Is Caroline Destined to become Carrie?
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Is Caroline Destined to become Carrie?
| Fri, 09-15-2006 - 2:19pm |
Is Caroline Destined to become Carrie?
- yes, of course
- not if you always call her Caroline
You will be able to change your vote.

Just wanted to ditto the previous post. I've known many, many Carolines, and not one has been called Carrie. I've also known a few Carries (various spellings), not short for anything. I actually do think Carrie is a cute childhood nn for Caroline, but certainly not an automatically-assumed one.
~Kelli
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My DD is Caroline. She is 7, and no one has ever called her Carrie. Her little brother calls her "Kai", which has become her "family" nickname, but friends, school, etc. all call her Caroline.
Lovely name!
I definitely agree that it's not inevitable. It is, however, possible, and won't necessarily be up to you. So if you really, really hate Carrie, it is probably a bad idea. Through infancy and early childhood it would likely stay Caroline as long as you're consistent, since everyone seems to agree that Caroline doesn't automatically become Carrie. With some names, even if the parents are constantly correcting, for example saying, "Her name is Katharine, not Kate," it would be a losing battle to prevent her ever being called Kate or Katie. I don't think that's the case with Caroline.
However, by the time she starts school, Caroline herself will be deciding whether she asks people to stick with Caroline or accepts Carrie. She may like Carrie, and it would, after all, be her name and her choice to make. If she is aware that you dislike Carrie early on, she may take those feelings into account through childhood, but around age 13 or 14 she may reconsider it as a convenient way to defy you and/or express her burgeoning independence.
I love Caroline, and would favour the full name myself. So if your feeling about it is a preference for Caroline over Carrie, that you would want people to know her name is Caroline, and not Carrie, but could accept Carrie as at least an occasional nickname, I say go for it, absolutely. But if you know that, should she ever want to be known as Carrie, you're going to cringe every time you say or hear it, I think you'd be better to start with a different name.
I know a Carolyn whose family nn is Care Bear or Care.
I don't know any Carolines who became Carrie, or Carries whose given name is Caroline (other than knowing that this was the case with Carrie Ingalls)
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