Toby

[aureliacecilia]

Not Tobias, just Toby.

DS has a name like Alexander or Nicholas. He's always Alexander, never Alex; always Nicholas, never Nick. We expect his school friends will call him the shortened version in the future but for now he goes by his full name.

Now we are expecting DC#2 and we really like Toby. Tobias is nice too but I can't see we would ever call him it. But would it be odd to have Alexander and Toby rather than Alexander and Tobias?

What do you think of just Toby?

My son is Toby - he is that on his birth certificate. His middle name is Alexander - to compensate for the lack of syllables in his first name

I've got a long name, think Samantha (for example) and it's always been shortened to Sam, even as a baby. My brother has a long name like your eldest which has never been shortened by family, but has by his friends (and me). I kind of wish they'd just called me Sam! Go with what works for you.

I much prefer Toby to Tobias.

Great idea, @reallifegetsintheway2!

I know an adult Toby and it really doesn’t suit a tall adult man. Tobias is much better - what 30 year old man wants to keep using Toby?

I prefer Toby over Tobias (can't get past the word "bias" in Tobias, for some reason) so I'd just go for Toby, personally

For what it's worth, Toby is actually historically a full name in its own right and has been used so for centuries, not simply a shortening/nickname for Tobias. Kind of how in the same way Barnaby isn't a nickname for Barnabas, and Mary isn't a nickname for Maria. They're all just different ways of historically anglicising the same biblical names.

Toby is a 'nice guy'. I can't imagine an heroic Toby or a person with get up and go. It's cuddly and sweet.

I think of Toby as a name on its own. Unfortunately I don’t like it but we can’t all like the same thing.