Is this too much of a stretch? I wouldn’t be enforcing [name]Sally[/name] at every opportunity, but if you got a birth announcement for a [name]Cecilia[/name] and later heard her mom calling her [name]Sally[/name] would you be completely confused?
Hmm. Not necessarily completely confused, but I wonder if the temptation would be to turn it into [name]Silly[/name] because of the sounds in [name]Cecilia[/name] :/. Maybe not.
I could see it more if her middle name was [name]Sarah[/name]. [name]Cecilia[/name] [name]Sarah[/name] nn [name]Sally[/name] makes sense. I don’t know how you feel about the matching a endings but [name]Cecilia[/name] [name]Sarai[/name] or [name]Cecily[/name] [name]Sarah[/name] solves that…I like both of those combos a lot! (I also like [name]Cecilia[/name] [name]Sarah[/name] because matching -a endings bother me less than they bother many on here.
Hmm. I think I would be slightly confused at first, because [name]Sally[/name] isn’t an obvious nickname for [name]Cecilia[/name], but it could work!
I don’t think it would be too confusing, I think it would be unexpected but it could work
I registered for Nameberry specifically to comment on this post! My birth name is [name]Sara[/name], but since day one I’ve been called [name]Sally[/name]. I’m in my late 20s, and I have met exactly three - THREE! - people in my life who were aware that [name]Sally[/name] is a nickname for [name]Sara[/name]/h. I have been asked “[name]How[/name] do you get [name]Sally[/name] out of [name]Sara[/name]?!” so. many. times. So I can only imagine what a girl named [name]Cecilia[/name], nicknamed [name]Sally[/name], would go through. I would suggest naming her [name]Cecilia[/name] [name]Sally[/name] and calling her by her middle name, or simply put [name]Sally[/name] in the first name slot. It will save her - and you! - A LOT of grief.
But all that being said: I think [name]Sally[/name] is a fantastic choice. Really truly. Everyone can say it, everyone call spell it, but NO [name]ONE[/name] is using it. It hasn’t been in the top 1000 since the mid 1970s. You’d be hard pressed to find a name that was so recognizable yet so rare. (Comparable names that come to mind are [name]Jane[/name] or [name]Susannah[/name].) And a big bonus: I was always the only one in my class, and any girl born today named [name]Sally[/name] would probably be, too. She could really “inhabit” the name, you know? It’s also a happy, fun name to have - I’ve noticed that people seem to like to say it. And there are a TON of classic rock songs with [name]Sally[/name] in the title, a nice plus.
It could work. Though if you’re going to just call her [name]Sally[/name] I wouldn’t name her [name]Cecelia[/name]. I think that [name]Cecilia[/name] [name]Sarah[/name] or [name]Cecilia[/name] [name]Sally[/name] would make the most sense to people whom got a birth announcement.
[name]Cecilia[/name] and [name]Sally[/name] clash stylistically to me, so I wouldn’t do it.
I like that [name]Cecilia[/name] could be a more sophisticated longer name with spunky & old fashioned [name]Sally[/name] as a nn. I think the difference in style is positive.
Does everyone else think that nicknames should match up stylistically with the full name?
I don’t think nicknames have to be obviously derived from the first name, but here’s the thing: most people do. A lot of the classic nicknames - [name]Nell[/name] for [name]Eleanor[/name], [name]Molly[/name] for [name]Mary[/name], [name]Sally[/name] for [name]Sarah[/name], and so forth - are now largely seen as names in their own right, with a majority of people having no idea that they were once extremely common - even predictable - nicknames. Among my peer group, I’ve encountered three types of people: those who always, without question, go by their full names ([name]Elizabeth[/name], [name]Rebecca[/name], [name]Margaret[/name], etc.); those whose given name is more associated as a nickname ([name]Maggie[/name], [name]Abby[/name], [name]Millie[/name], etc.); and those who go by an intuitive nickname ([name]Katie[/name] for [name]Katherine[/name], [name]Alex[/name] for [name]Alexandra[/name], [name]Carrie[/name] for [name]Caroline[/name], etc.)
Here might be some problems with using [name]Cecilia[/name], nicknamed [name]Sally[/name]:
She’ll have two separate initials. (Does she use C, or S?)
[name]Sally[/name] has never historically been used as a nickname for [name]Cecilia[/name], so when people ask her how, exactly, she got that nickname, she won’t have tradition on her side.
If meaning matters to you, the meanings of the two names are completely different.
They’re really both lovely choices - classic, but fresh. You might find, though, that using a non-obvious nickname would be much more of a hassle than you had bargained for.
I get the whole [name]Sara[/name]/[name]Sally[/name] thing but [name]Cecelia[/name] [name]Sally[/name] I dunno. I know a Ceely for [name]Cecelia[/name] which is similar. There’s no reason why you can’t but I do think you should expect the odd; whats her name?
So so pretty. I love it. Wouldn’t be confused and I think it is an awesome nickname for [name]Cecilia[/name]