Baby names - William, Will, Liam, Bill, Willy, Billy

[proudmum95]

AIBU to prevent my friends and my child's friends from calling my son anything BUT William. Forbidden names include Will, Liam, Bill, Willy, Billy. There is no religious or other reason behind it, I just feel it is my right to name my son as i choose and people should respect that

good luck with that :o

Your son may decide that he'd rather be any of those names and you can't do anything about that tbh.

Start some more threads OP! You're doing well on your first night on MN.

DPs a William, all his family call him William, all his friends & me Will. He mainly introduces himself as Will unless we are somewhere a bit posh when he becomes William but it's not often lol.
His dad is also William but is known to EVERYONE as Willie.

You can ask people to call him William but to be honest it probably won't happen especially as he gets older. DPs mum hates people using Will, and when I'm around her I try and say William but it doesn't happen naturally and I feel like I might as well be calling him Steve lol.

Yes, while he's a baby you can certainly tell people that his name is William and only William will do. Once he's walking and talking though and has an opinion on the matter himself well I'm afraid it will no longer be any of your business. You gave him the name but you don't own it. He does.

Please don't be one of those bum clenchingly embarrassing mums who corrects her 16 year old son's friends 'I think you'll find that we don't have a Billy/Will/Willy living in the house, we do however have a William, is that who you perhaps mean?'. Willy won't thank you for it!

No chance love. He'll be calling himself Will as soon as he can!

My nephew is called William and he has never been called anything else! He is just over 8 now and if anyone calls him any kind of nickname he corrects them He hates being called Will!!!!

William is a beautiful name - it wouldn't cross our mind to call him anything else. If a person asks him what his name is, he always says William.

My sister never had to ask us to only call him William, it's just what we naturally do and I imagine it would be the same for your friends and family. However, if they do call him by another version then I see no harm in correcting them.

There will be an age though where your son may want to go by another name when he hits 10ish or so and starts developing his own identity. You will probably find when he is at school the nick names will start coming out -but that is inevitable.

Me and Hubby really like the name Liam but I'm a bit worried it is too close for comfort in terms of my sister having a William

My son's best friend is William, they're both almost 4. We've never called him anything but William, it just never come up to change it, noone else has either and she's never had to correct anyone.

Yes as they get older I imagine they'll experiment with nicknames but then that's their choice.

Personally I never call a child something different to what their parent uses, at playgroups for example another friend of mine calls her son Joshua so I would never talk to him using Josh when she doesn't, that just seems rude to me, if she used Josh herself then fine but she doesn't and so neither do I.

And with so many nicknames for William how would someone even know they were about to use the right one. If a William has been known by Will for years if someone suddenly called him Billy he wouldn't even respond.

I just stick to using what I hear the parent use...simple.

What's wrong with Bill?

I have a William and is just William

I have a William, but he is also called Will. I love both but carefully thought about all variations as I think you have little control over what name will stick.

I have a William,

He's definitely a Will.

We get TOLD OFF if we call him William.

I certainly don't think you should be telling his friends what they should call him. He'll get laughed at, and it will make them call him anything but William.

Also you chose to call him William. He didn't choose it.

He himself may hate his name and choose to change it himself.

I like William but don't personally like Will/Willy at all. But your son may feel differently.

I have a William and we've always said William. Some children at school sometimes call him Will. He doesn't seem to mind that and sometimes signs himself Will. It really is his business.

DH prefers to call himself the short version of his name (a very common abbreviation,but his name is not William), but his family insists on using the full name. I think it's a bit rude to insist on it when they know he prefers the other version.

With a name such as William you will be very lucky if he doesnt pick up a nickname in various different circles. My DH is William he is Billy to his family, Will to me and all our mutual friends and my family snd William at work. Does it really matter the name doesnt make the man etc etc

It has never before occurred to me that Liam comes from William.

As you were.

It'll be up to him in a few short years. As it should be.

It's the Irish version of William, rather than an abbreviation of William. I never link the two in my mind.

Aahh- William- my favourite name in the world

Not worth fighting this one OP, it makes you sound precious and he'll choose what he likes anyway.
I agree though, I much prefer William to any shortened version.

My William is Will, Wills, Willsybum, Beezlebum, My Bumble, Wimblebum, Bill, Billy, Billy BIg Bum, The Bill, Billsterfer, Billzeroni, Willster and Chum.

Sorry.

Would anyone really want to shorten William (which is lovely) to Willy ?!

A friend of ours has always been William to friends and family, but many of his peers call him Will. I think it's quite sweet, and often a sign of affection, when friends confer a pet name or nickname. Before we had our only child I always thought I'd object to my child's name being shortened or changed. We named him James - but have always called him Jamie! Somehow James seemed awfully grown up for our wee baby. At school his friends called him Jamjar and Jambeano which just made him laugh.