Etta or Henrietta but calling baby Etta?

[gemloving]

What would you do?

Henrietta.

Etta, but only because I'm not a fan of the name Henrietta.

Henrietta, Marietta, Violetta... I'd choose Marietta actually...

I'd use a longer name and shorten it to Etta. There's some nice ones other than Henrietta:
Marietta
Vyoletta
Rosetta
Scarletta

Oh I like Violetta!

I'd stick with Etta. It's a beautiful name

Love Violetta.

Henrietta is a hamster. Mine, when I was 8.

Etta. Just be careful if holidaying in the North of Spain...

If you want to always call the baby Etta then have that as the name, I had a similar short name/full name situation and it annoyed me almost immediately. It depends if you don't mind seeing letters addressed to Miss H Surname instead of Miss E Surname and making Dr appointments for Henrietta instead of Etta and school wanting to use Henrietta and teach her to spell Henrietta etc...

Use Etta. It’s a PITA when your diminutive doesn’t start with the same letter as your BC name! If she identifies as an Etta it will no doubt irritate her when she receives stuff for a Miss H Jones etc

Either is fine. But if you only want her to be called Etta then that's what I'd call her. If you call her Henrietta she might want to go by Hettie or Henry or Henrietta in full and you'd have to go along with it.

The thing with names ending in Etta is it sounds wrong with a lot of surnames. It could sound a bit like Henry ett (ate) something. I know that's not the correct way of saying it but it would still bug me. Henrietta Ball etc. sounds like Henry ate a ball. I have a surname that it wouldn't really work with.

This might not be relevant to you / your surname.

If I put that issue aside, I quite like Georgetta, Henrietta and Julietta.

We know a little girl called Etta (she's about 10 I think) - I think it's lovely on its own. Don't agree with a longer name 'just because'. We have a Max, because we liked it and I didn't like any of the longer versions (too posh, too American, too Gladiator etc etc).

If there's a longer name you actually want to call her, do it. I find a lot of names ending with '-etta' are far to frilly, personally. But if you just want an "Etta", don't artificially call her something longer.

@

The henrietta I know went as hetty as a child and het as an adult

I like a short name as a name, even on the birth certificate so I’d go Etta. Since being pregnant I’ve really loved that name

A friend recently named her baby Loretta and calls her Etta.