Registering birth at 2.30 today - help me decide what goes on the birth certificate!

[underthewestway]

Registering son’s birth this afternoon. He is called after my dad, who was Joseph but always called Joe.

We will probably never refer to son as anything other than Joe so DP thinks we should register him as Joe but I’m not sure. Some sort of traditional part of me thinks we should go with Joseph and keep his options open (not sure what for!). But then again, I do prefer just Joe as his name.

What is the mumsnet verdict?

Going against the grain to say that both my sister and I have shortened names as our full names, not cutesy cutesy shortenings, more like Jo or Sam or Ellie, and although it has given both of us a pathological hatred of the longer versions, due to ridiculous people insisting that they must be our real names, neither of us has ever had any problem. The employment thing has never been an issue and with all the Archies and Teddies about I doubt a Joe is going to raise any eyebrows.

Joseph

I have a nickname on my birth certificate and would far rather the long version.

Joseph. Gives him options.

Give him a middle name, what could anyone turn Henry into to make fun of? I could understand if it was something more unusual.

Joseph

Joseph

Like you op, and nearly everyone else on here, I would 100% go with Joseph.

Joseph Henry is lovely. Not sure why your DP thinks that would be made fun of...? Henry is quite a common name these days. I don't think anyone gets made fun of for being called Henry as a middle name?

I used to work with a Ricky and when he booked plane tickets etc, the travel company would ALWAYS 'correct' it to Richard. Obviously if your and ticket doesn't match your passport or Visa, you can run into problems at airports etc.

Aside from that sort of thing, I just think having a more formal name option is usually a good thing.

Joseph

Definitely Joseph, it's a lovely name and that way he is Joseph known as Joe too. He then has the option of being Joseph in the future as well.

Joseph Henry is lovely.

Joseph

I have a friend whose full name is Kate. She spends her whole life having to tell people that no her full name is not Katherine, it’s just Kate. It’s actually more annoying to be registered with the short version.

Joseph on the bc.

Joseph Henry is very nice indeed.

Joseph.

I think either. I do like the idea of Joe on the birth certificate, and it would distinguish between the two in the family, there would have been Joseph and Joe, however I do know of a few friends who has a shortened name eg "Josh/John" and people regularly try to complete forms with eg "Joshua/Jonathan" and have to be corrected multiple times.

I personally would go with Joe, though.

@Janeandthedragon

I have a friend whose full name is Kate. She spends her whole life having to tell people that no her full name is not Katherine, it’s just Kate. It’s actually more annoying to be registered with the short version.

I once worked with a Mandy - that was all. I think she got called Amanda a lot.

Joseph Henry!

The newly minted Joseph Henry would like to thank you all for your input - or at least he would if he could keep his eyes open for long enough! Might take him a while to grow into his name, but I am happy that we made the right choice

Aw! 😍😘

What a lovely name. My son’s middle name is Henry too.

Good evening little Joseph .

What a cutie! And a GREAT name. Hello Joseph Henry!

He’s gorgeous and it’s a lovely name

Awww what a little sweetie! Congratulations!

That’s a great name.
What a lovely boy !

Aaaaaaaw soooooo cute, oh my goodness!

Gorgeous baby and gorgeous name