[name_f]Do[/name_f] any of you have or know a [name_f]Leona[/name_f] or [name_f]Leonie[/name_f]? I [name_u]LOVE[/name_u] the name [name_f]Leonie[/name_f], but I don’t know what I would end up calling her for a short form. We are definitely nickname people, so I can’t wrap my head around giving a baby a name without one built in or at least decides in advance, if that makes sense. Know any [name_f]Leonie[/name_f]'s with nicknames?
I don’t personally know any [name_f]Leonie[/name_f]'s/[name_f]Leona[/name_f]'s, but I have heard of a few. I really like [name_f]Leonore[/name_f]/[name_f]Leonora[/name_f], and am struggling to find nn’s for them too.
Suggestions:
[name_u]Lee[/name_u]
[name_f]Leni[/name_f]
[name_m]Leo[/name_m]
[name_f]Lena[/name_f]
[name_f]Lea/name_f
[name_f]Nonie[/name_f]
[name_f]Nell[/name_f]
[name_f]Noa[/name_f]
So far I’ve thought of Leeni and Noni. But I’m not sold on either. My daughter’s name is [name_u]Juniper[/name_u], nickname [name_u]June[/name_u] or junie, easy and obvious. I think my main issue is that I don’t want to have a weird forced nickname. Example: We know a little girl and a little boy, both named lennox (with spelling variations). The boy’s parents thought they would call him nix, but that hasn’t really stuck, so they usually just call him lennox. I’ve heard the girl’s parents call her la-la, but she is ually just [name_u]Lennox[/name_u] also. Both are fine, but super not my style, and I feel like it’s be weird if only one of my kids didn’t have a short form!
I would love to have a [name_f]Leona[/name_f]… if only [name_m]Leon[/name_m] isn’t my top choice for a boy. ._. anyway, I “know” one [name_f]Leonie[/name_f], but as far as I know she doesn’t use any nickname. [name_f]Leona[/name_f]/[name_f]Leonie[/name_f] can ne [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-lee, [name_m]Leo[/name_m], [name_f]Lea[/name_f], [name_f]Nonie[/name_f], [name_f]Ona[/name_f], [name_m]Lenny[/name_m] or [name_f]Lena[/name_f].
My oldest daughter is a [name_f]Leonie[/name_f]! I, too, can’t pick names without built in nicknames, lol. We call her [name_f]Lena[/name_f] ([name_m]Lay[/name_m]-nuh but you can use [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-nah if you’re using the [name_u]Lee[/name_u] pronunciation) or [name_f]Lani[/name_f] most of the time!
Are you pronouncing it [name_u]Lee[/name_u]- or [name_m]Lay[/name_m]-? Either way I think [name_f]Lea[/name_f] or [name_f]Leia[/name_f] is an obvious nickname for [name_f]Leonie[/name_f].
@sappho
We’d be using the [name_u]Lee[/name_u] pronunciation probably, but [name_f]Lani[/name_f] is super cute! I used to have [name_u]Delaney[/name_u] on my list with [name_u]Laney[/name_u] as the nickname. I think I’d probably end up going with [name_f]Leni[/name_f], but I just wasn’t sure if it’d be like Leany and weird? But this is making me feel better about it.
[name_f]Leona[/name_f] is creeping up quickly on my list of faves. It’s a long-standing honor name on my husband’s side, and I’m really starting to fall in love with it.
[name_f]Leonie[/name_f] is super sweet, just like [name_f]Leona[/name_f]. I think the NNs that others have suggested are great! I really love Lo as a NN for both names. It’s not totally obvious [name_f]IMO[/name_f], but I just love the spunkiness of it!
From my experience with littles in our family, they often get NNs that aren’t derived from their formal names. For instance, I have a niece, [name_f]Naomi[/name_f], who we call Bitty. She was so tiny when she was born, or itty-bitty, so the NN just stuck.
@justlikeflorida
I wouldn’t be against a none-name-related nickname, but I kind of want to have a plan! I think Lo is cute! We have a [name_f]Lucy[/name_f] in the family, so it might be a little too close. I like [name_f]Leona[/name_f] too, but I [name_u]LOVE[/name_u] [name_f]Leonie[/name_f] more for some reason.
My childminder when I was very young was called [name_f]Leonie[/name_f]. We didn’t call her by a nickname so I don’t know if she had one, but I love the name.
Nickname ideas:
[name_u]Lee[/name_u]
Leenie
[name_f]Onie[/name_f] (Oh-nee)
Perhaps a nickname that thinks to her middle name?
I’m also a big fan of nicknames, if it doesn’t have a nickname I like then I’m unlikely to use it (the exceptions being [name_f]Mira[/name_f] and [name_m]Luke[/name_m]). You could use [name_f]Leona[/name_f] and nn her [name_f]Leonie[/name_f], but that seems a bit silly.
I’ve loved the name [name_f]Leonie[/name_f] since meeting a classmate who went by it when we were undergrads. She was from [name_u]California[/name_u] but her parents were [name_m]French[/name_m]-speaking Swiss nationals. She pronounces it [name_m]Lay[/name_m]-oh-knee, which I prefer to [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-oh-knee. She had no name-based nicknames.
It’s a top five contender for a daughter of ours, if we have one. We haven’t come up with a nickname that feels right, either, but I like the suggestions of [name_m]Lenny[/name_m]/[name_f]Leni[/name_f] and Lo. Any thoughts on her middle name? Maybe you could do something with her initials. My initials are M.E.R. and one person called me “[name_f]Emme[/name_f]” and another called me “Mer,” so there are creative solutions.
@seedsandstones
I haven’t really given it a lot of thought this time around (we aren’t even ttc for 6 months, maybe more), but I had tentatively been thinking about [name_f]Leonie[/name_f] [name_f]Ruth[/name_f] when I was thinking of using it for my first. One of our friends recently used [name_f]Ruth[/name_f], so I might be trying to find something else, but I don’t like anything else as well with it yet.
My niece is a 9-year-old [name_f]Leonie[/name_f]. Her father is [name_m]German[/name_m] and my [name_m]SIL[/name_m] is [name_m]French[/name_m]-Canadian, so it worked perfectly for them. [name_f]Leonie[/name_f] goes by [name_m]Leo[/name_m] which is really cute because she’s sassy and her hair is big and curly, so it works for her. [name_m]Leo[/name_m] is said with a [name_m]French[/name_m] accent of course. If you pronounce [name_f]Leonie[/name_f] [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-uh-nie or [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-oh-nie, [name_m]Leo[/name_m] works all the same and is also cool and badass.
My cousin’s friend has a little girl called [name_f]Leonie[/name_f] who must be around 5/6 now. She’s just [name_f]Leonie[/name_f], no longer form or nickname. I [name_u]LOVE[/name_u] [name_f]Leonie[/name_f], [name_f]Leona[/name_f] and [name_f]Leonora[/name_f].
@apriltulips
Hmmmm I hadn’t thought of [name_m]Leo[/name_m], maybe because it seems like a boy name. But it isn’t super masculine, so maybe that could work for me!
I would just use [name_u]Lee[/name_u] as the short form, it’s short and simple and the sort of name I like anyway alone (but it has no nicknames!) I dislike [name_u]Leigh[/name_u] with the gh but I am fond of [name_u]Lee[/name_u].
I don’t have a [name_f]Leonie[/name_f] but I have [name_f]Leora[/name_f]/[name_f]Liora[/name_f] on my long list so I’ve thought about this a fair bit.
@botanical latin
[name_u]Lee[/name_u] is kind of a family name, so that could work. It feels a little insubstantial to me, which is silly, because I have known people whose whole name was [name_u]Lee[/name_u]! I think the reason I hadn’t thought of that is that all the [name_u]Lee[/name_u]'s I know are men, but it isn’t super masculine, so maybe that would work.
My daughter’s name is [name_f]Liora[/name_f]. I love it on its own but also thought [name_m]Lio[/name_m]/[name_m]Leo[/name_m] would be such a “cool girl” nickname later on.
At 16 months, [name_m]Lio[/name_m] doesn’t quite fit yet, so we call her [name_f]Lilou[/name_f] for short. I also thought about [name_f]Lilo[/name_f] as a nickname, and our [name_m]French[/name_m] family (my husband is [name_m]French[/name_m]) tried calling her [name_f]Leelee[/name_f] for awhile - but I didn’t love that.
So - lots of options with a [name_f]Leona[/name_f]/[name_f]Leonie[/name_f]!
If anyone is still reading this thread… would it be super weird to use [name_u]Laney[/name_u], if we’re using the lee-oh-nie pronunciation?