which is best... Kate or katie?? or something else!!

[chummum]

Really struggling here!!

Katie for a little girl, Kate for an adult. Register the baby as Katherine so she has a proper, formal name should she ever need/choose to use it, then call her Katie day to day and she can tweak it to Kate or even Katherine when she's older.

(I was a Katie, once upon a time. Nice name!)

If we put Katherine on birth certificate would she have to be called that at school?

Nope - I was called Katie even though my real name isn't Katie or Katherine or Kate! Ds has friends who are known by nicknames rather than by their formal Christian names at school, no problem with teachers or registers or anything.

What edam said.

Agree, Katie for a little girl, Kate for an adult.
It won't be any problem at school as when you register her, they will ask what she is known as.

I have always loved Kat for an adult shortening of Katherine. But agree that Katie for a little girl is adorable.

If you really, really must - use 'y' spelling 'Katy' . Give the poor mite a chance to not be a girly frilly girl.

Katherine is much better

Katherine.

Katie for a little girl.

Kate or Katherine for an adult.

Sorted!

Kate - great name

Oi, kif, I was NOT a girly frilly girl. I'll have you know I was clambering up onto the footplate of steam engines.

Katie is more English, Katy often American ("What Katy Did"), IME.

Kathryn is also a nice spelling.
For some reason I prefer it with a C if you're spelling it K/Catherine.

I've a 'K' name too - and 'Katie' was unwelcomly foisted on scruffy-tomboy-me by all manner of elderly aunts.

The trauma lingers...

I think Katy is more frilly than Katie!

I have a Catherine who is shortened to Cassie! Catherine = great name.

IMVHO

All the Katys I know are just that, none are short for Katherine. Lots of Katherines get Kath/Kathy/Kat. I like Katie best.

Thanks for your replies, good to hear what people with the name actually think...will talk to dh and discuss further.

Definitely agree with edam. Don't know whereabouts you live but having grown up in saaf london, I had a friend called Katy when I was little and I remember her parents having a never ending battle to get people to pronouce the 't' in her name.

Kate. Tis my shortened name of choice from a longer silly name. I like it. No nonsense, honest sort of name I like to think.

My DD is Katie so i am obviously biased!

We didn't want Katherine as that was DH's ex so neither of us were keen.

We chose Katie for the birth certificate (Katie Louise) and thought she could always call herself Kate when she gets older if she prefers.

I now sometimes wish I'd done it the other way round (Kate on the birth certificate)- for example a friend of mine's DD is Rose on birth cert but Rosie as nn.

What about Caitlin- often Katie as nn too.

Some friends spell Katie's name "Katy" but i think Katie is the more common spelling.

Kitty?
I have a Kitty (Caitlin on her birth cert) and she is the only one in her school. There are however 5 Katies in her year at school (24 girls and 5 are Katies).

Kate, but I would put it as Katherine on the certificate so that she can choose when she is older. I supply teach and I always call DCs the name they prefer when I call the register.

Love Katie
Hate Kate

All the Katie's I have known have be lovely, bright, well mannered little girls.
But the 3 Kate's I have known were all dreadful.

there's also Katya as an option for short form of Katherine

Sometimes I miss being a Katie. It was terribly traumatic when I discovered it actually wasn't my real name. I was seven, and horrified - you know how children see the world in black and white? I was convinced my parents had been deliberately lying to me and poking fun at me all those years. Refused to answer to Katie ever again and reverted to my actual name.

Years later, my Dad overheard dh calling me Katie and was all overcome, so excited at the idea that he could call me Katie again. Aw... (not that he ever has, actually, now I come to think about it).