with.

You can't win!

[nickelbabysnatcher]

I prefer long names on birth certificates, but both of my sisters have children that have short names on the BC, so that is their official name.

I prefer to give the child a choice when they get older.
eg: Tommy sounds fine for a child, but for a 40year old solicitor?

[MadMommaMemoo]

Ds is ollie but Oliver in his bc

Dsd is Millie but Millicent on her bc and she hates and get rather upset about it.

[Isthreetoomany]

We put the long version on DD1's birth certificate even though we have called her by her nickname since birth. Wanted her to have the option of using the long version as an adult. Even her school call her by her nn though.

[thumbwitch]

I like giving my child the choice. He has the full name on the birth certificate, he is commonly called by the nickname (and by his full name if he is being naughty).
So I would not use a nn on the birth certificate.

My sister, OTOH, has done just that with both of her DDs. She doesn't like the long versions of their names, says she never would use them, so they have NNs on their birth certificate. Thankfully they're not too twee so the girls aren't going to have any worries later in life when they become high-falutin doctors or judges

[theresapotatoundermysink]

Obviously lockets. Liking the name you choose for your child is in most scenarios a given. What I don't get is seeing as Tom is just Thomas without the 'as', how could you hate one name but like the other.

[theresapotatoundermysink]

Why would you call your child Tom if you hate the name Thomas?

[NotAnotherNewNappy]

Now Kitty I could make an exception for, it's lovely and so different from Kathryn

[PanicOnTheStreetsOfLondon]

MY DS is one of the ones you mentioned. He has the long name on his birth certificate but we have always used the shortened name. At the time we thought that he would need a 'serious' name for when he is grown up.

One word of warning though all of DH's older relatives who don't see him very often call him by his proper name which he hates (he calls it his school register name). He was sooo upset when one got him a personalised Star Wars t-shirt with the 'wrong' name on it.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

That is a very good point Pepsi, I wouldn't want everyone to call me by my nn, I prefer to use my full name for work and keep my nn for my friends and family.

[PepsiPopcorn]

Nicknames lose their status as a mark of affection, if that's the only name someone has. I think that's one reason I like the principle of having both a full/formal name and a nickname.

[lilyberry]

I didn't like my full name when I was younger, but now I really love having a long 'posh' name to fall back on!

[CharlieBoo]

It really does depend on the name and if you like both versions. My ds is called Charlie and he is just Charlie, mainly because I hated the name Charles and never had any intention to call him anything but Charlie.

But in all other instances I would put the long name...James is gorgeous, both my brother and DP are James' and my brother was Jamie when little, but now he's grown up James is lovely.

Have a friend with a Thomas who is and always has been known as Tom, she hates Thomas but put that on BC. She gets miffed when he's called Thomas on a rare occasion.

[mopsyflopsy]

Agree it depends on the name. Will for example is not a name but a noun (last will ) or verb (will you..), so would be odd as a standalone name. Jamie, on the other hand, sounds more like a complete name.

(p.s. Will is also too close to Willy imo)

[shouldnotbehere]

Depends on the name, I would never put Will, Pete Nick or Olly on a birth cirtificate, as it sounds incomplete. However I would consider putting Charlie or Jamie on certificate.