Problem with name shortenings

[Namingbabygirl2]

I am due in a few months with baby number 2 , and it's a girl! Will be a little sister to Lucy.

I have a few contenders but I despair settling on one as I don't like their shortenings. Before you think what a grinch, I am French and I believe this is very much a UK/France cultural difference.
In France, we do not typically shorten names, so I dislike name shortenings in general - that's why I picked Lucy as a name for my first daughter (even if to my horror MIL and FIL started calling her Luce!):

• Francesca: LOVE LOVE this name but I really dislike the shortenings - Fran, Franny, Frankie, Cesca, I like none of them. Is it madness to pick this name and ask family not to shorten it? Is every Francesca known as a shortened version?
• Juliet: same hiccup here, love the name but dislike Jules
• Isabella: Does this name get shortened? If so, what is the usual shortening?
• Alexandra: ...same, don't like Alex much.
• Elsa: would people wonder if I am a fan of Frozen (and the answer is yes after watching it 100 times with my daughter, but I just really like the name and it was suggested out of the blue by DH).
• Anna: no shortening (yay!) but a bit...common? We have a common last name

It is a minefield! And I feel like my dislike of shortenings is eliminating so many lovely names.

Please help me find a name I like the shortening of, or that doesn't get shortened ever? What's your favourite from the list?

PS: When speaking of shortenings, I mean a name that is routinely known as its shortening - e.g Matt for Matthew or Alex for Alexandra. Massive cultural difference and really difficult to navigate when trying to find a name.

Thanks!

My name has 2 letters,you definitely cannot shorten it! My cousin Isobella has always been called that. In the 50s (when I was born) you had Derek who became Del, Robert,Bob,Alfred,Alf, and so on, but then it stopped,and people started naming their babies Else, Alfie, already shortlisted, and to my ears, awful, old peoples names for little babies. You cannot shorten my DKs names.

Whereas in the real world, I don't particularly wish for anyone who knows my name to be able to find out my DoB, and all sorts of other information about me.
There's a happy balance between very unusual and very common.
Anna May Jones is too ordinary, Anna Francesca Jones less so.

I'd think of using a family surname as a middle name
e.g. Anna Spencer Jones or Anna Jane Spencer Jones

Anna will become Anna Banana!
Francesca isn't inevitably shortened - I'm currently in SE England where it isn't universal. In the English Midlands it's standard, even in formal work situations, whereas in Scotland and Northern Ireland it is really unusual outside of close friends, and even then seems quite precise.
I imagine other people will have different experience though.

You can't police what other people do. Choose a name you really like and use that. It's up to her/other people what shortenings get used.

Elsa can become El or Els, especially if the Elsa is trying tor distance herself from Frozen.
Anne can become Ann, Annie, Nan.
From names suggested by others, I know a Laura who goes by Laur, Eva becomes Eve, Amelia becomes Amy or Ames.
Your daughter will decide what variation of her name she prefers and can direct people to call her that. I worked somewhere where there was someone who came across as really stuck up by refusing to use a shortened version of her name. There were two women with the same name, let's call them Francesca, one adamantly/kind of rudely corrected anyone who shortened her name at all and the other said "oh I'm not precious about my name, call me whatever". They quickly became Franny and Stuck Up Francesca (and I'm not saying I agree with it - but that was the concensus, although a lot of it was probably the way she delivered it).

It’s news to me that academics, doctors and lawyers don’t exist in the ‘real world’

The thing is, you really can't control which nicknames might develop. I have a name that can't be shortened yet I've still had a variety of nicknames over the year, ones which my parents could never have predicted.

@ZoyaTheDestroyer , I'm sure they do, but there's a difference between publishing an academic paper and being Anna from No 12/the PTAa dating site.

It's cultural, as you say, so pick the name you like best because you can't completely stop it and also can't fully predict what the shortened version will be.

When she's younger you can just always use the full name and correct anyone who doesn't, but as she grows up it'll be her choice.

(Also, UK "shortened" versions can be illogical so a 1 syllable name doesn't mean it won't be changed - cf Jamie, Jackie, Annie)

You do need to remember that if the child grows up in the UK she is going to find it normal to use diminutive forms of names. Posters on these threads often forget that babies grow up into people who form their own opinions of how they want to be addressed. Don’t use a name if you can’t bear the diminutive.

I'm an Alexandra who goes by Alexandra. It doesn't have to be shortened.

Isabella is usually shortened to Izzy or Bella. I know an Isabella that goes by Isa.

Alexandra could be shortened Lexi.

Great name choices!

Anna is your safest bet and it’s a lovey classic name like Lucy. My sister is Anna and has never been Ann or Annie. Nor Anna Banana - it just doesn’t rhyme if you’re not American surely?

other possible non shortening names:
Kate
Claire
Sadie
Nia
Leah
Erin
Mia
Clara
Seren
Amber

All three of them are shortened especially Laura everyone I know and I know several are Lau or Lo.
Zara is Zar
Laura is Lar

I know 2 Anna’s and neither has ever been called Anna Banana - it’s a lovely name. I’m a Lucy - I don’t mind Luce and whoever thinks this equates to Loose has obviously got the sense of humour as a young teenage boy

Are you living in the UK? Even if you tell family not to use nicknames, they’ll probably get called something other than their full name at school.

Nicknames are just a bit of a cultural norm here I think. Even short names aren’t immune. Longer versions, surnames, or even something unrelated to their name at all may be used (I know a George almost exclusively called Porgey and went to school with a Budgey whose real name was something completely normal 🤷‍♀️).

@Allthingsdecember yes hqve been living in the UK for years. Love nicknames and no problem for those. It's the routinely shortened names I have an issue with (eg a Jessica who all her life will be using Jess as a name instead of her real name)

Yes but @Snoopystick you don't introduce yourself to people as Luce, do you? So it's a nickname, used by people you know well as an endearing term.

I think people will follow your lead as far as nicknames are concerned, on the whole. You don't need to correct them, just keep calling the child by it's full name. I know 2 Francescas, who are both called Francesca in full, at school and home. It doesn't matter if Granny has a pet name, it's the name you use that most people will copy.
Although be prepared for the child to use a different version once they get to be a teenager.

Kay
Kim
You need a one syllable name to avoid it being shortened

Thanks @DelphiniumBlue as it's really the only thing preventing me to use Francesca

Elsa, Anna or Isabella. (Isabella is really popular though so I'd probably go Elsa or Anna - they're good names.)

Fleur
Rose
Anna
Joy
Stella
Cara
Ella
Miranda

I think Juliet is your best bet - Jules is likely to be an occasional rather than constant nn.

Elsa is next you can’t guarantee she won’t get Ellie or Elsie, but you have a fighting chance.

Anna is slightly more likely to end up Annie I’d say. less common than Elsa/Elsie/Elizabeth or Isabella. Hannah night be less likely to be shortened.

Francesca, Isabella and Alexandra - you are doomed. Although if you like Franca or Sasha you could impose those?

Names that don’t get shortened (much)

Chloe
Zoe
Sarah
Stella
Lara
Emma
Esther
Clara
Rachel
Sophie
Georgia
May
Jane
Clare
Ida
Ada
Helen
Freya
Laura