Calling an Archibald, Barnabas, Healthcliff, etc. by their full name?

If I were to have a son today, I would name him [name_m]Barnabas[/name_m].

And his brothers, [name_m]Archibald[/name_m], [name_m]Heathcliff[/name_m], [name_m]Ignatius[/name_m], [name_m]Mortimer[/name_m], [name_m]Rutherford[/name_m], [name_m]Sylvester[/name_m], [name_u]Willoughby[/name_u] and/or [name_m]Zebedee[/name_m] :).

I not only favor crusty and quirky names, I like them meaty with a lead-like clunk.

And the aristocratic formality of calling others by their full name versus a nickname very much endears me.

[name_f]My[/name_f] question is this: Is it possible to raise a child to prefer his full name to a nickname?

Yes, but I think it partially depends on the people around the child. If they grow up having a nickname used, then they may prefer having a nickname. Most of my friends grew up being called by their full names and, instead of nicknames, they were called by pet names as a sign of affection (e.g., hunny, sweetheart, etc). The ones that were called by their full names prefer it over nicknames, myself included.

Personally, I think it depends less on the environment and more on the child. I have a double barrelled first name with no dash and though everyone in my school called me by both names, every one at home had their own pet name for me, with every nickname varying in length. By the time I was 10, I dropped the second part of my first name as I just wanted some consistency and simplicity in my life. I had everyone calling me a different name and I just remember reaching a point where I thought it was annoying and what I chose to be called wasn’t even my full name and nobody called me by it at the time.

I also didn’t like my name and considered changing it (which my mother told me I could do when I turned 18) so should you insist everyone just call your child by his/her full name, that may not even work if they don’t like the name in question. If I had a nice middle name, I probably would have asked people to call me by that name.