Am I the only one

[itsohsoquiet]

who didn't realise that some people consider possible nicknames before deciding on a name?

I genuinely had no idea

I'd never considered it before either! ...why choose a beautiful name and then shorten it to Izzy, Immy, or Ellie?!!!

People will apply nicknames whether you like it or not. Takes quite a toughie to stand their ground for full name status.

Ahem, as a mum of an Izzy, I thought about it because I like the idea of having a 'little' version of a grown-up name, and then for the DD to have a choice of shortenings or no-shortening when she gets older. Also considered it because there are lots of shortenings I can't stand so probably wouldn't have risked the otherwise-perfectly-acceptable full length version.

I am a bit of a pedant when it comes to 'proper' nicknames vs shortening for shortening's sake. So Izzy feels proper (to me) but Immy doesn't. No idea why, and clearly this is a massively subjective thing. As I'm sure the next poster will come along and demonstrate .

Actually all my kids have 4 letter names with no obvious nns but that was sheer fluke, they were the only 3 names DH & I didn't both hate!

I think with longer names like Elizabeth, Catherine and Jennifer you would be silly not to consider nn as almost all of the above I know go by nn. I am one of the above names and couldn't make the full version stick even when I tried!

Some names, especially for boys, I like, such as Andrew and Daniel but really hate Andy and Danny. I would hate it if I picked one of these and then my child insisted on being called the nn I hated!

Incidently, both my dds have short names with no obvious nn, which I think is one of the reasons I liked them.

A lot of people start with a nn and work towards the full name as nns can sound very unprofessional. The common questions for these people are 'Would I trust a pilot named ' and 'Would I vote for a for PM?'

On the other hand, some people hate nns altogether and avoid certain names, like Elizabeth, purely because they don't like Lizzie.

Also, some names can have bad or derogatory nns that are quite obvious. Eg. I know it has a lovely meaning and loads of people think it's beautiful, but I can't help but think 'Fat Fatima'. Elliot could have the nn Ellie, and parents wouldn't like that because it's a girl's name.

And finally :P Sometimes it's just not easy to say a long name. Some kids get nns just for play time.

I didn't realise that people would settle on a name WITHOUT considering all possible nicknames .

Just seems sensible to me.

This should be considered!! There are some lovely names that have no decent nick name. Cecily and Verity are lovely for example but I'm not sure what I'd have shortened them to that is nice. SESS or VAIR?? nope. Also LOVE Gabriela but I wondered if she might be Gabzer like the one I knew at school. Lovely girl. 40 years old. Still called Gabz I believe. Felicity is another. Felicity is nice but Fliss or Felle? eyoooo.

If I were choosing again I'd have a two syllable limit. I think that's a more natural number of syllables for a person's name and I think that if your name has ONE syllable or three, you end up being called a two syllable nick name by your family! eg, Faith might be FayFay at home, and Isabella Izzy............. have seen this done so much amongst all the children I know.