Would this annoy you or am I being hormonal

[Flopsy145]

DH and I are pretty set on Eddie for our son due this summer. His legal name would be Edward but we love the nn Eddie. Some of the older members of my family have said "oh lovely, I'll call him teddy." My response was "well his name will be Eddie, that's what he'll go by." But they keep referring to him as Teddy 😂 I don't have anything against Teddy, but that's not that name we picked. I'm now wishing I had just said Eddie and not even mentioned him being legally Edward. I don't want him to have multiple names, I'm not afraid to keep saying "it's Eddie," but it's annoying, just call him Eddie 😂

Would you be annoyed or shall I just keep saying "it's Eddie," and not be bothered?

Problem with wanting to call them a nickname is that nicknames are generally chosen or brought into evolution by the people calling the person that name, not by the person themselves.
If you want him to be called Eddie, he has to be Eddie completely (except for birth certificate and passport).
My daughter has a long name and we shortened it to a name that’s a vague nickname of it. She didn’t even know it was her name till she saw it on her passport! On all official forms we filled in the “known as” section with her nickname, so she has that name on all her certificates, school documents, absolutely everything except for her birth certificate and passport. Most people don’t even know her real name.
We do love her real name but loved the shortening more but didn’t want a shortening for an official name.

The "N" pet forms of names - Ned/Edward, Nell/Helen or Eleanor originate from the 16th century or so when family members were referred to as "mine". Mine-Edward morphs into Nedward and then Ned, similar for Nell.

I have a name with multiple common derivatives. I like the original name and 2 out of 3 of the derivatives but don’t like 1 of them… so people have 4 options, I like 3, dislike 1. People often choose to call me the 4th. I correct them and ask them to call me one of the others. It is a pfaff but I guess in the end Eddie will choose and he might end up just being Ed.

You can’t dictate what others will call him.
I call my husband Ed, his parents call him
Edward. Old school
friends call him Eddie and to his uni friends and work friends he’s Ted.
I too have 3 different variations of my name, one I don’t really like but I like the person who calls me it so I don’t really mind.

And be prepared for him to spend his school days telling teachers what his name is as some will use the full version even though it's not on any paperwork.

It certainly is. My grandad was Edward and always got Ted/Teddy.

My DS is Patrick. He has 6 different names. Including the cutesy one I tried to impose on him in babyhood that he kicked back against when he was 3, but which he sometimes lets me use as a special treat. He's still him. It really really doesn't matter. Be thankful your son has people who love him enough to want to give him pet names.

And Teddy is a shortening of both Edward and Edmund. And Theodore.
Personally, I like Ned.

Annoying now but once he’s here I think you will soften to people having their own nn for him. Mine are pre teens now but they love their funny nn given to them by adoring family members. I think as long as it’s not derogatory then try to not let it bother you. You will have nn for him too. I have a Flynn and he goes by Flynnie, Flynnjamin and Flynn Rider 🙄, I also have a Freya, she goes by Frey Frey, Freya Freya chicken slayer (no idea but she loves her auntie for this one) and Freya bentos 😂. I chose these names while carrying them and liked that they couldn’t be altered, I was naive ha! I loved the name Sofia but specifically didn’t name her that as I didn’t want people calling her Soph, turns out nn happen and names get altered throughout life and it’s actually completely out of our control. Your feelings are valid but I would say pick your battles, we can give them a name but realistically it’s theirs at the end of the day.

People are idiots. My MIL often calls my daughter by her middle name for absolutely no reason and it gets on my last nerve

I think that's it, it's something I'm overthinking now but I think once he's here if my nanny on the odd occasion calls him Teddy then I don't know if I'll mind as much. I have a Zara and she gets Zara zoo, zoozaa and zaza so I'm aware he'll probably end up with similar names that just happen when they're here and I do like that in a way because it's personal 😂 I think it was more the "we like the name Eddie" "lovely, I'll call him teddy" that just threw me a bit, because he's not even here so it's not like a personal thing that has just organically originated

So not out Eddie on the birth certificate!

Think of future job applications.

Edward and Eddie as a nickname.

If anyone calls him Teddy and you really oppose it, correct them and say it's Eddie.

Personally, it wouldn't bother me if some family members had their own nickname for my child.

Thank you that's a really helpful insight.. have you ever heard of the phrase "if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all."

Just giving my opinion on a chat forum .. it’s what it’s all about really 😉🤔

You can give your opinion of course, we all do, but it's just unnecessary to call someone, who you don't know, hard work and precious for asking a pretty simple question

My DD has a name that can be shorted to many different nn. We had one shortened version in mind when she was born that we always used which she now uses as her preferred name. You can't stop people using the other variations, and trust me they will no matter how many times you correct them, save your breathe it's not worth it. As my DD has gotten older she simply ignores anyone that doesn't refer to her by her chosen version, after all they aren't talking to her 😂.

You should get your little boy this book and take it round to your in-laws. It's a funny book about a boy called Eddy who takes his Teddy into the woods and meets a bear. The boy is scared of the bear and the bear is scared of the boy and they both need their Teddies to help them get over their fears.

Archie is a name in its own right nowadays though, like Harry and Charlie.

Just "rename" any people who do this.

"You know, I prefer "Betsy" to "Lizzie", so that's what I'm going to call you from now on".

I get being annoyed and correcting them when they say Teddie, but you're putting quite a lot of energy and effort into this and I don't think it's worth it. Particularly when you're not even calling him by his real name either. If you don't want him to go by multiple names then don't give him multiple names. You have no intention on using his real name any more than them so this battle doesn't seem worth the fight.

Also, he'll chose what he wants to be called when he's older regardless of what anyone calls him now so maybe consider how you'll feel then if he chooses not to go by Eddie.

I'm with you on that!

both my DC have long names on bc, but are day to day short names, as people say, how will they know if they are in trouble if you cannot call EDWARD JAMES SMITH!!!

I think you are overthinking it, it's not something you can control, especially in the long term, both my teenage children have shortened their names, and friends use nickname etc.

Call him Eddie, and perhaps try correcting others, but I personally wouldn't worry lose any sleep over it.

Like you I prefer full names on BCs with the options for multiple nicknames for different life stages. My daughter is Catherine-Beryl, but we had a very cutesy nickname picked out before birth, Kitty-Belle, it does get used especially by some family we don’t see often, but on a daily basis it’s shortened to Kitty/KitKat.

You might be set on one nickname now but in day to day living, and as their personality develops you may find Eddie becomes Ed, or some other random word. The same way my Elijah/Eli became Piggles 🤦🏽‍♀️

Completely irrelevant, but my lovely dad (born 1929) was Ted or Teddy, short for Edward and my BiL is Eddie, short for Edward. I love all the names but I have a soft spot for Teddy.

I agree generally with using the full name on the birth certificate, but I have a DS called Charlie who is that on the BC, because I don't like the name Charles.

If it’s just two members of your family, I wouldn’t worry about it too much - yes it’s slightly annoying but ultimately he won’t be confused by it and it will probably fizzle out once he’s here. It may even develop into a special term
of endearment that only your grandmother uses “teddy-Eddie” or “teddy-Edward” for example. My son’s middle name is Edward as all males in our family are called Edward / Ted / Teddy etc and he is very occasionally referred to by my father as “Little Ted”, it’s just funny and no-one minds. My youngest son has a nickname that has nothing to do with his actual name (think Kit, but he isn’t Christopher, he’s Rupert for example), unfortunately I started that one, and he goes by it about 50% of the time, even at school which was never the intention. He uses a diminutive version of his real name the other 50% of the time!

I completely understand why you want your son registered and / or baptised as the full name - I use diminutives with all of my children but their names are the full correct versions as I also like to use those at times, and want them to have the option for work or whatever in the future to use the proper names. My boys are friends with two Eddies, and both are Edward officially, it’s a very nice name :-)