Shortened names. How do you get on with them?

[Eleta]

There are some names that have obvious short forms, Samuel-Sam, Thomas-Tom etc where I'm sure at school your child on paper would be known by full name but be called by short form. But how about names that have more than one short form? And if you choose the less obvious one? Eg: Robert-Bob, William-Billy etc.

I love Ted/Teddy and so am thinking of calling dc3 Edward. I like the name Edward, just not for a small child but I am concerned that he woud go to school and be called Ed/Eddy which I hate. Can you ask schools to call your child Ted or would they use Edward?

Would I be making life harder for him? Would he be forever saying "My names Edward, but I'm called Ted"

My name is Jacqueline but I have never been called that, except on official documentation. I am always known as Jacqui (changed the spelling from Jacky/Jackie when I started high school as I wanted to be a bit different). Now work with 2 Jacqui's (and one Jacquie!). Must be an age thing.

My eldest daughter hates her name (Ashly) - spelt 'short' because our surname is so long and it is never shortened.

My son is Daniel but to me he is always Dan (Dan, the stunt man - from when he was younger and had no fear) or Daniel. He is not a Danny and never will be. In his class he has another Daniel (only ever known as Daniel) and a Danny so my son is normally called Dan to differentiate between the three of them. It is fun when they come round to play but my son always answers to Dan and Danny always answers to Danny.

My youngest is Sasha. I know, I know - I have three children - Ashly, Daniel, Sasha (all sound okay together - all names double syllabled) but when I call the girls (Ashly, Sasha) it sounds too much alike but I never thought of that when I had my youngest. It was the only name that me and my husband could agree on but she is normally shortened to Sash.

As other people have mentioned on other threads about choosing names that go together, I don't believe that my two girls' names do go together but it is only when they are in my care that it is an issue. When they grow up, move out, live independently, etc. it will not be such an issue.

I seem to have gone off the subject.

We have a 5 month-old Teddy whose full name is Theodore. To be honest, we have been finding it pretty difficult to 'impose' Teddy as his name. People on both sides of the family call him Theo, despite being told repeatedly that we prefer Ted, Teddy or Theodore. The doctor and HV often shorten his name to Theo without asking as well. It drives me a bit crazy and yet it feels very po-faced, verging on impolite, to constantly intone 'Actually, we call him Teddy' again and again. So half the time I let it slide and just grumble inwardly. Pah.

I think you have to accept it, Albertine. I call my DS1 by his full name, nearly everyone else shortens it 2 different ways.

My dh's grandmother was Rachel Robina, known as Ruby.

When she went into hospital she let them call her Rachel, just to ring the changes and she thought it was more sophisticated!!!

Our 3 kids (youngest is rachel, after d-g-i-l, sadly died 2 weeks before she was born) all have shortenable names and are all known by the long version, though Katherine is known as kathie by her friends now.

I think as long as kids have a name they can use 'professionally' then I dont mind what they are known as children. But I once taught a boy whose given name was Rikki. Can't see where he would ever get any solemnity if he needed it!

As a teacher, whenever I have new classes, I always state before I take the register that students should tell me what they like to be called when I take that first register. I then make a note by their name and just call them that from then on in. I think that is standard practice in most places. In all other situations, he will be known by whatever he is introduced as.

Ok so, i gave my baby his name. who is 2 next month, and every one, well my sis his aunty, calls him by a nick name which i hate!!!! My son is called Oscar, and sis calls him Ozzy!!!! So chvvy i hate it! So i dont think you need to worry about what you want to call him, its other people, give them names. Like me im cheryl, but everyone calls me Chezza, sounds whore-ish i know, but i think people will always shorten names, or call you by your second name, as in a efectionate way, theres nothing you can do about it. Like so and so Bond will turn into Bondy, its just what will happen. Friends will always do that.

Think, im bit drunk guys, but.... if you want your child to be known by a certain name..... why just not name him that name? My friend named her baby ben, just ben, no benjemen, just ben, cos thats what she wanted to call him. so just call your child what you want surely? Im missin the piont sorry girls, going to bed..... night night. x

We have this going on a bit, DS (3) is called Alexander James but we were adamant that we didn't like Alex as a short so he has a far less common short version.

I simply introduce him with the short version and then if its somewhere like nursery or GP I explain that his full name is Alexander but we prefer X as an 'everyday' name.

However if DS decides that he'd prefer to be known as Alex, or Lex or Jimmy, or any other short/long version of ANY of his names thats fine by me! One reason for giving him the full versions was so he could choose his own nicknames as he grew up.

tbh on any given day he will be referred to by us as X, sunny jim, littli, sunshine, tigger, bouncyboy, sweetheartm'darlin, lambpie, smasher, smallfry, Mr S....... its a wonder he knows what his name is!

I am wondering about when he starts school, we're moving and although round here his short name is at least recognised and known (large city with multi ethnic groups) we're moving to a small village. I dont' want to confuse him but wonder if he'll get teased/looked down on for having an unusual name.

I live in the Czech Republic, where name shortening is a matter of social convention as much as (if not more than...) individual preference.

Rule 1 - all babies and children (up to a certain age) must be called by their diminutive names. If you tell the doctor your baby's name is Alexandra, the reply is always 'Ah, Sasha/Sashenka'. If you tell people you call her Alexandra you'll get a what-sort-of-cold-mother-are-you look. (I do like Sasha, btw - it just doesn't feel like her name).

Rule 2 - with adults, you only use their diminutive forms if you're a relation or (close) friend. Diminutive forms are never used for public figures/in the papers.

(A while ago this was also the case with visiting public figures from abroad - whatever they themselves preferred to be known as, in the Czech papers they were Anthony Blair, William Clinton and - wait for this - Jeremy Ashdown.)

I have a shortened version of a name- my parents didn't like the longer, traditional version. I've spent my entire life explaining that no, my name is not longerversion, as it is always assumed that it is (never met anyone else with short version as the name on the birth certificate). I often come over as a right stroppy cow when I say, no it's not...

For those reasons, we've given DS the long version of a name we liked. He can chose when older exactly what he wants, although I've come to like the longer version better now, and it really suits him! We've also given him 2 middle names which we are happy for him to use either of is he prefers when he's older.

My sister is Katherine but has been called Katy by everyone since she was a baby. No one ever uses Katherine, I don't think. In fact, it's really weird to think that's her name! There was a minor wobble when she started secondary school and teachers called her Katherine, or Kathy but she set them straight.
I think if you want to call him Ted (which I love!) then you should name him Edward but just use Ted. If he's always introduced as that people will get used to it. And if you use it from an early age it's unlikely that he'll be called Ed/Eddy - it's like my sister being called Kathy, she just said that wasn't her name. But you will have to accept the possibility that he might be called Ed...or any other weird nickname that people might come up with,.

i have a similar problem - i wanted to call my son 'jimmy', and to have that on the birth certificate. just 'jimmy' and then his surname. it's what the men on my dad's side of the family have been called for 3 or 4 generations back.

but DP wanted to give the boy several long pretentious names such as 'vincent isiah'.

eventually we compromised - on his birth certificate is 'jeremiah james', but we call him 'jimmy'. except DP doesn't - he calls him jeremiah.

the short form of jeremiah is jerry, but i don't like that, so am heading it off at the pass by calling him 'jimmy'. then when he wants more gravitas he can switch to jeremiah if he wants.

i do wonder if we are storing him up all kinds of identity crises.

but then, my name is anne-marie and everyone always complained that that was too long, so now everyone calls me by my initials, AMP. and my identity is still intact.

so maybe it's ok. who knows?

my daughters name is kevina. Myself and alot of friends call her beans. She will prob hate this nickname but i hope her name doesnt get shortened because i'd hate for people to call her kev lol.

Ted's a great name - although I'm biased as it is also my DH's name. For him, it's short for Edmund rather than Edward though.

He chose Ted as he was at school/college with several other Ed's (which is what his family called him when he was little) and decided he wanted to be Ted - and it does suit him really well. However some of his family still call him Ed.

When we got married, his father (who I've probably only met 3 times in the 15+ years we have been together) asked me where Eddie was - and I said I didn't know who he was, thinking he was somebody from his side of the family. Wasn't until later that it clicked that the strange look I got from him was probably because he was referring to his son - the man that I had married a few hours earlier and therefore really should have known!

For what it's worth, he rarely has any problems using Ted - no more so than I do using an abbreviation of my name - if anything he has more problems with his full name as people are not as familiar with it and are expecting it to be Edward...

Halia i also have an Alexander James [smilie] and thought i'd probably shorten it to Xander but it never caught on , so of course we all call him Alex, apart from my dad who calls him Ally

I think it's wrong to call someone by an abbreviation that they don't use themselves and aren't happy with. ...... It just seems so rude to decide that you don't agree with what someone wants to call themselves (or what their parents want). There are similarities with the way some people react to a woman who doesn't change her name when she gets married - they use "Mrs Thing" anyway.

I completly agree with this, it seems the height of ill manners to call someone (who is nto a VERY close friend) by a name that isn't their's especially if they tell you they don't like it.

I got very annoyed with some friends of ours who insisted on calling DS Alex, now I accept people using his full name of Alexander, - we like the name we just feel its a bit too long for every day. I'm also fine with AJ (his uncle calls him this) and Jamie (middle name is James). But I REALLY don't like Alex and we made that very clear but they insisted on using it anyway. In the end I had ot point out it was confusing poor DS no end as far as he is concerned, Alex is a boy at his nursery and he kept turning round to see if he was visiting.

Even if you get cross there is not much you can do about it! We called our DS3 a name that can't be shortened, so all his friends call him by his surname! He likes it! You can't win!

If you really like Teddy but not sure about Edward how about Theodore- Teddy is a shortened version of that.

I love Ted, but he might always change his mind.

I call my DS JAke, and that is what his name is on his birth cert, not Jacob (allthhough i actually like that better! i was in such a state when he was born P had to do the registering with me next to him in a cloud state, going it ends in F! F! his middle name is Josef, after my grandad who was hungarian)

I like Ted too think it is great

we have 2 sons with long manes that we don'y shorten.
I know by the time they go to the pub together they will be known by the shortened versions but it isnt what Dh and I intend to call them.

It annoys me when people shorten them having just asked me what their names are

I have a two year old Theodore, called Teddy or Ted, and it has never been an issue. We always introduce him as Teddy and that's the name he's known by, apart from by my mother, who insists on trying to call him "theo", but since she's the only one who does so, it's never really stuck. Am conscious that he may want to be called by something else when older, but its his choice then

I use to baby sit for a little boy named Christopher. Everyone knew him as Christopher and it was never shortened. One afternoon when he was about 10 he was outside playing and one of his friends called him Chris, He replied "my name is Christopher not Chris". I think shortening names and what the children call themselves depends on the individual. My daughters are Isabel and Madison, I like Izzi and Madi. Isabel is 3 and sometimes I call her Izzi, she sometimes replies "I'm Isabel". I chose these names as when Isabel is 18 I cant see her introducing herself as Isabel but as Izzi. I thought is was a nice way of giving my children a small choice and the start of a path in which they could make a decission for themselves.

I think that children decide it for themselves. My DS had a friend always known as Jamie,it was his parent's choice. When he got to about 8 yrs he announced he was James and he was from then on.I call my DS1 by his very long name, I would shorten it if he asked me to but he hasn't.You may find that your DC has different ideas, if I was Theodore or Edward there is no way I would allow myself to be called Ted or Teddy as soon as I was old enough to make my opinion known!!