Baby boy name - Please help! Which is better?

[Fivelittlemonkeys]

Hello, our little baby boy will be named Asterios after a family member. Obviously, we are not British.

We are thinking of either keeping it as Asterios or shortening it to Ari, which is a common nn in our home country and we believe it will be digested easier in the UK, rather than his full BC name.

So, what would you do? Which one do you prefer and will be easier to use in the UK?

I am also very conscious that if we keep it as Asterios, he may be teased at school and got told Asterix, which I don't want. I know that kids tease anyway and find silly excuses but if I could minimise the risk, it would help.

Opinions please? Asterios or Ari for his everyday life?

I really like Asterios! It's easy enough to spell and say for English speakers.

I know a Hebrew woman called Ari.

I would call him Asterios, and see how it goes. You've then still got the option of Ari as a nickname. Though some people might hear Harry.

Asterios is lovely. Use that.

Asterois is much nicer than Ari and he won't get teased for it. Not in primary school anyway.

@BlueChampagne

I would call him Asterios, and see how it goes. You've then still got the option of Ari as a nickname. Though some people might hear Harry.

I agree, its a lovely name. Greek?

I much prefer Ari and would definitely go with that.

Asterios is beautiful. It's also easy for English speakers.
Go with it, and keep Ari as nn if tongues get tied.

Asterios is amazing! You could always use both.

Keep Asterios!! You can always abbreviate it to Ari if you want,’but Asterios is much nicer.

Thanks all, that's useful and most of you seem to prefer Asterios.

However, how is this possible? I mean in the UK all people I know have nicknames.

Nicholas is Nick, Theodore is Theo and Alexandra is Alex, even Charles is Charlie!

So, on this basis, and given that full BC names are rarely used and people tend to shorten them, why do you say to keep Asterios?

I am worried that it may be shortened to something that starts with As (which may be a point of tease at school), or Asterix or Rio/Aster (which both sound very foreign in our home language).

So, why not introducing him straight as Ari, which is a real nickname in our home country, and avoid either teasing or being shortened to something that doesn't feel right to us? In this case no-one would know about Asterios as this would only be at his BC.

Any advice and help on this will help as I have this dilemma the past 8 months and I am about to pop now...

Asterios is amazing! Such a lovely sound.
I don’t ever shorten names unless the person introduces themselves as that name and children are no different.
If I meet a Joshua I’d never presume they want to be called Josh for example.
I don’t think Asterios lends itself to Asterix and all the kids I know (hundreds) haven’t usually heard of the character.
There’s many kids in my school who aren’t British and no one struggles with their names or shortens them so don’t feel you need to nickname it, it’s a fab name.

I think it depends where you live - in some parts of the UK no-one will bat an eyelid and in other parts people may struggle to pronounce it at first and yes children might come up with the ‘ass’ nickname.
I wanted to use the name Astrid and I saw a thread on here where someone said why would you call your child a name beginning with ‘Ass’ when there are so many other names, and that kind of stuck with me and we didn’t use it! On the other hand, some kids will always find something to be mean about, and I personally like the name. I don’t think Ari would be a natural nick name used by his peers though - unless he always introduced himself as Ari and if that was the case, just name him Ari :)

@TabithaHazel Astrid is a lovely name but I see your concern.

I also wanted to name my DD Evelyn until someone here said that she may be called Evil-lyn and than stuck with me...

Same now with my DS, Asterios, someone said about the Ass nickname and the Asterix one and they stuck with me... hence I think that it may be better to introduce him straight as Ari.

I am so puzzled as most people here weirdly seem to prefer Asterios even if Ari is so much easier to say/to write etc.

I really don't think you need to worry about anyone calling him Asterix, I don't think that is something kids are likely to come up with at all. It is probable that people would naturally shorten it to something like Ari, especially if you've always called him that so he introduces himself that way.

I prefer Asterios because I like Greek names, and Ari in my area sounds like Harry because people don't pronounce their H's.

I know loads of names which aren't shortened too!

Both are nice. I think it will likely be shortened because Asterios is a long four-syllable name which is quite long. I don't quite understand why he can't be Asterios shortened to Ari as you say Ari is already a common nn in your home country. Are you saying it's a nn but not for Asterios? I don't know why he can't be both. Isn't that the point of a full name and a nn? Wouldn't that solve the dilemma? What am I missing. Good luck OP.

@Hadtocomment thank you! This helps!

So, the dilemma is whether to never mention the nn "Ari" and always introduce him as Asterios (with a risk to be shortened to something that is not like and we don't like) or to go straight with the nn Ari and not mention the BC name Asterios unless it's needed for bureaucratic reasons.

I don't like when kid has two names and to respond to both, it's like a lack of identity... no?

You can't have a Charlotte and a Lottie for example! It's like two different names hence different personalities.

So, it would either be Asterios at BC and Asterios in everyday life or Asterios at BC and from then on forget this name and introduce him as Ari.

Ari in my mind solves the issue of the Ass nicknames that Asterios may attract... On the other hand, people in Mumsnet seem to prefer Asterios...

To answer your question, Ari is a nn in my home country and could be used as a nn for Asterios with a push.

I would say in the UK at least Ari wouldn't be the obvious nickname for Asterios, so you would have to engineer this yourself, and then people might be a bit confused when his full name doesn't seem to give the natural diminutive of Ari - I would expect Ari's full name to be Aristotle or something where the 'a' and the 'r' are at least next to each other in the spelling of the name.

Also Ari is a cute nickname for a small boy but he may not be so keen on it when he is a teenager, particularly as girls names like Ariana, Arabella etc where they are often nicknamed Ari are quite popular.

Re: the two names issue: I have a long formal name (e.g. Catherine), and a diminutive (e.g. Katie). All through school I used “Catherine” on written work, but I decided I wanted to be known and addressed as “Katie”, which my parents called me, in general speech. It didn’t cause any issues at school and I don’t remember any identity problems. As an adult I love being “Katie” to my friends and family, and having the option to be “Catherine” in a work context. Both names are my name. Most people are fine with using either/or. I think children can be more adaptable than we might expect. (I want to acknowledge that these are both English names, in England, which might have made things easier than in your case though).

Both names sound fab btw, great choices!

Thanks all!

@TabithaHazel We also thought of Aster as a nickname but apparently this is a girls name (most of the times) as it's a flower.

Then, we thought of Rio but this sounds very foreign in our home country.

Then, we thought of Ari...

Because the only two possible others would be either Ass or Asterix...

Very similar to @MoreThanRubies - DD has a given name and a nickname, and only ever uses her nickname. When unfamiliar teachers use her given name (when doing the register for example), she tells them the name she’s known by. I honestly don’t think this is going to be an issue at all OP - give him the name Asterios and introduce him as Ari, and go from there. Schools will record “known as” names alongside given names.

I also think Asterios, were he to use it as a given name, would more like be shortened to “Az” than “Ass”.

@Fivelittlemonkeys

Thanks all!

@TabithaHazel We also thought of Aster as a nickname but apparently this is a girls name (most of the times) as it's a flower.

Then, we thought of Rio but this sounds very foreign in our home country.

Then, we thought of Ari...

Because the only two possible others would be either Ass or Asterix...

Could you use Eri instead of Ari, that would make more sense from the name spelling?

Or even Terry! We have a Cypriot friend who is known as Terry though the “Teri” part of the name is in the middle.

I really like the look of it. I said it in my head as Az-teh-ree-oss. Is that right?

I don't shorten people's names unless they say so, I can't imagine any of my friends or family shortening a name unless told to either and I''m UK.

:)