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.

My sister has a Lizzie who we used to call Lizzie dripping now we just shorten it and she's known throughout the family as drips.

OP is referring to shortenings/diminutives such as Elizabeth - Lizzie, Alexandra - Allie, etc.

Yes, thank you! 'We're calling her Katherine, nickname Kate'. NO, Kate is SHORT FOR KATHERINE. Her nick name will probably be 'Stick' or 'Froggy'. Kate is just a shortening. Many kids don't shorten their names the way their parents want to, but that's nothing to do with nicknames.

This. We're naming our DD Camille but will also be calling her Millie starting at birth. What other people think about this doesn't really matter to me because it doesn't affect them. I love both names and like that she will have the option to go by either as she gets older. It just makes sense to me. I have a short name that I'm not keen on and always hated the fact that I was stuck with it and had no other obvious options.

We gave DS a nickname when I was pregnant with him as we didn't feel comfortable saying "it" and "baby" just sounded odd.

We assumed it would stick once he was born & properly named but we dropped it near on immediately.

His name is something that cannot really be shortened either, so no natural nickname there either

You can't really pick an unrelated nickname, they tend to form organically, but you can totally pick a diminutive/shortening.

The vast majority of people will call your child what you introduce them as so if you say 'this is Lizzie' they'll call her Lizzie. They're not going to demand to see a birth certificate and call her Elizabeth. You can put 'known as' on school documents etc. it's totally possible to choose your child's day to day name if that different to their full name. Once they're old enough to have a say then of course it's up to them!

I'd like to think that my DH and I are pretty normal average people, and we planned for our son to be called Nico, short for Nicholas. 🤔

Not so much a nickname more a shorter version that I definitely wouldn't have gone with.

My daughter has a 4 letter name with no other recognised spelling. When she was about 14 she did the teenage rebellion thing and decided on an alternative spelling with 6 letters 🙄

With one of my children, I avoided naming her Madeleine (my top choice) because I did not want her to become the dreaded Maddie. I picked a different name that has multiple shortenings and planned to use the shortening that I liked the most. I can't imagine NOT planning or even thinking about shortenings if you've picked or are considering a longer name. Certain names are just bound to be shortened by other people (even if you don't want them to be). What if you hate the common shortening(s) of that name?

My kids have short names, but inexplicably and without conscious thought I lengthened dc1's name to what was coincidentally actually a different name when talking to her as a pre-verbal baby, and caused other people immense confusion (luckily she miraculously didn't get confused so I must have used her actual name more than the lengthened version). Neither of my girls have gone by nicknames with their friends and their friends mostly go by full name unless it's a long name with a standard short form.

My eldest son has had all sorts of nicknames, including (also inexplicable) a primary school phase when his friends called him a fusion of his name and ds2's, even though ds2 retained his full name 🧐 It didn't bother ds1 but his attempt to explain it was a bit fuzzy.

All ds1's friends now have nicknames, but ds2's go by their full names (both teens). I think it's different "types" of friendship groups, but there's not much you can do, nor should you, once they're teens!

I have a longer name but have always gone by a shortening of it. There are a few different ways you can shorten it, but only one my mum really dislikes. When I was 16 I changed schools and asked everyone to call me by that particular shortening. By the time I was at uni I was back to the normal name!

Teens are hideous beings 🤪

We had something similar in that a nn has evolved, we don't objectively like it, never planned for it, but have to admit it came from us!

Luckily people outside the immediate family have not picked up on it, but we do still use it at home.