Do you think you can sort of 'force' a nickname?

[ArsendLupin]

For boys we quite like a particular short nickname but wouldn't want that as the full name and we can't agree on a name that it 'naturally' derives from. I want a longer name where the first and last letters contract into the nickname.

As an example imagine the nickname was Ben. We didn't like Benjamin, but we liked Bevan - shortened to Ben. (Bevan is not the name )

Is that just daft? DH thinks nicknames should naturally be the starting sound of the name (ie Bev for Bevan) and people will use that. I think we can encourage any nickname we like, if we just use it from birth (ie Kit for Christopher)

Ps we have agreed we're not giving the nickname as the full name - we both want a longer name as the given name.

I know a girl whose 'known as' name bears no relationship at all in either sound or spelling to her official first name from Day One. e.g Her name is Grace Anderson. She's known as Lala.

It was just presented on her birth announcement cards. The Anderson family are delighted to announce the arrival of baby Grace Mary Anderson, to be known as Lala

Lala is now a teenager and as far as I know has never been known as Grace except on a few more official things. It doesn't seem to have caused anyone any confusion.

So why call her 'Grace'? Why didn't they just put Lala on her birth certificate!?

I think because the nickname they chose was a bit 'childish' (like Sweetie or Poppet) and they might have realised that although they loved it, she might want a more professional grown up name for whatever adult career she followed.

My daughter has always been known as a shortened version of her name, although it was the recognised short form of the name. We gave the full name in the birth announcement and added the nickname preceded by “ to be known as”

For those saying why not just put the short form on the BC, I did know a Debbie who was Debbie rather than Deborah on the BC, she did have problems when filling out official forms or in formal situations where putting Debbie was queried.

Why not just call your baby the name you want them to be called? Why have a different one just for their birth certificate?