What are some great boy names with useable short forms / nicknames? Specifically a nickname that comes from the beginning of the name or is otherwise really obvious. My family tends to shorten ALL names, so I’m trying to think ahead and make sure I actually like the nn too!
It seems that lots of names I really like can’t be fairly shortened - like [name_u]Sawyer[/name_u] just can’t be Soy, and [name_m]Nolan[/name_m] wouldn’t want to be called [name_m]Nole[/name_m]. We had dropped [name_m]Grayson[/name_m] from the list because we didn’t want him to be just [name_u]Gray[/name_u]. We chose [name_m]Kyler[/name_m] for our son partially because we were cool with the family calling him [name_m]Ky[/name_m]. (My guilty pleasure is [name_u]River[/name_u] nn Riv.)
I’d like to stay away from super popular names from my generation even though there are tons with short forms ([name_m]Christopher[/name_m], [name_m]Matthew[/name_m], [name_m]David[/name_m], [name_m]Jeffrey[/name_m], [name_m]Jason[/name_m]). I don’t mind current popular names though.
Thanks for any help. I’d be more specific but I don’t really know my style!
That’s great to think ahead, rather then choose a name only to hate the shortened form later!
[name_f]Emilyn[/name_f], [name_m]Kyler[/name_m] &
[name_m]Asher[/name_m]/[name_u]Ashton[/name_u] nn [name_u]Ash[/name_u]
[name_m]Benjamin[/name_m] nn [name_m]Benji[/name_m]
[name_m]Bennett[/name_m] nn [name_m]Ben[/name_m] or [name_m]Benny[/name_m]
[name_u]Brayden[/name_u] nn [name_u]Bray[/name_u]
[name_u]Cameron[/name_u] nn [name_u]Cam[/name_u]
[name_m]Charles[/name_m] nn [name_u]Charlie[/name_u]
[name_u]Colby[/name_u]/[name_m]Colton[/name_m] nn [name_m]Cole[/name_m]
[name_m]Cyrus[/name_m] nn [name_m]Cy[/name_m]
[name_m]Desmond[/name_m] nn [name_m]Dez[/name_m]
[name_u]Dexter[/name_u] nn [name_m]Dex[/name_m]
[name_m]Elijah[/name_m] nn [name_m]Eli[/name_m]
[name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] nn [name_m]Gabe[/name_m]
[name_u]Hudson[/name_u] nn Hud
[name_u]Jaden[/name_u] nn [name_f]Jade[/name_f]
[name_m]Jasper[/name_m] nn [name_u]Jaz[/name_u]
[name_m]Louis[/name_m] nn [name_u]Lou[/name_u]
[name_u]Mason[/name_u] nn Mase
[name_m]Maxwell[/name_m] nn [name_u]Max[/name_u]
[name_m]Oliver[/name_m] nn [name_u]Ollie[/name_u]
[name_u]Paxton[/name_u] nn [name_u]Pax[/name_u]
[name_u]Rowan[/name_u] nn Row
[name_m]Silas[/name_m] nn [name_u]Si[/name_u]
[name_m]Slater[/name_m] nn [name_u]Slate[/name_u]
[name_u]Tristan[/name_u] nn [name_u]Tris[/name_u]
I think [name_m]Nolan[/name_m] ‘[name_m]Nole[/name_m]’ works great. [name_u]Noel[/name_u] (pronounced the same) is a name after all. I also like [name_m]Grayson[/name_m] ‘[name_u]Gray[/name_u]’. But I won’t try to talk you back into ones you’ve eliminated!
Great suggestions! We both really like the nn [name_m]Cole[/name_m]. I’ve seen it as a full name and liked too. I’ll add [name_m]Colton[/name_m] to our growing list. I wonder if there’s more ways to get the nn [name_m]Cole[/name_m]?
Hubby wants to add [name_m]Asher[/name_m]. He’s always liked [name_u]Ashton[/name_u] (but I didn’t). I like that [name_m]Asher[/name_m] pairs well with [name_m]Kyler[/name_m], much like [name_u]River[/name_u] (which I adore).
[name_m]Don[/name_m]'t feel bad to resuggest [name_m]Grayson[/name_m] either. I think nn [name_u]Gray[/name_u] is growing on me. I’m starting to see it as a dignified stand-alone name, and less of a dull color word. The new problem is that a good but distant friend just named one of her twins [name_m]Grayson[/name_m].
I also like the suggestions of [name_u]Everett[/name_u] and [name_u]Rowan[/name_u]. [name_m]Rhett[/name_m] is a cool nn, though the family will need some swaying to go there instead of Ev. [name_u]Rowan[/name_u] sounds beautiful to me, I wouldn’t want to shorten it! I also like some names with the nn [name_m]Eli[/name_m], mostly because I like the flow of “[name_f]Emi[/name_f], [name_m]Ky[/name_m], and [name_m]Eli[/name_m]”. I had heavily considered [name_u]Elias[/name_u] nn [name_m]Eli[/name_m] during my last pregnancy, but so many people had difficulty pronouncing it! I was surprised and disheartened.
Is there a particular reason you can’t use [name_u]River[/name_u]? It sounds like you really like it, and it doesn’t seem more unusual to me than [name_m]Kyler[/name_m] (it’s higher up the US popularity charts than [name_m]Kyler[/name_m], too). I know a [name_u]River[/name_u], nn Riv, who’s in his 20s. It works fine.
The simple reason we can’t use [name_u]River[/name_u] is because hubby doesn’t even take me seriously when I suggest it! He sees it just like giving the name Tree or Pond. Bummer.
I’ll try adding some more names, then. Sorry if I miss the mark - I’m not always good at picking up the subtleties of people’s style. I’'ll try to avoid repeats.
It might be worth bringing Elias up again - I think sometimes people just need a bit of time to get used to a name. It’s not an unusual name (at #100, it’s more common in the USA than Kyler, Jonah, Everett, Brody or Declan ), so most people won’t have trouble pronouncing it.
Maybe your friends and family will find it easier to pronounce now that they’ve heard it before. They’ll soon learn how to say it once they use it in everyday conversation, too.
Great suggestions. I really like [name_m]Wilder[/name_m]. I call my little guy Wyler as a silly nn. And I once had a gerbil named [name_m]Ezra[/name_m], and cat named [name_m]Decker[/name_m], so you [name_f]DO[/name_f] know my style!
[name_m]Levi[/name_m] is interesting. [name_f]Do[/name_f] you think the nn [name_m]Lev[/name_m] (with a short e) is feasible?
[name_m]Alexander[/name_m] called ‘[name_m]Xander[/name_m]’, [name_u]Finley[/name_u] called ‘[name_u]Finn[/name_u]’, [name_m]Gabriel[/name_m] called '[name_m]Gabe[/name_m], and [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] called ‘[name_u]Teddy[/name_u]’ are my favorites:)
There’s also names like these:
[name_m]Andrew[/name_m] - ‘[name_u]Drew[/name_u]’
[name_m]Daxton[/name_m] - ‘[name_m]Dax[/name_m]’
[name_u]Devon[/name_u] - ‘[name_m]Dev[/name_m]’
[name_m]Jackson[/name_m] - ‘[name_m]Jack[/name_m]’
[name_m]Trevor[/name_m] - ‘[name_m]Trev[/name_m]’
[name_m]Westley[/name_m] - ‘[name_m]Wes[/name_m]’ or ‘[name_u]West[/name_u]’
Colson or Coleson is another, much less common way to get to the nn. [name_m]Cole[/name_m].
There have been so many good ones mentioned, but I’ll add a few:
[name_m]Caden[/name_m] or [name_m]Kaden[/name_m] nn. [name_u]Cade[/name_u]/[name_u]Kade[/name_u]
[name_m]Casen[/name_m] or [name_m]Cason[/name_m] nn. [name_m]Case[/name_m]
[name_m]Casper[/name_m] or [name_m]Caspian[/name_m] nn. [name_m]Cas[/name_m]
[name_m]Kelvin[/name_m] nn. Kel
I think [name_m]Lev[/name_m] works fine. If you think you can convince your family to say “[name_m]Lev[/name_m]” (rather than “Leev”), I doubt anyone else will find it strange. And [name_m]Lev[/name_m] is a name in its own right, so people shouldn’t have trouble with pronunciation.
My understanding is that Leh-vee is a valid pronunciation - probably the “proper” one, really, since it seems to be how it’s pronounced by Hebrew speakers. The [name_m]French[/name_m] and Italian pronunciations also have a short e or an é (I checked those ones because the most famous Levis I could think of are [name_m]Primo[/name_m] [name_m]Levi[/name_m] and [name_u]Claude[/name_u] Lévi-Strauss)
So, “leh-vee” is a perfectly fine way to pronounce [name_m]Levi[/name_m], though I think most Australians (and Americans, if that’s where you are) would probably say [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-vye.
[name_m]Even[/name_m] if you say [name_u]Lee[/name_u]-vye, I think [name_m]Lev[/name_m] is fine as a nn. If [name_u]Elias[/name_u] and [name_m]Elijah[/name_m] can go by [name_m]Eli[/name_m] (with a long E - “ee-lye”), then I think [name_m]Levi[/name_m] can go by [name_m]Lev[/name_m] with a short e.
Thanks for the research on [name_m]Lev[/name_m]. I saw it once and thought it was a good name - though I didn’t know if it was that person’s full name or nn.
But back to your example of [name_u]Elias[/name_u]. When I first heard the name it was pronounced el-[name_u]LEE[/name_u]-us, with short e at the beginning and emphasis on the second syllable. Since looking up the name, it seems like the correct pronunciation is ee-LIE-us, making [name_m]Eli[/name_m] an easy nn. I like both pronunciations, but prefer the first. Does anyone know which is more common or correct? Or why the variation? Thanks!