I am after some advice about changing our child's legal name please.
His official first and middle names are Theodore Edward. Since the moment of his birth we have called him Teddy.
This was always our plan as we thought if he wanted to be a brain surgeon, Dr Theodore might be preferable to Dr Teddy. We wanted to give him flexibility, he could be Theo, Theodore, Ted, Teddy, whatever he wanted basically.
At school and nursery he is/was known as Teddy and other than the odd person who doesn't know him well, this is all he's ever been called.
He identifies 100% as Teddy and is very adamant that Teddy is his "Real" name and only occasionally concedes Theodore is his "Long" name, usually only after much discussion. He refuses to learn how to spell or write it.
Whenever i call him Theodore or hear someone call him Theo, it almost physically makes me cringe.
My wife and i have discussed changing his name by deed poll to Teddy to make his life simpler and consolidate his sense of identity however, we're on the fence whether to do it now or leave it up to him when he's older.
What's your thoughts please?