I know there are lots of names out there with really obvious nn’s, or that are really easy to shorten, a fact that lots of people dislike. But Nameberry - and other sites - have lists of names without nn’s to supposedly ensure that the child’s name can’t be shortened.
Now, my name is [name]Nora[/name], and one of my best friends is named [name]Claire[/name], and our friends at school when I was younger quite easily turned my name into [name]Nori[/name] and my friend’s name into [name]Clairy[/name], and we are still quite often called by those names. NN’s aren’t always shorter. I’m actually called [name]Nori[/name] almost as often as I’m called [name]Nora[/name], easily. Another friend of mine named [name]Thea[/name], who you would think couldn’t have any nn’s, has a major pet peeve with people attempting to shorten her name and calling her Thee. My friend [name]Bridget[/name] is frequently called [name]Bridge[/name] by my friend’s family. Meanwhile, my friend Danilla (yes, dan-ILL-ah) should, by virtue of her having a three syllable name, have her name shortened quite a lot. I don’t think I have heard her called by an nn once. My sister has a stuffed bear named [name]Piper[/name] who is always called Pipes or Pipester. I know two girls named [name]Brooke[/name] who are often called [name]Brookie[/name] (or, by one [name]Brooke[/name]'s mother, “the Brookster”). I know a [name]Taite[/name] who is often called Taitie and and an [name]Aaron[/name] who is called Aar-[name]Bear[/name] by his family, and even occasionally by some of his friends!
So that was a very long-winded way of saying that I really don’t think there are any foolproof names without nn’s out there. Thoughts, Berries?
I think nicknames are avoidable. I lived my whole life as a [name]Diana[/name]. I only ever had one friend who shortened it to [name]Di[/name] and I am very rarely called D…
It just depends on your parents and friends. If your friend gives you a nickname and you like it, they’ll continue to use it. I have [name]Emily[/name]'s as a friends and it just so happened one preferred [name]Emily[/name], another preferred [name]Em[/name], and the third one preferred [name]Emmy[/name].
I also had a friend named [name]Elizabeth[/name] who refused to be called anything but [name]Elizabeth[/name], so we only called her [name]Elizabeth[/name]. (only her dad gets to call her [name]Lizzie[/name])
So I think nicknames are avoidable as long as you choose not to use them.
Well, having a name like [name]Jasmine[/name] is one of those names where nn’s stick like glue.
Here is a short list on just some of my nn’s:
[name]Jaz[/name]
[name]Jazzy[/name]
[name]Jazzman[/name]
Jazzmanly ([name]Jasmine[/name] [name]Lee[/name])
[name]Minnie[/name]
J-man
[name]Jaz[/name] [name]Baz[/name]
[name]Jazzy[/name] Wazzy
[name]Jazzy[/name] Swazzy
Officer [name]Jasmine[/name] ( a policewoman called [name]Jasmine[/name] visited my class, and it stuck)
J-[name]Mitch[/name] (My last name is [name]Mitchell[/name])
J-[name]Mitchell[/name]
J-[name]Mitchell[/name]-Twitchell ([name]Ian[/name] Twitchell was a man on the school notice board at my school)
Jasmint
J-Z (as in the singer)
[name]Jasmina[/name]
[name]Jasmina[/name] the Wiener (by my favorite teacher!)
I think every name is prone to having nicknames, unfortunately, mine is one of the major ones.
[name]Even[/name] if you had a name like ‘[name]Eve[/name]’ your probably going to get ‘[name]Evie[/name]’
I have an Uncle & Aunt who taught my cousin to always correct those who try to shorten her first name to a nickname. Yet, their younger two children goes by a shorten version of their name.
I have a niece who goes by her nickname which is derived from her middle name. A long story with that. Anyone knows her, knows her by her nn. I think only a few knows her first name and usually teachers know it, but still call her by her nn.
Another niece usually go by her first name, yet, one or two people have their own personal nn for her. She usually only let that person call her that. Lol I call her my Chunky Chocolate Chipmunk–she will not let anyone else call her that. Sometimes she will let the youngest niece call her Chipmunk.
Although I usually introduce myself with my given name, I have a couple of nicknames:
NN1: Is what I am usually called among family; especially, since the nieces and the younger cousins came around. I couldn’t stand them butchering my name, so I remembered a lady use to call me this nn when I was younger and decided to go with it. Also, other small children have adapted to calling me this, which is perfectly fine. Most of the time adults will call me this if they here the children say it, if not they will say my given name. (Confusing?)
NN2: Was given to me by a HS buddy, so some others followed with it. Didn’t really care, since it was a okay nn.
I know a [name]Sloane[/name] who gets Sloanie at school!
There are names without an automatic shortening, but i think every name has the potential for nicknames.
My name is [name]Caroline[/name] and I’ve never had a nickname that stuck.
I agree that a nickname doesn’t have to be shorter that the original name though, for instance my niece is named [name]Isabelle[/name], and we never shorten her name, we always call her [name]Isabelle[/name], and as a pet name we call her Isabelly and usually make songs up with this name, like we sing to her ‘My Isabelly has got a belly full of jelly.’
My name is [name]Eva[/name], and I’m almost always called [name]Evie[/name]. I don’t think there are any names with absolutely NO nicknames…but some that are close…
[name]Isla[/name]
…that’s all I can think of.
I have an [name]Audrey[/name] who is so far nickname-less, except for my DH who calls her by her middle name. I’ve tried to shorten in but don’t care for [name]Aud[/name] or [name]Audre[/name]. Maybe she’ll get a nn once she’s a little older.
What about cutesy names like [name]Lily[/name], [name]Ellie[/name], [name]Rudy[/name], and such? I suppose [name]Ellie[/name] could be shortened to [name]El[/name], but I have never heard a [name]Lil[/name] or [name]Rude[/name], lol.
I think once the child is in college and beyond it’s very easy to enforce the full name.
My full name has 3 syllables and many ready made nicknames. My loving relatives would help themselves with any of them and I answer to them all. However, outside home I am always known by my full name. When I was little some close friends might shorten them informally. But it never stuck. Once I was at college age and beyond I would just introduce myself by my full name and that’s it. Again only very good friends would try to shorten them and only on rare occasions.
I’m [name]Marisa[/name] and with the exception of my mother occasionally calling me Ris or [name]Risa[/name] and my favorite teacher in high school calling me [name]Maris[/name] for some reason I’ve never really had a nickname. I think that’s probly the same for all the -arissa/-issa/-elissa names. It always annoys me when names that really lend themselves to nicknames like [name]Samantha[/name] or [name]Joseph[/name] but they don’t use them. I guess it’s up to the parents but I just feel like it’d such a mouthful and it always sounds like they’re in trouble.
I agree that [name]Lily[/name] and [name]Isla[/name] would be tough to nickname. Unless you’re getting baby-talked: “[name]Lilly[/name] [name]Billy[/name]” and so on.
Besides the obvious nn’s that come from names directly kids tend to pick up nn’s that have nothing to do with their names at all. my cousin’s daughter is lily but she ( for right now) answers only to Bean! Sometimes we can get away with calling her [name]Lily[/name]-bean, mostly if we forget and start to call her [name]Lily[/name] and she gives an exasperated look. My brother is a [name]Christopher[/name] who is sometimes called [name]Toby[/name] ( degrees of separation: [name]Christopher[/name] was shortened to [name]Topher[/name] which was shortened to [name]Toby[/name]). MY sister [name]Grace[/name] answers to [name]Lu[/name]. I have called my sister ,[name]Cheyanne[/name], Pooke since the day she was born. So even a child with the name [name]May[/name] or something equally nicknameless will get a nick name eventually, even if it has nothing to do with their name.
I can honestly say I have NO nicknames for my name, [name]Malia[/name]. When I was a really young kid, my best friend’s mom called me [name]Mal[/name], but just so she could call us “[name]Mal[/name] and [name]Al[/name]” because my friends name was [name]Ali[/name]. I always hated being called that, thankfully that’s long gone.
I disagree on this since my sister and I always went by our full names [name]Diana[/name] and [name]Melissa[/name]. We knew when we were in trouble when our parents used our full name [name]Diana[/name] [name]Rose[/name] ________ which I think is common for parents to do, so just saying the first name doesn’t make it sound like your in trouble all the time imo
It depends on where, and if, you draw the line between pet names and nicknames. I would say that pet names are something you call friends or family to be cute or as a joke, and nicknames are something more or less official that you could use, say, at work or when introducing yourself. A nickname tends to be derived from your real name while pet names may or may not. To take random examples from PPs: [name]Mal[/name] or Ris or Chipmunk would be pet names, something like [name]Sam[/name] for [name]Samantha[/name] would be a nickname. So yes, long story short I think there are names with no nicknames like [name]Pearl[/name] or [name]Autumn[/name], but every name can have a pet name… [name]Pearly[/name], [name]Ottie[/name] maybe?
My name is [name]Marisa[/name] as well(mA-[name]Ree[/name]-sA) and I’ve always felt the same way, no nicknames .The closest that I’ve come to having a nickname is some times when I was younger my mom would call me [name]Risa[/name] or [name]Maris[/name].
In Australia, we tend to shorten or change as many words as we can (afternoon - arvo, bottle shop - bottlo etc) and of course we do this with names too, it’s generally a sign of friendship. We’ll shorten most names, but if it’s already short we’ll make it longer instead eg [name]Dean[/name] becomes Deano or Deanster. I know some people don’t like nn’s but I love them & it was certainly a high criteria when I was choosing names for my daughters; any names that didn’t have nn’s that I liked didn’t make the final cut.
I think there are some names that lend themselves more readily to nn’s than others eg [name]Elizabeth[/name] ([name]Liz[/name], [name]Lizzie[/name], [name]Beth[/name], [name]Betty[/name] etc) versus [name]Ava[/name] (Av?) but essentially if people want to give you a nn they will think of something and if you don’t want one you can always correct people & never answer to anything but your full name.
I think maybe boy’s names are sometimes harder to change or have fewer options though, as most girls’ names can get either an ‘initial’ nn, an ‘ie’ ending or repetition. Taking a ‘hard’ name to nickname as an example: [name]Leigh[/name] (female) would get L/[name]Elle[/name]/[name]Ellie[/name] or Li-Li while [name]Lee[/name] (male) might get [name]Leo[/name].
And responding to some pp I would say:
[name]Fay[/name] - [name]Fee[/name]
[name]Mae[/name] - [name]Em[/name] or [name]Mimi[/name]
[name]Ian[/name] - Iano
[name]Roy[/name] - [name]Ro[/name], Royster
[name]Fawn[/name] - [name]Fee[/name], Fawny, Ne-ne
[name]Lily[/name] - Lills, L ([name]Elle[/name], [name]Ellie[/name])
[name]Isla[/name] - Isles
