a minor naming pet peeve

[ladydiddymus.livejournal.com]

So this is just my opinion on nicknames, feel free to disagree.
I understand that picking a nickname you like but giving the child a longer version of the name in very common, like wanting to call them Will but officially naming them William. But I don't think it is ALWAYS necessary. I understand that there are special circumstances - family names, etc - but I don't see the point in giving a child a name with no intention ever to use it, and this applies to going by middle names, too. Even if I think a name is pretty, but thought it was a little too "unique" or complicated to call a child, I just wouldn't name them that. If the kid chooses to shorten it later on down the road, fine, but it's not worth using a special or unique name if you're pre-planning to butcher it into something ordinary. The boys in my step-dads family include Joey, Ricky, and Monty, but these aren't short for anything. Thats what their mom wanted to call them, so that's what she named them, and that makes sense to me. I'm not saying it's bad to pick a nickname in advance, but not to the point that it makes the child's real name obsolete.

Comments

[quietlymanic.livejournal.com]

I completely agree! My preferred boy's name is a nickname, but I don't like the full version of the name so I'm not going to give him the full name. If other people have a problem with that, oh well.

[amiasha.livejournal.com]

I see your point, definately, though I like the idea of giving a longer name so the kid can choose something else if they decide they don't like their nickname. My brother, for instance, is named Joeseph but called Joey all the time, because that was the main name my mom wanted to give him. But as he's gotten older and is going into an art field, he's decided to use 'Joeseph' as his official name for everything involved in that, and he wouldn't have had that choice if he was named 'Joey' flat out.

Same reason I'm fond of names with many, many different nicknames; so there's a lot to choose from depending. My name has no nicknames, really, so I've always sort of wanted a name with a lot of versions (though I do love my name.)

[twilightshadows.livejournal.com]

I see your point but I disagree in some cases.

My mom named me Samantha Jo. In my house I'm rarely called Samantha, only when I'm in trouble. I also get called Jo or Josephine a lot. I like having the choice between all of my names. When I was in elementary school, I loved being called Sam because it wasn't girly. In high school, I went more by Samantha because it sounded more professional. And now in college, I'm more fond of Jo because it's different. I want my kids to have the same choice.

[alikat322.livejournal.com]

I tend to think it's good if the kid has something more to fall back on if they would care for a more professional name. Or my parents gave my brother and I interesting first names, but normal middle names if we weren't a fan of them when we got older.

[levis-jules.livejournal.com]

I think my only problem w/ nn as regular names is if they go into a "professional" business later in life. I'm not sure I want attorney, doctor, or accountant named Joey XYZ or whatever. I'd like my attorney's name to be Joseph XYZ. If he was a car mechanic, stripper, actor, musician, Joey would be more acceptable in my eys.

[emmala.livejournal.com]

but then you can wind up with what my mom secretly wanted to name me, Lotte (a fine name but my last name is Lang: Lotte Lang. ouch.

[ladydiddymus.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I think it's fine if kids wants to go by something else when they're older and ya know, their own people. But I just think it's silly to elongate your childs name even if you don't really like the elongated version, or to give your child a unique name and then be too afraid to call them by it, so they dumb it down into a nickname.

[fired-gun.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. My friend's name is Kati. not short for anything, jsut kati. She hates it when people call her Katelynn or whatever.

[ladydiddymus.livejournal.com]

but at least your parents weren't like, "well this is her name, but this is what we're actually going to call her."

[ladydiddymus.livejournal.com]

yep, it's the sequence near the beginning when one of the fairies gives her "the gift of song." :)

[ladydiddymus.livejournal.com]

I agree that there are definitely names that just don't sound very professional, but I think "Joe" sounds just as adult, which is what a lot of my stepdad's business associates know him as. I don't think I would switch doctors or pass up a good attorney just because his name was Joey instead of Joseph either.

[heyitsrebecca.livejournal.com]

My mom liked Becky, not Rebecca.. but named me Rebecca any way so that I'd have the option. I HATE Becky. Only my family calls me that.. as soon as I was old enough to have an opinion, I demanded to go by Rebecca by everyone else.. and it works. I don't have a problem with people shortening it, I let them know from the beginning what I prefer to be called.
It works for everyone. My mom calls me what she likes, and everyone else calls me what I like. I don't think it's a big deal at all.
The reason people give kids full names instead of nicknames is because children grow up into real adults who might not identify with a cutesy nickname.
If my mom had named me just Becky, I'd have had it legally changed to Rebecca by now. LOL

[heyitsrebecca.livejournal.com]

If I was skimming for a lawyer in the phonebook, and had my choice between Joseph Jones and Joey Smith, I'd naturally gravitate towards Joseph. I have no way of knowing whether or not Joey is his real name or a nickname.. I'd assume it was a nickname and think, "Is he serious???" and go on to the next name.
That's only in the case of having no outside knowledge.. maybe I'd still be a lil hesitant if a friend said, "Oh you HAVE to use Joey Smith! He's WONDERFUL!"
Joey? What, is he 10? No thanks..

[zorianna.livejournal.com]

Same with my sister. My mom really liked Kaitlyn, but my dad just liked Katie. They even toyed with the idea of naming her Katie Lynn and calling her Kaitlyn. But when she was born, my mom decided she looked like a Katie, so that's just her name, Katie Michelle. I'd rather just name my kid what I'm going to call him/her. I'm not big on nicknames.

[makeitstopjamie.livejournal.com]

It was the same thing for my sister. We started calling her Becky from the time she born and by the time she was ten she decided she didn't like it. Relatives still call her Becky and so do my friends to annoy her. She likes Becca now.

[queen-mab.livejournal.com]

I think it's good to give your child an option. Like with William. The kid can go by Billy, Will, William, Bill, etc. He can write down William on his job applications but go by Will. Richard could go by Richard, Rich, Richy, Rick, Ricky, Dick.. lol. He has options. He can write Richard down on his job applications but go by Dick when he goes drinking with his buddies, hahaha. I think "Joey" might look a little odd on a job application or something of the sort, especially if he chooses a really serious profession. I'm not saying that your step-dad and his wife made a bad decision with that, but I personally think it's good to give a kid some options. I got stuck with Brandi and I can't do crap with that besides go by Andi but my mom's name is Andrea so that would be confusing. I would have liked to have had options.

[oneworldvision.livejournal.com]

I think part of the purpose of a longer name is to give the kid something to fall back on if he hates the shortened version, or if it's too childish to use as an adult.

Or to give the parets something to scream when he's being a brat. ;)

[laduchesse.livejournal.com]

My mother would totally agree with you. Though my name is quite short and all my nicknames are longer, though my mother despises the people who made them up.

You know, there's people I've known all my life by one name and come to find out their real name is something completely different. There's this woman everyone calls Puna and I'm like eww what a horrid name and her real name is Graciella and I can't imagine why her parents wouldn't use her nice given name.