What do Nicknames mean to you?

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2007
What do Nicknames mean to you?
11
Fri, 08-31-2007 - 12:32pm

Yesterday I started a couple of name polls and stated what the nickname would be for each chosen name. I realized from the responses that people view nicknames in a totally different way than I do. For me, nicknames are more often a pet name, kind of like the pet name you have for you DH and probably the zillion pet names you have for your fur babies. But it seems many view nicknames as the name you will actually call your child all of the time.

Which is true for you?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Fri, 08-31-2007 - 12:51pm

I think of nicknames as a shortened version of the name that family & friends may use sometimes. I think nick names are cute, but certain kinds of nick names drive me crazy!

It drives me crazy when people choose a nickname that has nothing to do with the person's name ( example: This is our son, Carter Michael, but we call him Jack. Wtf?!!) and I also don't like when people deliberately choose a certain name when all the while they are planning on the kid going by a different name. My cousin is Laurel Victoria but ever since she was born her parents tell everyone her name is Tori. Why the heck didn't they name her Victoria? It also weird to me when people always call the kid by his/her middle name. Why wouldn't you just name the kid what you want to call it? Weird. It just makes things confusing.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2007
Fri, 08-31-2007 - 1:10pm

I completely agree with what you are saying. If you want to call you child something, name them that in the first place.

I guess nicknames mean something different to me because my name (Shauna) isn't really condusive to a nickname that is an abbreviated form. Any nicknames I got, which weren't many, were never serious and I most certainly didn't go by them. They were meant as more of a joke. My sister on the other hand is named Marisa. Somehow through the years her family nickname became Frisa and eventually just Fris. No one really called her that except my parents and me, and now that she's almost 30yo I'm sure no one at all calls her that. But it was a cute family nickname when she was a child.

I guess I really need to rethink this. One of my top boys names is Jaxon Riley. I also love the abbreviated form Jax and would probably call him that sometimes to and leave it up to him to choose what he like as he grew up. But I most definitely would not like him to be called JR.

This puts a whole other issue on the naming game. Like it isn't already hard enough! :-)

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-06-2003
Fri, 08-31-2007 - 1:19pm
To me, a nickname is a natural shortened version of the name. Forced nicknames are hard to do, I kind of think that if you want your child called something, you should consider just naming them with that name instead of something else. On the other hand I can see naming a child Charles and calling him Charlie, allowing him the choice to use Charles when he gets older. I guess it all depends on the name. Interesting though how people few it differently
:)Amy
Amy
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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-01-2006
Fri, 08-31-2007 - 2:30pm

I view nns as pet names - a name you would call a loved one. I love to give nns to those I care about. :) If the nn is a derivative of the actual name (Charles nn Charlie) then I think its fine if the kid goes by the nn all the time if that is what the kid and the parents want. If the nn is something cute (bubba) then it should be only for family members. I personally think family members, immediate and extended, should have the right to nn a kid whatever they want as long as it makes sense. (ie grandpa calls the kid Charlie if his name is Charles not grandpa calls the kid Jake when his name is Charles.) I see a lot of people get all hot and bothered by nns which I can understand if it is just some random person at school for example deciding to call Madeline Maddy when mom wants her called Madeline. I think that if a loved one wants to shorten the name or make up something cute then they should be allowed to do so. Nns are terms of endearment to me I guess.

That was a lot of babble to basically say I agree with you. lol

KT

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-23-2007
Fri, 08-31-2007 - 3:19pm

I think of the nn as a cute shorten name for my son or daughter that I may occasionally use. But I would want them to use their full names in school, ect.

Maybe some family members might call them by their nn, but I still like to use it kinda like you do.

Kimberly

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-01-2005
Fri, 08-31-2007 - 4:04pm

To me, pet names are things like this: Muffin (which I call Solomon a lot), Honey (usually Max), sweetie, darlin', dolly boy, baby doll, etc.
Nicknames usually irritate the HECK out of me. Okay, if you WANT to be called by a nickname, sure. But I HATE HATE HATE it when people assume they're entitled to call Solomon "Sol" just because Solomon CAN be shortened to that. It's not his name. I agonized over what to call him, I LOVE his name. Sheesh.
That said, if HEEEEEEEE decides to call himself Sol when he's older, so be it. I will not force a nickname on him (it's SO much harder to go back to the full name than to go from full to shortened, KWIM?).

I realize I'm crazy about nicknames, and it's my only regret with Solomon's name. Will not make that mistake with next child!



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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Fri, 08-31-2007 - 10:42pm

I'm one of those people who hates it when a traditional nn

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 08-31-2007 - 11:39pm
I'd say it's the most commonly used pet name...sometimes an offshoot of the given name, sometimes not. For instance, we gave our son Penn the mn of Ezra with the comment that we could nn him Pez if we wanted to (it didn't stick...though things were constantly coming out of him in the early months.) So that's not his nn. But we call him Pendergast or Monster Baby all the time...so those could, I think, be considered his nicknames.
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 08-31-2007 - 11:44pm
I have a friend whose given name is Katie and she's 30 and still incredibly emotionally dependent on her parents. I sometimes wonder if the name was symptomatic of the type of relationship they tried to establish...(I mean, gee, her mom has a key to their house and USES IT!)
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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-03-2005
Fri, 08-31-2007 - 11:47pm

Interesting topic - it's good to hear different sides of an issue. For us, there's a completely different spin on the nn issue:


We call Cassidy Cassy all the time, and some people call her Cass (not family, just friends who occassionally use it). We, especially DH, really like having a nn option for her.


This time around, a nn is much more prominient - DH decided Rory was the ONLY girl's name he liked, and I wanted to give our daughter a more formal option, plus I don't love Rory (it's just okay to me). So I chose Georgia as the full name, because I've always loved it. So it's very much a compromise. I still think Rory is a bit of stretch as a nn for Georgia, but honestly, it was the only compromise that was going to work at all for us. So, in our case, a nn became the only way to find a name we could agree on for a daughter. (Although I'm still clinging to the very slim hope DH will change back to the first name we agreed on - Jillian nn Jill.)


That said, I'm a little nervous about the potential for unintended nns, particularly Georgie or something similar - I'm really hoping designating Rory as the nn

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