To tell nursery to call daughter by nickname

[Halo777]

Wondering people thoughts on this.
My daughter is called Harriet and since birth the whole family including me and my husband have called her Hattie (she is 14 months old now).

I wanted to call her Hattie on birth certificate but my husband wanted her to have a ‘proper name’ so we agree for Harriet on birth certificate and we call her Hattie.

She is starting nursery next month and I don’t know whether to tell her nursery to call her by her nickname Hattie or to call her Harriet.

As of course she will need to know her full name too.
I do love both names so I don’t mind which she goes by when she is old enough to choose.

I love the name Harriet and love shortening it to Hattie 🥰

No advice as I dont know, surely you can just send her in with Hattie name labels and make a big deal of calling her Hattie at pick up and drop off? xx

Personally if it was me, and the name she goes by day to day is Hattie, then I'd stick with it for nursery.

I would imagine it would be less disruptive for your daughter if she is called the same name at home and at nursery. She is so young, she does not need to be called by her full name yet.

Our nursery had a 'preferred name' box when signing the paperwork so I just included DSs nickname there. Or I write 'Frederick (Rick) Jones' to indicate his nickname. I do with my own name too as I also use a specific shortening of my name.

This! Nursery will have problems with her not responding to her name if it is something she has never been known as.

If Hattie is what she is known as then definately get nursery to call her that it will make her more comfortable there otherwise she will be confused. Unless you want to start calling her Harriet now

My daughter has been known by her nickname since birth (was always the plan but wanted her to have a proper name too!) She was known by the nickname at pre school and now at school and it's never been an issue, she's 10 now, she knows what her proper name is but she's very rarely called by that name

Have you had the starting paperwork for nursery yet? Ours had a box for full name and then a box that said "is your child known by any preferred / nicknames?" It will be a complete non issue for nursery to call her Hattie (great name btw, as is Harriet), so if she is Hattie at home, then id just stick with that.

There is usually a known by section on admission forms.

On the forms it should ask preferred names. My daughter has only ever been known by the shortened version of her name unless at doctors/dentist etc

You are overthinking. Just ask them to use Hattie day to day. You can decide when she goes to school if she's going by Harriet or Hattie. My friend changed her son's name from a diminutive to the full name at school age. Pretty name btw.

My DD goes by her nickname too - I told nursery to call her that and they did, they had no problems with it

I have a Harriet. She's pretty much Hattie at home but she's Harriet at the childminders and it hasn't been a problem (she's not confused and responds to both).

I have a Harriet! She was Harriet all through nursery & up till around year 2 then it changed to Hattie. Now she's at 6th form she's a Harriet to the teachers (her choice) but probably still Hattie to her friends, and us until she tells us different 🤣

My DD was the same and all the paperwork (school and nursery) had a "name" and a "known as" so they called her by her "known as" name from day 1. It's not unusual.

Just tell them, they’ll be happy to, it saves confusing her

I expect nursery will ask for given name and any nickname.

I would ask for Harriet on all names labels, so she learns to recognise it and understand that is her full name (and eventually learns to spell it at school). I'd ask them to call her Hattie day to day though, as this is what she is use to and responds to.

Nursery/school will be well use to dealing with such requests and won't bat an eyelid:

"He's Thomas but we tend to just call him Tom."
"She's Edith but prefers to be called Edie."
"He is Finley but you can call him Finn if you want too, he will respond to both."

Etc etc

Yeah they will be fine. DS has a proper name but we use his nick name and nursery did as well. After getting to know him various key workers had their own cute nick names for him, which was nice.

My son goes by a nickname 100% of the time and when he first started school, I just let them know. They may have even asked because it's a popular nickname for his name.

They did have all of his name labels, name peg etc at school with say ''Alexander'' instead of ''Alex''. He was taught how to write Alex first and then Alexander.

i also have a Harriet, who goes by Hattie, when she started nursery we just told them that everyone called her Hattie, then the same when she started school

This year they had a new teacher start at the school (small village school so all the teachers know all the kids from young) who started calling her Harriet, it lasted 2 weeks before she asked me what she should do and I say just tell your teacher you like to be called Hattie

some of my work colleagues actually only recently found out that Harriet was her real name as although I have worked with them since she was born they just assumed she was Hattie

Whatever you want her to be called in life, tell nursery to use that. If it’s Hattie, tell them to use Hattie. My DD has a nickname which we all call her at home, but when she went to nursery they called her by her “given” name. That continued at school and now age nearly 7 she says it’s “embarrassing” if we use her nickname in front of her friends (the nickname is also a proper name, not a diminutive)

My DD regularly tells me her name is not her full name, it's her nickname. She was called it all through nursery, and now in school too. I think it's just easier to go with what they are comfortable being called.

Although I don't call her either of her names (unless she's in trouble). To me she is Chicky, Angel, Cherub, etc. Kids are surprisingly good at responding to a number of names really.😁

I'm sure nurseries usually ask if there is a preferred name/diminutive. My youngest's definitely did and we put down the nickname she'd had from a few days old, imagine something like Bunny. I know it sounds silly but we literally never called her by her actual name.

We assumed she knew what it was but after her first day at school she came home cross having realised that her actual name was the "real" one.

We did this, and put his name as his “known as” name, and on his things; and we solely refer to him as his dhorter name… and nursery call him his long name. He doesn’t listen to anyone else when they say it but he’s used to his nursery teachers and friends calling him it!

I’ve given up on them listening to us. He’s happy and I’m sure he’ll correct then if that changes!