Using first letter as nickname

[rysrys]

My DD has a name starting with M. It's long and difficult to pronounce for non-hindu speakers, so my OH and I have been calling her M.

I tend to write it as 'Em' as I think it's more nickname-ish when it's more than just one letter, but my OH doesn't really like that.

Would do you think - M or Em?

What’s the second letter? Could you go with Mo or Mimi or something?

If it starts with M and not Em then I'd just use M. Plus, the single letter sounds more exclusive, a bit like Q from James Bond.

But... "long and difficult to pronounce for non-hindu speakers" If that's the sole reason for giving her a one-letter nickname now then I'd say just use her full name (until perhaps a nickname naturally occurs). It must be beautiful, you must love it, to have named your daughter with it? Teach her to be proud of her name, teach her to own it, teach her to teach others how to pronounce it properly.

Second letter is R so no good for a nickname.

We considering Mimi but it doesn't really suit her.

I’d probably stick with M, at least for now. As it’s a nickname, if she want to spell it differently in the future she can.

We obviously love her name, but we don't want her to always have to teach non-hindi speakers her name. It's too much of a headache to have to repeat the same thing over and over again.

We were living in India when we had her. Had we lived here at the time, we probably would have named her something more international to avoid this type of situation.

I like M x

I agree with you, Em is more nicknamey than just a letter while still sounding the same. As you mention writing it, I think it would be odd to just write 'M' on something

My daughter's name starts with B and we call her B for similar reasons to you. I can see why you use the phonetic but also like what a PP has said about Bond-like exclusivity of just 'M' 😁

My son is a Joshua
He is josh to his mates and I call him j
It's never been a problem-as long as the child doesn't want to be known as their full name and is happy with their nickname
If ds asked me to call him josh/joshua-and to stop calling him j,I would

M is a lot better than Em if the name starts with M.

I like Em and I don't think it matters that it doesn't begin with M.

@rysrys I feel you! We gave our LO a very traditional non western name. It's actually super easy to pronounce for English speakers as it's literally pronounced as it's written and yet people STILL get it wrong all the time! We also use a single letter nickname but I am trying to get out of that habit!

Does her actual name start with M or E? Or neither?

M.

My son has a common name starting with M and I've always called him M!

Friend whose name starts with M, is always known as Em.

Our Julia is often J

Then I'd use M.

It's pretty a pretty cool nn imo - gives off Bond vibes 😄

Our daughter is T :) Some people hear / assume Tia but 99% of the time it works

It's quite cute, one of my friends is known only by their initial and no one bats an eyelid.

M might get the odd Bond reference though.

I think it is fine to use Em, not all nicknames are shortened by removing the last part of the name, like Tori for Victoria instead of Vicky or even Betty for Elizabeth where a complete name change comes in. I love Em.

My family used to do this. Bee, 'Ess, Dee
some letters do sound more like names than other letters but we had one in our family that didn't lend itself to this patter but we still used it!