If you or your children have a nickname

Girl Names
1

[name]How[/name] do you use it? Let me explain…

My name is [name]Maggie[/name] (legal name [name]Margaret[/name]). My whole life, I’ve gone by [name]Maggie[/name]. In school, my parents must have told teachers ahead of time not to call me [name]Margaret[/name]. I’ve always been [name]Maggie[/name].

If your children have nicknames, do you use them yourselves at home as pet-names, or do you only introduce them by their nicknames? In school, do their teachers call them by their nicknames?

I feel like there are three nickname types:

  1. obvious nicknames i.e. [name]Nick[/name] for [name]Nicholas[/name]
  2. usually obvious nicknames i.e. [name]Maggie[/name] for [name]Margaret[/name]
  3. not very obvious nicknames i.e. [name]Posey[/name] for [name]Josephine[/name]

So - tell me all about it! [name]How[/name] does it work in your family? I’m considering a nickname (type 3) and want to know how other families go about making use of their nicknames…

2

No kids, but I go by a nickname. My name is [name]Jennifer[/name] but I go by [name]Jenni[/name]. My parents and most of my family still call me [name]Jennifer[/name] but I go by [name]Jenni[/name] everywhere else, even at work. My desk says [name]Jenni[/name] Lastname on it and I sign my emails with [name]Jenni[/name]. I also went by it in school (well, 7th grade or so on, when I decided to start going by [name]Jenni[/name]).

Most people I know go by a nn that falls into #1 or #2. #3 doesn’t make much sense to me unless it’s a nn that came up from something else (I know TONS of people that gained nns in college that had nothing to do with their names). But those nns had a story to them. I never understood some of the nns that supposedly come from names but they don’t make any sense - like your example of [name]Posey[/name] for [name]Josephine[/name]. I feel like that’s calling me [name]Ellie[/name] when my name is [name]Jennifer[/name]. Makes no sense.

3

I don’t think that’s true at all - [name]Posey[/name] is a nickname for [name]Josephine[/name], probably because of [name]Josie[/name] [name]Posey[/name]. It just evolved over time. LOTS of nicknames fit into this category - i.e. [name]Jack[/name] for [name]John[/name], [name]Peggy[/name] for [name]Margaret[/name], [name]Harry[/name] for [name]Henry[/name], etc. I think historically this was more common than it is now.

4

I think this fits me perfectly! It might be long…

I’m [name]Pollyanna[/name] [name]Mae[/name], always called [name]Polly[/name] except by my grandparents who insist on the full [name]Pollyanna[/name]. At school I was always just [name]Polly[/name] and I always introduce myself as [name]Polly[/name], but I am a Obstetrician so at work I am Dr. [name]Pollyanna[/name] [name]Ford[/name]. I’m definitely a Type 1 on your scale.
My hubby is [name]John[/name] but because he is a second generation [name]John[/name] he is always referred to as [name]Jack[/name],strictly [name]Jack[/name], we have been together for 14 years and I have never heard anyone call him [name]John[/name] except for official use and calling out his name for an appointment but he quickly corrects them! I’d say he is a Type 1 as well. I just saw your pp, I’d say [name]Jack[/name] is a well known nickname for [name]John[/name] that’s why I put it in this category.

Our first son is [name]Edward[/name], never gets called [name]Edward[/name] except by my grandparents, he is [name]Teddy[/name] or occasionally [name]Ned[/name] to everyone else. He is in prep and on his admission forms there was a nickname box so I wrote [name]Teddy[/name] in it. [name]Even[/name] on the class roll [name]Teddy[/name] is in brackets. When he was 3 he had this thing about being called [name]Edward[/name], always saying “Me [name]Edward[/name]” but that stopped an he only introduces himself as [name]Teddy[/name] now. He is probably a Type 2 only because there are so many nicknames for [name]Edward[/name].
Our second son is [name]Maxwell[/name], always a [name]Max[/name], except again to my grandparents, at preschool he is always referred to as [name]Max[/name]. [name]Max[/name] also introduces himself as [name]Max[/name], he can’t quite grasp that his name is [name]Maxwell[/name]. Another Type 1.
Our third son is [name]August[/name], he gets a mixture of [name]Gus[/name] and [name]August[/name]…it just depends on how we are feeling, he is 2 so no school for him yet but I’ll probably put [name]Gus[/name] as his nickname or let him decide. He can’t say [name]August[/name] so it’s always [name]Gus[/name] for him. I guess he is a Type 1 as well, but leaning towards a Type 2 :slight_smile:

That’s us. I am considering a bit of an unusual one if one of our twins is a girl, [name]Adelaide[/name] nn [name]Edie[/name], not many people like it but if she always introduces herself as [name]Edie[/name] then I don’t think we will have much of a problem.
Sorry I went on and on, I’m not one for a few quick words.
[name]Polly[/name]

5

I had a “type 2” nickname… not given to me by my parents. I always had to correct the few people who would call me by a nick name since I was 3. I never liked nicknames for any one. If you want to call someone by a nickname I suggest naming them that name.

However, I don’t want to sound like a [name]Debbie[/name] Downer and in your instance you seem to love [name]Maggie[/name]. I suppose since it worked for you, it will work for your child too.

6

Oh, don’t get me wrong! Lol - I do love [name]Maggie[/name], but I wish that had just been my name. I love [name]Margaret[/name], too, but I hate that my legal name doesn’t really represent who I am. I’m with you on this one! However, I tend to like lots of nicknames ([name]Betsy[/name], [name]Hattie[/name], etc.) and a lot of name nerds don’t seem to like using a nickname-sounding name as a legal name because they don’t think it will age well. So I’m just trying to get opinions :slight_smile:

7

Well, I’m [name]Jasmine[/name] [name]Lee[/name], and I’ve had at least 20 different nicknames in my life.

There is the obvious [name]Jaz[/name] and Jassy, but I’m normally introduced as [name]Jasmine[/name], and when the people are more comfortable around me, they ask first, or automatically start to call me [name]Jaz[/name].

Obviously, my general nn ([name]Jaz[/name]) has SO many different spellings, and sometimes I don’t really know which spelling to choose!!

Of course you have those nicknames that your friends randomly call you. In 7th grade, being the tallest/strongest girl in my class, I was nicknamed [name]Jaz[/name]-man and [name]Jaz[/name]-manly ([name]Jasmine[/name] [name]Lee[/name].) Eventually my whole class called my Jazmanly, [name]Jaz[/name] is [name]Manly[/name], [name]Jazzman[/name] and so on. (annoying!) It eventually wore back to [name]Jaz[/name] again though :).

[name]Just[/name] this year I started getting J-man, J-[name]Mitch[/name], J-[name]Mitchell[/name] (my last name) my one particular friend, which is fine.

So yeah, I guess I’m a mix of 1 and 2, and a bit of 3!!

My brother strictly goes by [name]Tom[/name], not [name]Thomas[/name]. Unless someone is teasing him or a lesser seen grandparent is talking to him, he gets [name]Thomas[/name].

On the other hand, my little brother, [name]Jacob[/name], is a no.1 and 3. He was born in summer, and we used to eat corn a lot, especially him as he grew up. He started getting corn-cob, and eventually turned into Cobbie. He rarely goes by [name]Jake[/name], or [name]Jakie[/name]. He never gets called [name]Jacob[/name] though, accept at his kindergarten.

Sorry for writing heaps…

~[name]Jasmine[/name]

8

Well, I had a very obvious nickname. [name]Kim[/name] for [name]Kimberly[/name].
On the first day of school teachers would always say something like, “Let me know what name you want to be called or if I mispronounce it” and I’d say [name]Kim[/name] and it would be over for the year.

My mother occasionally calls me [name]Kimberly[/name] and my grandmother used to call me Kimbow but other than that it’s never been an issue going by a nickname.

At work my email and my nameplate both say [name]Kim[/name] and most people don’t even know that I’m a [name]Kimberly[/name].

In my family, most people either don’t have nicknames or have very obvious ones: [name]Jon[/name] for [name]Jonathan[/name], [name]Jake[/name] for [name]Jacob[/name], [name]Kate[/name] for [name]Kaitlyn[/name], etc. So I can’t really speak for the “weirder” nicknames, though I personally love them, I don’t know a single person with a strange nickname.

9

My name is Natacha, I have soo many nicknames I don’t know where to start. My mother always called me Natacha. My husband calls me tash (actually a nickname I despise, but I never told him), tasha the second time he has to call me, and finally NA-TA-CHA! if I’m really not paying attention. I have friends that call me [name]Nat[/name], [name]Nattie[/name], and [name]Tasha[/name]. No wonder I never listen or respond to my name!

10

Mine pretty obvious - [name]Cassie[/name] for [name]Cassandra[/name]. I go mostly by [name]Cassandra[/name] at work, [name]Cassie[/name] everywhere else.

My son does not go by a nickname ([name]Caleb[/name]), but [name]Melody[/name] is [name]Mel[/name] about half of the time and [name]Quintin[/name] is [name]Quinn[/name] almost all of the time.

11

I have A LOT of different nicknames (from both first and middle names, and also initials), most of them are invented by my friends. However, I almost always introduced myself by my legal first name. Seems like many people just prefer to ignore it.

12

My legal name is [name]Theresa[/name], but my parents named me that with the intention of calling me [name]Tressa[/name] since birth (they wanted me to have a saint’s name).
I rarely go by [name]Theresa[/name], but if someone calls me it unknowingly, i dont correct them because it’s refreshing to be called something else every now and then. And more often than not, I’m never going to see that person again anyway. The only time I correct people is if they call me [name]Tessa[/name], [name]Tracy[/name], or some other name thats not either of my two.

I guess I’m a 3 :slight_smile:

13

I go by my full name professionally and socially.

But at home I have a very different pet name, strictly for my parents and DH. Nobody else even knows it. Then there are a bunch of semi obvious nn’s that my grandparents and other relatives would pick and choose at random as they please. lol

ETA: my DH calls me either the full name or the pet name, never any of the nn’s.

14

I go by a nickname from my middle name. It’s obvious if you know the middle name, but it’s a Mcword, so it isn’t obvious if I’m at the doctor’s office or somewhere. I was always introduced and always introduce myself by my nickname.
It turns out that about half the people in my department at work go by their middle names, but you wouldn’t know it until you had to look at office paperwork. We all just go by the names we have gone by our whole lives.
The opposite also drives me crazy. I always introduce my son as [name]Gabriel[/name] and that is what I call him in every conversation. But just a few people totally ignore that and decide to give him a nickname - “[name]How[/name]'s [name]Gabe[/name]?” Well, [name]Gabriel[/name] is fine.

15

I was born overseas and had a foreign name that, in that country, had a nickname that over here would be considered EXTREMELY controversial. Fortunately, I go by another name that’s American and has nothing to do with my birth name. I will probably get my first name legally changed eventually and keep my birth name as a middle name or something for my parents.

16

My name’s [name]Margaret[/name] as well and I usual just go by my full name. I’ve been called [name]Madgie[/name], [name]Maggie[/name], [name]Mar[/name] and Marg. Next school year I would like people to start calling me [name]Maggie[/name]. It would be easier because my name gets misspelled a lot :wink:

17

My name is [name]Emma[/name], but I have gone by [name]Mimi[/name] since kindergarten, and honestly, no one ever calls me [name]Emma[/name]. It just doesn’t fit me. [name]Every[/name] year, I have to keep repeating myself to teachers that I’m [name]Mimi[/name] not [name]Emma[/name]. A lot of the time when they call attendance, all the other kids sit up and look around to see who the new girl is. That’s kind of why I don’t mind if a child has to spell out their name for others, cause that’s kind of what I do. I don’t think it’s a big deal. And then everyone asks how I got my nickname, and it’s because I was in a ballet class of eight, four being named [name]Emma[/name]. No joke. I didn’t wanna be [name]Emma[/name] R. because that just sounds like Emmar. We searched for a few weeks for a nickname and finally chose it when I read a book called Mimmy and [name]Sophie[/name]. And I’d just had a sister named [name]Sophie[/name] so I liked it. I don’t know why I changed the spelling. The only bad thing about my name is it means grandmother in french, it is a character of a lot of poodles in T.V, books, movies, and on nameberry it says my name means “sea of bitterness.” So that’s my name. I think you could give a child an unusual nickname, and they’d have about as trouble as me, which is not a lot. There are worse things to have in a name, I think. I don’t mind correcting people. :slight_smile:

18

Oooh, yes. My legal name is [name]Katrina[/name], but right from the get-go I’m know as just plain [name]Kat[/name]. I started high school this past [name]September[/name], and introduced myself as [name]Katrina[/name] to everyone, but within an hour or two everyone had already decided that three syllables was too much to say :stuck_out_tongue: I’m probably a reluctant Type 1. [name]Even[/name] the teachers call me [name]Kat[/name], so when they slip into the full name I instinctively think I’m in trouble for something! People instinctively nickname me - I’ve been known as Kataroo, Kitten, Kite, [name]Kitty[/name], [name]Kit[/name], [name]Kit[/name]-[name]Kat[/name]-[name]Bar[/name], and loads more. It gets crazy when there are three people with separate nicknames all calling you at the same time. XD
I’m hoping to legally change my name within the next year or two, so we’ll see if the new name ends up being a Type 1 again or not. :slight_smile:

19

My name is [name]Hannah[/name] so I go mostly by Han. At work & at school I was called [name]Hannah[/name] but always Han at home. When I was younger I was obsessed with Pancakes so my mum started calling me ‘Hancakes’.

My daugther [name]Eden[/name] goes by [name]Edie[/name] at home & [name]Annaliese[/name] goes by [name]Anna[/name]. :slight_smile:

20

I didn’t have a nickname growing up considering my name is [name]Alix[/name], not much to work with there. When I met my husband he would call me [name]Alfie[/name] because my initials spell [name]ALF[/name]. He only calls me that when playing around though. Otherwise I’m just [name]Alix[/name].

My sister though is [name]Anna[/name], one of many many [name]Anna[/name]'s, and she of course has been called everything from [name]Annie[/name] to [name]Annabell[/name]. However, I call her [name]Nan[/name]. It started when she was lil she asked how to spell her name and was told 2 a’s and 2 n’s so she spelled it Aann, and [name]Anna[/name] is a palindrome, so I made her name reversed Naan, which turned into [name]Nan[/name]. I am the only one who calls her [name]Nan[/name] and only in a crowd of other people with like sounding names or just being sweet, so I goes that is a type 3