When my mum named me her friend told her that people would shorten my name and she said “No they wont because I will just correct people”…. My name was never shortened by family and Mum corrected anyone that tried to use a short version of my name. I remember when I was 11yrs old a friend of mine from school shortened my name and Mum asked me why she did that and told me I needed to correct her. Funny thing is my husband shortened my name and mum just let it go.

I use nicknames for my kids, but if they asked me to stop/said they didn’t like it, I would use whatever they preferred. I’ve had a few nicknames why whole life, and unless they were nasty, I just accepted it. It’s no big deal.

I think with your nearest and dearest its ok but other than that its a bit much. I have one for my child.

Reading some of the other comments was good to see a mix of reactions. I when naming my child realise people will use nicknames which are fine with me.

People will always use nicknames – it is just something that people do.
If the names are inappropriate or derogatory in any manner then most definitely a no no! Otherwise it is impossible to stop people from using nicknames.

When we chose our kids’ names we considered the likely nicknames they’d attract. We don’t use them, but at least we’re okayish with it when other people do.

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  • • mom93821 replied
    • 25 Mar 2019 , 6:50 am

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  We did the same thing and knew that the nicknames would be fine and they are fine with us!

You can’t control the nicknames others give to your children unfortunately. Unless your child doesn’t like it don’t fret too much. As long as they aren’t mean names of course

I think it’s a bit of an Aussie thing to do. We shorten most names in our extended family. It is a term of endearment. I tend to follow the lead of friends though when they’re more formal with their family (or not)!

I always called my children by their given name, and if they got both names they knew they were in trouble. The only one I deliberately gave a nickname to was my younger daughter as I didn’t want her name shortened to be a boys name – she gets that today and loves it now but didn’t like it when she was a little girl.

Our daughters are Liliana and Rosalea if we wanted them to be called Rose or Lily we would have named them that they have beautiful individual names we took a long time to choose we have no regrets we have only had to address one staff member at the daycare when they were little to not change their names especially since one of the other staff members name was Lily

When my children were born my hubbys side tried to give them nicknames, but I kept correcting them all, they all got in eventually, my reasoning was that I wanted them to learn to name rather than a nickname, they both now have nicknames but know their names too.

My son is named Ben. I have had other people, mainly interferring old biddies tell me to not call him that and to call him Benjamin as it’s wrong to shorten his name!!! You can’t win, even when you stipulate that his real, official given name is Ben, they insist it is Benjamin. I have even been told when filling out forms that I can’t put a nickname on a form, it has to be his correct name. I have explained that Ben is his real name, not Benjamin and the person has said to me “Are you sure?”. It can be infuriating.

I agree, when other people have a special name for your child it’s a sign of affection. One day your child will be an adult and you don’t have a say in this, be prepared. This is a good moment to let this go.

It’s a sign of affection. I wouldn’t be too concerned. It’s something we do a lot in this country.

I have no issue with nicknames and personally don’t see the big deal

I generally call my daughter with her real name. Even if I must admit that sometimes I shorten it.

Always going to get a nickname. I agree it feels wrong when someone you don’t know does it but it’s something you just need to deal with or choose names less likely to be shortened.