Longer birth certificate name...?

[Dreamingof3]

My general opinion has ways been to just call the baby the name you're going to use. Eg. His name is Thomas but we'll be calling him Tommy...well then give him the name Tommy.

However...due baby number 3 and I absolutely love Cece but feel it isn't a strong enough stand alone name to grow up with. So I'm thinking Cecelia. Which I absolutely love too. But I'm now arguing with myself about whether it's silly to put one name on the b/c and then insist on using a shortened form

....hormones making me mad, quite possibly 🤣

Does anyone get where I'm coming from though?

If you go for the long version spell it Cecilia. Otherwise everyone is going to misspell her name and that'll be something else she has to explain!

Don't make an adult use CeCe. Give her Cecilia then she can choose what to use when older.

Definitely give her a long version of her name on BC. My name is Victoria and as a child/young adult I was always Vic/Vix but now I work quite a serious job (death/funeral industry) and I go by Victoria because it sounds more professional.

@tickticksnooze , Nigel and Ethel are names not some abbreviation that people are unfamiliar with as a name. How should one say Cece. is it CeeCee, Cessy, CehCeh, ChehCheh, Ceece?

I think with your names it makes sense.
Normally I hate the whole 'give them a proper long name on the bc so they have options' thing because I have always been called a diminutive and my long name has only caused confusion, mistakes and irritation because it could very easily be my whole name.
But Cece seems fine- I think you would expect a Cece to have a "proper" name so it wouldn't be confusing and it is a logical diminutive. Cecelia is generally shortened.

The only time it is likely to trip her up is that official names go on forms and registers and records. Teachers may call her Cecelia, exam and competition certificates etc will say Cecelia. When school teaches her to write her name- sometimes they will teach her Cecelia.
It will be fine as long as she knows they are both her name and can ask people to call her Cece if that is what she wants.
If you don't like the name Cecelia- don't do it- the name will follow her even if she does only ever want to be called Cece.

My advice is to pick a name that you can imagine being used professionally - eg a solicitor, dr, business person. I've worked in her and the manager used to initially sort the cvs very callously, if someone had an unsuitable name they never made it to the manager hiring that post

I put the long name on the BC.
Up until he left primary, he was known as nickname.
He is currently in secondary and likes teachers calling him long name and friends calling him nickname. He likes both but some of his primary school friends went to his secondary which probably made it impossible to reinvent himself as long name.

I have two opinions on this. I deed polled my “Elizabeth” as an adult as I was sick of everyone calling me “Lizzie” at work etc when I had answered only to Beth ever since I was a child, I was actually bullied over this at one job because a nasty cow refused to call me Beth and had been told a billion times. And yet I called my DC Elizabeth and it’s their choice later if they want to be Elizabeth, Eliza, Lizzie, Liz, Beth, Bess, or something else. (Neither of us are called Elizabeth).

I’m all for a shortened name as full name if it’s not too nicknamey- eg, Alfie, Archie etc which I’d say are stand alone name’s now

I love CeCe but I’d say it doesn’t fall into that category and needs a longer name. Cecelia is stunning, as is Cecily.

for another option we call our daughter Sisi (pronounced the same) and she’s an Iris! I also know a Sienna who uses Sisi

I get it. My favourite girls name is Annie, but I feel like I can't use it for various reasons. I'm tempted to put Annabel on her birth certificate and just use Annie anyway but I don't know if that's ridiculous. I realise I haven't helped you at all here sorry 🤣

Cece is a sweet nickname, but it’s quite nursery. Just call her Cecilia so she can decide later.

@alotoftutus

Why would it be ridiculous? Annie is a pet name for Anne / Anna / Annabel etc.

@Luredbyapomegranate only ridiculous because of the reason that I can't use Annie as a stand alone name. (A friend has one and our eldest daughters have the same name too). I don't see said friend anymore she moved away but we still have mutuals and it feels strange. If I plan to call her Annie on a day to day basis anyway then it seems silly to put the longer version on the birth certificate just so officially I haven't copied "her" name.

Both my children have BC names they have never used, but the longer versions have more options.

They have both gone through school using only their family name but Elizabeth (not real name), 20, has recently asked friends to start calling her Beth, rather than Lizzie as she’s always been known, as she feels it’s more ‘her’.

It’s nice to let them own their name.

That said, I can’t think of multiple nicknames for Cecilia - but I do love the name.

I have a Cecilia (not Cecelia!!) who I nickname CeCe. I do sometimes get the ick with CeCe as a nn because its so cutesy so I'll use her full name until the ick is gone again.

I think parents get too set on nick names. Other than when they’re a baby, you have little choice over what they become known as or their preferred name. Personally, I would choose the long name first, and it’s a bonus if there is a cute nick name that derives from it.

Cece is definitely a cute nick name but I wouldn’t pick it as her formal forever name. I don’t love Cecilia either, if I’m honest. I love Cecile or Cecily but that’s just my opinion.

I’d just like to add my experience. My mother gave me the full length name just so she could call me by the diminutive. Think along the lines of Penelope, and she would call me Penny. But I HATE the diminutive and rejected it. She would say “I named you Penelope so I could call you Penny” and I would always respond “if you wanted to call me Penny, you should have named me Penny. My name is Penelope!”

And I have given my DS a long name. That long name does have a diminutive, but it’s not the reason why I chose the name. We do sometimes use the diminutive just because it’s easier to shorten it to, but DS doesn’t actually like it and asks to be called his full name or by a different diminutive of long name.

So just be aware that if you give her the full name she might not want it shortened to CeCe. For example she might want to be called Celia or Lia instead.

I do find this idea intriguing, that you have one name, pronounced one way. Everyone in my family has multiple names and multiple forms, and many are known by their second name or a random different name. We call each other differently depending on the situation, or personal choice. One uncle often uses the Spanish nickname - think Paco for Francis.
At school I was the shy child who didn't have a nickname, and I remember sitting in a corner listening to other kids coming in and greeting each other by nicknames and wishing I had friends who would call my a nickname. It seems affectionate and fun.

So if you were in A&E requiring treatment and the dr said 'hi I'm Tommy' you'd ask to see someone else? Of course you wouldn't.

Thanks for all the opinions! Good to hear different sides with peoples names too.

Just to clarify though, we didn't come up with Cecilia because it can be shortened to Cece, we love the name itself and just thought we'd most likely shorten it (at least whilst she's very little). I then started worrying if it was silly to put the longer name on the birth certificate if that's not what we were going to use day to day anyway.

I think I'm still sold on the name...but who knows 🤣 I changed my mind last minute with my last child so may do the same again

Cecily?

I put longer name on my dd birthday certificate and actually got this changed when she was 4 months old. It is a pain as someone as metioned and isn’t as easy as what people say just give them options. The name we intended her to be called she was called since the moment she was born and we knew we would never use the longer version. The shortening isn’t a obvious one tho from the longer name. I’m so glad I did this just a shame I hate that amendment on the birth certicate

I'd put the longer name on the birth certificate. To be honest, I think the current trend of using diminutives as full names is going to sound rather dated and naff in the future.

I have always been called the shortened version of the longer name on my birth certificate, I've always known what my "real" name is and it never confused me as a young child. Like others have said I feel a bit more formal and proper using my full first name on job applications, mortgage applications etc. But no one I know in real life actually uses it. It's nice to have the option of being more formal or informal as I choose

Put the longer name on the bc, it’s nice to have options when you older. It’s also very useful when trying to get their attention/telling them off. They always respond when “full named”!