There have probably been many similar threads, but I can’t seem to find any. [name]How[/name] common is nickname usage among the people you know? [name]Do[/name] people tend to use their full names all the time or use a nickname (with friends and family at least, if not in general)? Oh, it might help to know where you live if your location’s not already in your profile.
The majority of people in my high school go by their full names 98% of the time. Some people have cute or fun nicknames for friends e.g. [name]Kat[/name] for [name]Katarina[/name] or [name]Jules[/name] for [name]Julia[/name], but few people exclusively use a nickname and most don’t have one at all. There are a lot of people going by nicknames at my church but just common ones like [name]Ben[/name] for [name]Benjamin[/name]. Surprisingly, many people whose names have common nicknames e.g. [name]David[/name], [name]Katherine[/name] go by their full names. I can’t think of anyone who goes by a “creative” or unusual nickname.
I think for my friends it’s pretty split down the middle. Though with the exception of my SO and his sister, people who go by their full names have shorter names, like [name]Sarah[/name] or [name]Erin[/name] and people with longer names tend to have nn. Like [name]Katherine[/name] and [name]Kathryn[/name] who go by IE and Y.
[name]Both[/name] of my best friends go by short forms of their name. [name]Jaclyn[/name] has gone by [name]Jackie[/name] since she was a child, but [name]Margaret[/name] only started going by [name]Maggie[/name] in the 8th grade. Other friends [name]Kaylen[/name], [name]Justine[/name], [name]Lauren[/name] and [name]Shannon[/name] go by [name]Kay[/name], [name]Steen[/name], Lo and [name]Shan[/name]/[name]Shanny[/name] when we’re just hanging out, but go by their full names most of the time.
I know plenty of people who don’t have nicknames.
I know an [name]Ida[/name] and there’s no proper nicknames for that name, so she just goes by [name]Ida[/name].
My best friends ([name]Emily[/name] and [name]Kristen[/name] but with a different spelling) go by their full names to the majority of the world, but strictly family or closest friends will shorten them. For the first friend, I shorten her name probably 75%of the time, but the other friend I have probably never called her by a nickname, though her family and husband all do!
I have a 3 syllable first name (can ya guess from my profile name, lol), and go by a nickname 99.999% of the time, but it varies between two nn’s.
Dad- nickname, mom- full name (but not many nn options for her name). Brother has same name as dad, but goes by a different nn.
Boyfriend- goes by nn all the time, though i do enjoy using his full name often. I don’t like the nn [name]Jeff[/name] as much as the full name. I also call him [name]Jeffy[/name] which he doesn’t mind but doesn’t care for it to be called out in public, either!!
At work, every single coworker that i interact with daily goes by their full name except for the two Mikes, and a [name]Chris[/name].
Boyfriend’s family has a number of people who answer to their middle names instead. Nicknames used for the youngin’s (expected ones and random ones- [name]Sam[/name], and [name]Kiki[/name] for [name]MacKenzie[/name]). There are also a LOT of Mikes in the family!
I feel like for most of the people I know, it depends on the name. [name]Kelly[/name] and [name]Amber[/name] have no reason to shorten their names. What would they even use if they wanted to? Kel and Am? Those both sound really awkward. However, my name, [name]Alexandra[/name], is 4 syllables with a good half-dozen nicknames that could come out of it, and I go by [name]Alex[/name]. I know a few people that go by a 3-syllable name, like [name]Jessica[/name], but they usually fall in a grey area where they sometimes get called the full name and sometimes [name]Jess[/name] or [name]Jessie[/name]. I can’t think of anyone I know with a 4-syllable name that doesn’t go by a nickname pretty much exclusively, and no one off the top of my head with a 3-syllable name that doesn’t go by a nickname at least part of the time.
I’m [name]Theresa[/name], nn [name]Tressa[/name], but I was only given the birthname [name]Theresa[/name] so that I could have a saint’s name. I’ve been exclusively [name]Tressa[/name] since day 1.
The girls I nanny for (see signature) all go exclusively by their full names. Although we have to correct many who call Samantha a nn, the others are never even accidentally called a nn.
Many of my family members go by either their middle names or their nicknames, to the point where it’s rare to hear them called anything else.
[name]Barbara[/name] (my grandmother; often goes by her middle name [name]Loree[/name], or Granny)
[name]Jacqueline[/name] ‘[name]Jackie[/name]’
[name]Paul[/name] ‘[name]Pete[/name]’
Johnnielene ‘[name]Johnnie[/name]’
[name]DeNiece[/name] ‘Niecy’
[name]Michael[/name] ‘[name]Mike[/name]’
[name]Richard[/name] ‘Runt’
[name]Scott[/name] (often goes by ‘[name]Scottie[/name]’)
[name]Michael[/name] ‘[name]Mikey[/name]’ (son of [name]Michael[/name] ‘[name]Mike[/name]’)
[name]Matthew[/name] ‘[name]Matt[/name]’