So my bosses children’s names are [name]Noah[/name] [name]Adam[/name] & [name]Aaron[/name] [name]Jonah[/name] which I think are such cute and biblical names. However, [name]Aaron[/name] [name]Jonah[/name] goes by A.J. I feel like his name is too beautiful to simply be cut by initials. So my question is what are your thoughts on giving your child initials as a name? Is it weird? I don’t like it much but I want to here your thoughts.
Thanks!
When you say initials as a name, do you literally mean just legally naming them TJ or TeeJay etc (and I knew one of those once, actually) or do you mean doing what your boss did and giving them full names but calling them their initials as a NN?
I’d call a kid by their initials, especially if there are limited good options for nicknames with their FN - like with [name]Aidan[/name], which is on my own list - but I wouldn’t name him AJ, even though I am fond of [name]Aidan[/name] [name]Joel[/name] and would call him A.J. for short.
There is a chance my husband and I (TTC #1) will name our first son [name]Daniel[/name] [name]James[/name], a name to honor my side of the family (my husband’s suggestion!). I find [name]Daniel[/name] and [name]James[/name] both horribly boring, because of their long-running popularity, and have thought of calling him D.J. I’m just not sure how I feel about that. We would be calling him by a sound that ISN’T his given name. I almost feel like, if we are going to call him D.J., why name him [name]Daniel[/name] [name]James[/name] at all, since we wouldn’t really be “honoring” the family name in daily usage? I can’t decide how I feel about this one.
My husband and I want to name our first boy, if and when he comes along, after our fathers (as my husband was named after his grandfathers – family tradition!). We’ve always said we’d shorten [name]Edward[/name] [name]James[/name] to E.J., because we’re not fans of the many variations on [name]Edward[/name]. Around here I’ve noticed that lots of people aren’t crazy about calling a child by initials like that, though. I’m very curious to see how others respond to this thread!
That said, I’ve also found, among the many fantastic bits of advice around here, other fun ways of shortening these names, such as [name]Eames[/name] (E from [name]Edward[/name] + ames from [name]James[/name]) or Edge ([name]Ed[/name]-J).
My husband’s name is [name]Daniel[/name] [name]Paul[/name] and we thought about naming our son [name]Daniel[/name] [name]Paul[/name] [name]Jr[/name]. and calling him D.J. We decided not too, because we had another name we really loved which we did use. If we had done it though, we probably would have called him [name]Daniel[/name] a lot of the times too, but just doing a mixture of the both. I’m not sure I have decided on how I feel about initial nicknames! I think they are nice I guess but not for constant use.
My brother is [name]Thomas[/name] [name]James[/name] and has ALWAYS gone by TJ, my mom planned it that way.
I ahve been considering trying to call my son CJ because I don’t actually care for his first name.
I don’t think its necessarily weird to go by initials, but its not something I care for personally. To me, initial names pretty much always sound like the person is under 17, I can’t imagine meeting an adult who goes by AJ or CJ and taking them very seriously.
My husband is a junior and has always gone by RJ to avoid the confusion of having 2 Ralphs in the house.
I’m not a big fan of the initial ‘names’ AJ, DJ, KJ, BJ, KC, etc. I think they sound dated and a bit boring.
However, I do like the idea of using initials as another nickname option.
It’s sort of a tradition in my family to do that.
Example:
[name]Nicolette[/name] [name]Yvonne[/name] Carrington (NYC) called Nyc/[name]Nic[/name]
[name]Zachery[/name] [name]Amos[/name] Carrington ([name]ZAC[/name]) called [name]Zac[/name]
[name]Leonard[/name] [name]Evan[/name] [name]Owens[/name] ([name]LEO[/name]) called [name]Leo[/name]
[name]Chloe[/name] [name]Livia[/name] [name]Owens[/name] ([name]CLO[/name]) called [name]Clo[/name]/Chlo
[name]Even[/name] if it doesn’t directly correlate to your name, I love the idea of initials spelling something
I don’t mind it at all. My brother is an AJ so I’ve grown up hearing it and think it’s a cool nickname. I actuall don’t hear this as much as I thought I would. I know of a JP ([name]John[/name]-[name]Paul[/name]) and a JB, the latter is a four year old who really dislikes his name [name]Jacob[/name]).
My first reaction is to think it’s a pity to shorten a beautiful name down to initials, BUT on the other hand we did call our Zephan “Z-Boy” for awhile (Z is such a fun letter to say!). A friend of my [name]BIL[/name] goes by “H” – I have no idea what the man’s name is other than H! My friend calls her daughter [name]Penelope[/name] “Miss P” and one of my sisters is sometimes called “T”. So I guess I don’t mind one-initial inventions but find first-middle abbreviations like T.J. and A.J. particularly dull. Which may be kind of strange, but there it is.
In general though, I prefer:
Unusual invented nns such as Edge for [name]Edmund[/name] [name]James[/name]
Interesting derivatives such as [name]Ian[/name] for [name]Caspian[/name]
Historic nns such as [name]Sadie[/name] for [name]Sarah[/name]
Naming your kid A.J. or Ayjay or A-J or Aj? Not for me. Seems like it could be awfully confusing.
Of course, you could also use just an initial for revenge like H. [name]Norman[/name] Schwarzkopf, haha.
Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. - Wikipedia.
I don’t mind initials, it’s been around for a long time. I loved DJ on Full House.
Personally, I can’t imagine going through all the work and joy and pride of choosing the perfect name, only to call the child by their initials. That being said, I know several people who go by their initials (A.J, C.J, J.D etc) and they suit these people very well.
Sometimes when considering the combination [name]Cordelia[/name] [name]Catherine[/name], I contemplate the idea of CeCe.
@kala_way - what a cool tradition!! I love that their initials spell out their obvious nicknames.
I think it is fine.