Naming a baby

theoretica

I know a couple of people who use a longer name than their birth certificate - expanding Billy to William works just as well as the other direction.

SadieO

ripplyuk said:

My parents did the opposite and officially called me the shortened version. I wish they hadn’t. It’s the name on my birth certificate but with everything official, people assume that I’m wrong and my real name must be the longer version. At school, teachers would argue with me that my name isn’t my ‘real’ name. Some would never accept it. 

My friend Jill at primary school had the same issue. I remember a teacher insisting that (a) she'd spelled it wrong and that it should be Gill, (b) that it must be short for Gillian, and that was her real name and (c) that she was being naughty by (trying to) correct a teacher. My poor little 6year old friend was reduced to tears 

krusty101

ripplyuk said:

My parents did the opposite and officially called me the shortened version. I wish they hadn’t. It’s the name on my birth certificate but with everything official, people assume that I’m wrong and my real name must be the longer version. At school, teachers would argue with me that my name isn’t my ‘real’ name. Some would never accept it. This also caused problems with the hospital. I only found out about 10yrs ago that I had been listed under two different names (both short and long versions) and therefore had two completely different sets of medical records. That drama took forever to sort out. 

Worse still, my parents decided to spell my name differently so not only do I have to correct the name itself, but I have to spell it out and people never remember. Even my own granny still spells it the more common way. My name is also very similar to several other names so it gets mixed up with those. My entire life I’ve been correcting people but it’s got to the point where I just let them call me whatever they want. I’m now known by a variety of names, some bearing no resemblance at all to my real name. Of course, this isn’t an option for some official things. 

My advice to any parent-to-be is to name your child something that can’t be confused with anything else and to spell it the usual way. Don’t try to ‘make it unique/special’. It’s a real PITA. 

100% this. My name is unusual in this country but at a glance looks like a popular UK name, so I get called that all the time. It’s so boring correcting people, I only do it when it’s someone I’ll see again. 

olgadapolga

I have a "long" name that I hate, it's a mouthful and has to be spelled out every time. It's used on official documents/GP records etc. My parents have never called me anything other than the shortened version.  Neither has anyone else, once they've been corrected the first time I meet anyone (which includes my GP and hospital consultants). I really don't like my long-version name but it goes with my middle name, unlike the shortened version. Other people say that it's a lovely name but I hate it.

My first daughter has a name that can be shortened into lots of variants but I've only ever called her by her long-version name. Her siblings all have their own preferences of what to call her. Her paternal grandmother tried shortening it to a version that I detest but tolerated, although when my daughter was about four, she told her grandmother that it was "full name" and not "shortened version"! I wasn't there but laughed my head off as I could just imagine the look on her domineering grandmother's face (and no, I had nothing to do with it, it's just she was always called by her long name at home.

My oldest son has a short name but I usually call him by the even shorter version. His siblings all have variants that they use.

My second son, like myself, has an official name that's never used. I wanted to put the shortened version on his birth certificate but it wasn't to be. I had my way at his christening though and he was baptised with the shortened version. We all call him by the shortened version or by the nickname he had as a baby when we were trying to decide what to name him!

My youngest daughter has a name that absolutely cannot be shortened in any way, so that's the name that's used although she also has a few nicknames that are occasionally used.

Names are so tricky. A friend's daughter has just hit 18 and the first thing she did was to change her name. Parents just can't win!

Brie

SadieO said:

My friend Jill at primary school had the same issue. I remember a teacher insisting that (a) she'd spelled it wrong and that it should be Gill, (b) that it must be short for Gillian, and that was her real name and (c) that she was being naughty by (trying to) correct a teacher. My poor little 6year old friend was reduced to tears 

This is exactly the problem one of my brothers had.  He's Brad and a teacher insisted on calling him Bradley as "no one calls their boy just Brad!"  Took my mom stomping into the class room with his birth certificate before the teacher would back down.  

Of 4 of us I'm the only one with a 2 syllable name and one for which there never appeared to be a diminutive.  So there never was (until more recently... ).    I'm told my parents got a lot of grief that they picked names that had nothing to do with any family names, no grandfathers/mothers etc.  They just picked names they liked and that sounded nice.  And that all start with B of course.

GaleSF63

In the latter part of the 19th century my great grandfather went to register my grandmother as Annie. Apparently the registrar said that wasn't a proper name and it had to be Anne. So that's what's on her birth certificate but she was Annie throughout her life. 

Abbafan1972

GaleSF63 said:

In the latter part of the 19th century my great grandfather went to register my grandmother as Annie. Apparently the registrar said that wasn't a proper name and it had to be Anne. So that's what's on her birth certificate but she was Annie throughout her life. 

Aww that's awful!

Flugelhorn

GaleSF63 said:

In the latter part of the 19th century my great grandfather went to register my grandmother as Annie. Apparently the registrar said that wasn't a proper name and it had to be Anne. So that's what's on her birth certificate but she was Annie throughout her life. 

that is very annoying as there are hordes of Annies on the register from that time 

onomatopoeia99

Our parents deliberately chose monosyllabic first names for both my brother and me and I'm glad of it as my name can't be foreshortened and usually I don't have to spell it, though occasionally people will ask if I use the French spelling (I don't, and there is absolutely no way my parents would have chosen a non-English spelling) .

I'm not particularly attached to the name, it just is and I'm not motivated to change it.

My brother and his wife chose first names for their children that are alliterative when combined with the surname.  Both children have polysyllabic first names, which are routinely shortened, indeed use of the full first name usually indicates a telling off is about to happen .  

KateBob

My full name is a variation on Catherine, it allowed me to change the diminutive version I use depending on circumstances (I am Katie to older family/friends but have used Kate since 18 for work and newer friends/husband)
Both my children have names that can be shortened Eleanor (Family call her Ella but she uses Ellie at university) and Alexander (usually Alex or Xander but we recently discovered his A level teachers are calling him Al which we never considered)