Will Lilith inevitably be shortened to Lily?

We both love the name [name_f]Lilith[/name_f]. My fiance loves it more than me and I’ve been against it as a first name because I believe it will inevitably be shortened to [name_f]Lily[/name_f]. I do not want that. I like [name_f]Lilith[/name_f] by itself, no nickname. So IF we did use [name_f]Lilith[/name_f], I would only want her to be called [name_f]Lilith[/name_f]. I think I already know the answer but it’s probably impossible to enforce [name_f]Lilith[/name_f] only and avoid [name_f]Lily[/name_f] isn’t it?

Since it is only 2 syllables I don’t think you will have any trouble with [name_f]Lilith[/name_f] being called [name_f]Lily[/name_f]. But they can both be shortened to [name_f]Lil[/name_f]… so you might hear that.

When your daughter grows up, you’ll have a great jurisdiction on what people call her. [name_f]Lilith[/name_f] she will be! I know people named [name_f]Danielle[/name_f], [name_u]Meredith[/name_u], and [name_f]Katherine[/name_f] who were never [name_u]Dani[/name_u], [name_f]Mary[/name_f], or [name_f]Kate[/name_f]. If she decides she likes [name_f]Lily[/name_f], however, she will be entitled to let others call her that–but then you should be proud to have a daughter who knows what she wants. If [name_f]Lillith[/name_f] is your name, use it without hesitation.

When she is older, she might want to use the nn [name_f]Lily[/name_f]. Until then, you can always insist that people call her [name_f]Lilith[/name_f]. It is only 2 syllables so I don’t think a nickname will necessarily be used. I know many people with 3 or 4 syllable names (including myself) that never had trouble going by their full name.

Friends of mine used [name_f]Lilith[/name_f] for their baby girl and it never occured to me to ‘shorten’ that to [name_f]Lily[/name_f], since it’s the same amount of syllables. So personally, I don’t think you should worry about that. The nickname [name_f]Lil[/name_f] might be used though (I wouldn’t use that, but others might).

It might be possible for you not to call her [name_f]Lily[/name_f] even though most parents will somehow “sweeten” their kids’ name and add an -y at the end almost naturally, especially when they’re small!
You can never know what their friends will do with th[SUB][/SUB]eir names, maybe she’ll be [name_f]Lily[/name_f], maybe Lithi/Liti or just [name_f]Lil[/name_f]? Maybe she’ll go by [name_f]Lilith[/name_f] her entire life…?!