Would it be odd to name my daughter Margaret...

[CheerfulYank]

If my name is Megan?

She would be Maggie, not Meg. And it's the only name I really like.

[AmandaPayne]

I always think that the thing with nicknames is that, if you don't use one, people will often shorten the name for themselves. Margaret in the UK would normally get shortened to Maggie as the default, not Meg. So if you don't use a nickname, Maggie may well develop as the nickname. If you want the nicknames like Meg, Pearl, Daisy, Mags, you need to encourage them IYSWIM. Unless it's very different in the US, I wouldn't expect you to have to fight against Meg as a shortening.

[greenhill]

It's a great name, go for it. As long as you call her Maggie from the start, no one else can change it to anything else, as you have already shortened it.

One thing, do you watch The Simpsons? The baby is called Maggie.

[MortifiedAdams]

You could just have Maggie from the start? As in, on the birth certificate.

[magbob]

I have a Margaret, known as Maggie. No regrets at choice. Some people mishear the name as Maddie which i hadn't expected! She went through a stage of wanting to be called Margaret as she then had the longest name in her class!

[CheerfulYank]

There are Maddies everywhere here too :)

[mumzy]

My friend named her dd Margaret her nn is Mags which i like a lot

[stringbean]

Conversely, I know a Maggie (Margaret) whose dd is Megan. Not odd at all. Margaret is a lovely name, strong and elegant; I like Maggie too. Margaret was my grandmother's name and I've always liked it.

[CheerfulYank]

Most people seem to like it, but when my mother told her friend we were thinking of it, the friend let out a horrified gasp and said "can't you talk them out of it?!"

[tadjennyp]

Margaret is my mother's name too and I have really got to like it recently. Molly is also a nickname for it! Sounds lovely, CY!

[mathanxiety]

A lot of older people have a bad case of newisbetteritis imo. Every single one of my DCs had a Margaret (or in one case a Margret) in class with them. In the case of DD1 there were three of them, two Maggies and one Margaret. The other big names for girls were Emily, Grace, Sarah and Rachel, with three or four in each DC's class. On Grandparents' Day in their school many of the grandparents shook their heads sadly when they saw the names but seemed to like the Ashleys and Addisons, etc..

[runawaysimba]

Notactually, so sorry to hear that. You made me cry a wee bit too! My Margaret is named after my Grandma, who died of cancer when I was a teen. I never knew, until we told the family that DD would be known as Maggie, that Grandma always loved that nickname and wished people had used that for her!

Sorry to slightly derail the thread, OP, but there's obviously no shortage of lovely Margarets to honour :-)

[Sunnysummer]

It's a lovely name, and definitely not too similar!

[Graceparkhill]

I think it is a lovely name. I know a couple of teenage Margarets- one goes by the full name,the other is called Meg.

[bigkidsdidit]

I love love love Maggie but it still says Thatcher to me so I can't use it. I'm jealous!

[weegiemum]

I like it. It's my middle name and my best friend is Maggie or Maggs. It's great, classic, timeless and very versatile. As long as you don't use Peggy, IMO!