Did your child’s nickname end up different from the one you planned?

[Biscot]

Reading another thread about nicknames has me wondering.

Did you plan a nickname or diminutive for your child, and was it close to what you ended up using?

I've name changed so I can use actual names. It was quite important to us to have a name that didn't have nicknames or diminutives, we wanted her to be known as the name we chose.

Her name is Iris.

When she was tiny, she couldn't say her name and called herself 'Idie'. She's now either Idie or Idie-boo at home. (It's also led to quite a lot of people thinking her name is Ivy, despite the fact she says her name perfectly these days!)

We also called her the wrigglemouse when she was a baby, and that's stuck around too - so she's also sometimes still just Mouse or Idie-mouse.

So ours didn't go to plan, although she's only really Iris to friends and people at school etc up to now, though still time for that to change I'm sure.

Surely nicknames are not planned? They're organic?

DD2s name was shortened/mispronounced by toddler DD1 and it stuck for many years.

Shes mkst commonky known as a shortened version of her surname at Secondary school (like her father, uncle and grandfather (and further back) before her.

DD1s name gets lengthened.

You don’t plan nicknames.

I have Boody Joe and The Skull. No idea about the first (although his name is Joseph) and the second was because he had a ridge around his head when he was born. He’s 38 this year.

No normal person plans a nickname. That’s the kind of thing eight year olds naming their imaginary future children or dolls do. ‘One of them is called Arabella Trixie Sue, Bellatrix for short!’

I thought we’d use the first half of DS’s name but we ended up using the first half with a y added when he was a baby and now use it with an s on the end (eg if the name was harper, we thought he’d be harp but he ended up being harpy and when older harps - that’s not the name btw as those short forms sound rubbish but it’s not a traditional name).

With dd I wanted to keep the whole thing and we have although I sometimes use the first 2 letters (eg her name is Eliza and I call her el sometimes). At school/nursery they use the full name.

There were siblings in my school with the last name Simpson. The boy was always called Bart and the girl Lisa literally all through primary and high school and even the teachers called them that in high school. The real kicker was their youngest sibling was a boy and everyone called him maggie 🤣 needless to say he has some thick skin. I’m still friendly with ‘Lisa’ and I can sadly say she goes by her real name in work and with her husband but I still call her Lisa and always will

Yes, this. I cringe when people plan nicknames for kids not even born yet!

I didn't plan nick names for mine. They all get called shortened versions of their names by friends.

We called our first born Grace but loved the name Gracie and fully intended to use that.
in the end her family name is Gru, don’t know where this originated but it’s stuck

I've never understood planned nicknames/diminiuatives. "I want to call the baby Frederick, known as Fred. Just call him Fred then"

I mainly use my DCs names, but they have various nicknames too. Sausage, Pickle, Squish, Puddin, to name a few.

I deliberately gave all three of my DC short names with no obvious nicknames or diminutives. My DS gets called by his surname by friends a bit and some silly nicknames that have nothing to do with their given names have evolved for all of them.

When DD1 was a baby, my DS was 3. I used to call her “baby girl-kins” which my DS misheard as “baby gherkin” so Gherkin stuck and she’s 14 now. I also called her my little kitten when she was tiny which evolved into Kitty and I still use that a lot. It is in no way similar to her name!

My youngest has the same name as OP’s DD and she gets called Siri a bit (her name spelt backwards and also because she has an answer for everything!)

They all get called by (just) their middle names when in trouble!

The really strange ones are the ‘What full name could Kit be a nickname for if I don’t like Christopher?’ or ‘What could I put on the birth certificate if I want to use Zan for every day?’

I gave my DDs names that couldn't be shortened. DD1 gets lengthened by lots of people to non-names that rhythm with her name, DD2 people assume it's a shortening and lengthen it to another unrelated name (think Emma being called Emmeline), DS has a name that can be shortened but most people don't - except me. But the nice thing is because there's not an obvious nicknames their nicknames are names they associate with the people who called them that.

Our children are:

Henry - we nicknamed Harry from birth. Most people know I'm as Henry (by his choice since starting school) bar family where it is Harry. Some sports or activities have given him a variety of nicknames including H, Hedders, Hens, Hazer.

Charlotte - we nicknamed Charlie. Mostly is Charlie but family sometimes say Charlie-Boo. She's still only 4 though so I expect the variations to start when she starts school and more activities.

I still sometimes default to Baba (South African for baby) for either of my children.

My oldest has a name that can be shortened to Jay. Apart from me, and a neighbour when he was newborn, no one else has ever called him Jay. He's called by his full name by everyone.

My youngest on the other hand has always been called by a shortened version of his full name, so much so that people are always surprised find it isn't his actual name. Even his friends haven't realised.

Aside from that I call them all sorts of random nicknames, which they answer to. Or I still call them Baby Their Name, and they answer, even though they are all adults. Still my babies😂

We used a nickname for him when I was pregnant with ds. We ended up naming him the name but have called him the nn/shortened version since before he was born!

Yes my daughter has a longish name similar to Isabella and I had intended to call her Issie for short. We know a lot of Bellas and I wanted to avoid that as a diminutive.

But in her first week of life she got nicknamed The Bundle as she was so tiny (and hated the pram) so I used to carry her around bundled up in a blanket. Then that morphed into Bunny and she's always Bunny to family and close friends.

Meanwhile her school friends have ended up calling her Bella anyway.

I chose names that couldn't be shortened.

We have no idea how my daughter got her nicknames.
My son's evolved from a sound he made as a baby. Seemingly it's actually a name in Greece.

My cousin couldn't pronounce my name when I was about 5 and he was just starting to babble. I'm 35 now and everyone still call me it. It followed me through school, and then through work. I never introduce myself as it so it's annoying as fuck. Although, it is very weird when I'm called my actual name by my gp/boss ect.

I purposely tried to give my eldest child a name that couldn't be shortened. But he still ended up with random names from various family members.

My other 2 just go by their shorter versions - for example, Jess/Jessie.

Well yes, but you see loads of people on here planning them, in particular the thread that set me off thinking about it today. So that's what I was asking really, to those people who did have both a name and a diminutive or nickname planned, whether it worked out like that. Or as in my case, we very much planned for her to be known as her actual name, and that's not really what's ended up happening, among family at least.

My name is relatively short but does have quite a few common nicknames associated with it, as well as longer versions of it - I actually hate it when people use anything other than my actual name, apart from my sister who has always called me one particular shortening which I like, but sounds weird coming from anyone else.

I think people conflate nicknames with diminutives.

I think this might be because so often people like the name Kit/Zach but then there are posts saying 'this isn't a name, use the proper name on the birth certificate and shorten it', so maybe causes seeds of doubt for people. I really liked the name Kitt but saw SO many comments about how it isn't a 'proper' name that it eventually fell off the consideration list.

@RaraRachael I did the same. Now they get lengthened instead 🤪🤣😅

I don't think there's anything wrong with planning a diminutive. If you know that you want to name your child Margaret and plan to call her Maggie because you like both names, what's wrong with that? I can't figure out why people are so against it.