(no subject)

[boy-dodger.livejournal.com]

i really like the name Jack 

is it a name that can stand on its own or should it be a nickname and if so what should it be short for ?

Comments

[aquilinum.livejournal.com]

Anything but as a nickname for Jackson. Jackson to me screams "I wanted to use Jack but felt it was incomplete by itself, and I no longer associate Jack with John, so I just tacked -son to the end of it."

Somebody once wrote a nifty little piece about how funny it was that recently, American parents have been naming their sons after the capital of New Jersey (Trenton) -- or so it appears, when in reality it's just this generation's reluctance, in many cases, to give a one syllable name (Trent). So they add another syllable to it, ending in -on, and now VOILA! the name Trent is a nickname for a more formal sounding, two-syllable name. Never mind that Trent has been around for a long time as a freestanding name and Trenton is a sort of backtracking attempt to make it sound more legitimate.

I feel much the same about Jackson. The only non-recent-baby use of it as a first name I can think of is Jackson Pollock, and I really doubt all the thousands of Jackson converts are fans of his art. Even then, Jackson was his middle...