help?

[feedmetoast.livejournal.com]

I posted here a few months ago asking for opinions on the names me and the husband have picked out for our future children. We have recently started trying for a baby and have slightly altered some of the names so I was just wondering what you guys thinks.

We are naming our first, whether they be a boy or a girl, Charlie after my grandfather. I was sort of confused on my last post when people told me Charlie isn't a good name for when they become adults and to name the baby Charles or Charlotte. I always thought Charlie was an adult sounding name but I don't know. Anyone think that it's not a good name for adults? If it helps at all my grandfathers actual name is Charlie, it's not a nickname.

Anywayyys all the names we picked out are -
Charlie Elaine, if we have a girl first.
Charlie Donald, if we have a boy first.
Alison Elaine, if we have a girl any time but first
Liam Donald, if we have a boy any time but first

The middle names have significance as well just so you know. Oh and I was told Liam isn't an adult name either and to use it as a nickname for William but we like Liam because we are irish and it feels like a nice strong irish name.

Opinions? Thanks in advance.

Comments

[harinakshi.livejournal.com]

I can see Charlie on an adult male, but Charles definitely, but I don't like it as much on a young child, though. For a boy I'd say Charlie is perfectly fine. For a girl I would go with Charlotte. It's a beautiful name and you can call her Charlie but still give her the option of having a girlie name later in life, I think it would be a bit unfair to give a girl a predominantly male name, it'd be like naming her Alex instead of Alexandria.

[kjerlandsen.livejournal.com]

Charlie is definitely a nickname to me. I think the child would prefer to be named Charles or Charlotte and go by Charlie.

Similarly, my grandfather was named Billy. Not Bill or William, Billy and he HATED it! He always thought it was childish. As an adult, he insisted on being called Bill.

I happen to think Liam is fine though. I don't think you'd need to use it as a nickname for William.

[lind-saay.livejournal.com]

Most people will assume Charlie is short for something, and also, I think using the full name, with Charlie as a nickname, gives the kid more options for when they are older. What if little (female) Charlie hates having a traditionally male name? If her full name is Charlotte then, when she's older, she can choose to go by that, or Char, or Lottie, or any number of other nicknames. If her legal name is Charlie, she's either stuck with it or has to change it.

I love Charlie, for what it's worth (regardless of the baby's sex), but I'd go with Charlotte or Charles nn Charlie. At least Charlotte for a girl -- I think a boy with Charlie as a legal name is a little different.

[http://users.livejournal.com/___heyvanity/]

Charlie is a nn to me and I agree with the suggestions of Charlotte and Charles. But I'm also the type of person that STRONGLY prefers full names with lots of nn options. Charles is one of those names that almost everyone has a nn so I don't think it would be odd for people to "always" call him Charlie.

[http://users.livejournal.com/___heyvanity/]

Oh and I really like Alison Elaine! I think Charlotte Elaine would be gorgeous too, for that matter. And Charles Donald sounds great as well. I know Liam is kind of a "stand alone" name but I still prefer William nn Liam as well... for the reasons I said before.

[sans-patrie.livejournal.com]

I am a Charlotte who goes by Charlie and I say go for it, name a girl Charlie. It's a great name, and she certainly won't ever get mixed up with someone else.

[snoglobel.livejournal.com]

One of our first choices is Charlie Donald. Charlie because we love the name, Donald after a grandpa. :) So I like that combo. We are torn on whether to do Charles Donald or Charlie Donald. I think we are leaning towards Charles.

I think Charlie works fine as a name for a girl or boy. Charlie Elaine is pretty too, but I like Alison Elaine better. I think because of the -ie El-
Liam Donald is awesome!

I like your tastes in names :) Very similar to mine. (I'm mostly Irish and German if it matters. Husband is 100% American but has a Polish last name, haha)

[http://users.livejournal.com/-----citylight/]

Charlie is fine for a boy.
But I think Charlotte Elaine sound a million times better and you can call her charlie as a nickname. Charlie for a girl just seems a bit ... incomplete.

[after-the-ashes.livejournal.com]

If you can handle going against most people's opinions, just honor the name and go with Charlie. If you want what others think, including me, go with a full name. I hate nn's as names, I like options and I feel that they'll likely go with Charlie all their life anyways, so why not at least have a professional full name for certain matters that tend to need that. The kid can still be Charlie.

[winninghearts.livejournal.com]

I feel like an adult can be called Charlie, but if choosing between, I would always want to go with the choice with more options.

[how-obscure.livejournal.com]

I agree with most of the others on here. Charles or Charlotte give a more formal, official sort of name that might be preferred for professional use. It also gives other nn options if the child grew to not feel like a Charlie. I feel using one of those would honor your grandfather just as well.

Now, while I am usually not for using nicknames as full names, and in fact, do prefer William nn Liam, I do feel that Liam is strong enough to stand on its own. It doesn't feel childish, unlike many other nicknames.

[coendou.livejournal.com]

I definitely think you should go with the "real" names (Charles/Charlotte) so that they have the choice of the nickname or the formal name in the future. I think Charlie is fine for adults - but not in all situations. They'd probably much rather put Charles or Charlotte when sending out resumes for important jobs, or if they're giving a speech, things like that. Charlie is what they get called after they've got the job, when they know their boss well enough to know that the boss won't find it childish.

As for Liam, I think it's such a new (to the US) name that many people who aren't "up" on current naming trends don't even know it's a nn for William and have only heard of it via Liam Neeson - and it is his full name. In Ireland it's a version of William instead of a nn.

[qtshorty1625.livejournal.com]

I don't know if someone already said this, but personally, I don't understand how a name can be okay on a little kid and not an adult (or vice versa). I watch sports, so I'm used to guys in their 30s+ with names like "Stevie", "Danny", etc.

Heck, I personally know a guy who's almost 30 and he still goes exclusively by Chip (even at work). If you call him Robert or Rob or anything like that, he'll correct you. And the thing is, when you meet him, you realize that he is a Chip.

I feel like we form these opinions on names on what's "normal" and what's "strange", but as a general rule, when we meet someone, we just accept their name. Like, I remember when I heard Shania Twain named her daughter Asia (I don't know the spelling, and watch me be wrong about the celebrity -- but my point is still valid), I was like, okay that's strange. But when I met a girl named Aja, I didn't think too much of it, especially now that I know her, because it's like, "Yeah, that's Aja's name."

I'd be willing to bet that when people meet your kid, most of them are going to say, "Oh, that's Charlie" and they're not going to think anything about the name, because it's his name.

I hope I don't sound like I'm dissing the people who said the original comments, I'm simply disagreeing.

Also, I went to college with a girl who went by Charlie, and this post reminded me of her. (Her real name was Brittney but I don't think very many people knew that)

[qtshorty1625.livejournal.com]

Sorry, when I wrote "his name" I meant to write "his/her name". I got a little distracted on the full question, and was only focusing on male because most of my examples were male, but I did intend for it to be extended to male and female.

[coendou.livejournal.com]

I feel like we form these opinions on names on what's "normal" and what's "strange", but as a general rule, when we meet someone, we just accept their name.

Unfortunately, though, you're often judged by your name before the person ever meets you - on resumes, for example. Not that they're doing it consciously, but your name really does have an impact on how people perceive you on paper (as evidenced by studies showing that stereotypically African-American names vs "white" names on the same resume get fewer calls). Why not give your kid the choice?

[requiem-morrow.livejournal.com]

I think Liam and Charlie are names on their own, but people will more often assume Charlie is a nn for something. My mom's family is full of folks with traditionally nn names as first names. It doesn't seem to bug most of the older generations (except my grandpa who was named Junior....yeah, goes by Jim). My mom's generation actually seems to be the first to express having issues with the practice. My uncle really does wish his business card said Lawrence instead of Larry lol.

My personal preference is for the full name and use the nn.

[smallandneedy.livejournal.com]

I think Charlie and Liam work well as adult names as well as nick names. I haven't met a lot of people with those names but I know of people who has them and it seems to be working well for them. Personally I'm not a fan of Charlie as a full name for girls but it works well with Elaine as the middle name :)

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

Charlie is a perfectly fine *nickname* for any age, but it just doesn't work as a full name. (Well, clearly your grandfather exists, but I don't think it works *well*.) A boy will constantly be written down as Charles. A girl will be frequently written down as Charlotte, and also constantly mistaken for a boy when she doesn't have Charlotte to fall back on. So I strongly feel like Charles or Charlotte, nickname Charlie, is the way to go. You still totally get the name you want, but save a lot of future trouble for your child.

Liam, on the other hand, works just fine on its own, for children and adults. In fact, I would be more weirded out to find it as a nickname for William, but maybe that's just me.

I'm not a big fan of Alison, I see it as a name whose star has faded somewhat, and not one I liked a lot to begin with--but that's just a matter of personal taste. There's nothing wrong with it as a name. I personally prefer Alice but Alison's okay.