Are Nicknames Inevitable?

March 29, 2010

Parents carefully choose their child's name, but that doesn't mean people will call the kid it. Nicknames are invented everywhere from the delivery room to the schoolyard by friends, strangers, and foes. For better or worse, monikers are created because of the way youngsters look and act or situations they end up in. And sometimes, the title is altogether random. There are moms and dads who try to stop the practice before it begins by requesting people call their children by their given names. What's your opinion?

Nicknames Baby Names

13 Comments

Stephanie-Marie 48 weeks 6 days

I like nick-names. I never really had one, but people who do say it makes them feel special. However I don't like the type of nicknames that people adopt from older siblings attempts at saying their brother's/sister's name. My nephew Clayton is called Taters, because his brother could only say Tater when he was born. I just think of Tater Tots, but he likes it. He's only 6 but when he grows up I think he'll bush when his mom still calls him that. Hopefully he transitions into Tate or Clay or something.

2 years 34 weeks

I figure I went through the 9 months of carrying this kid around (or the process of adopting or surrogacy, depending on your situation), and my DH did it along with me, so we've earned the right to name our kid whatever we want. We purposefully picked a name that's so short it can't have a nickname for our first and we'll figure something out for our 2nd. I can't imagine calling a kid by something other than what she or her parents introduced me to her as. My mother succeeded in none of us having nicknames until HS, when my brother decided to go by one. It still drives her nuts, haha. I will be ok if my kids choose their own nickname, but I don't want some adult picking one for them when they are young.

2 years 46 weeks

I useto sell loads of meth and coke, giving me the name 8-ball

KadBunny 3 years 5 weeks

I didn't realize people can be so against nicknames. :o I think they're kind of endearing. My first name is Kathleen, and while I love it, it is a bit on the formal side.. so I'm not surprised I've got nicknames. I'm called Kaye in the family and Kat by friends. No big deal. But I do however think it's a bit obnoxious if someone just decides to call you some cutesy name without even asking if you're okay with it.

3 years 5 weeks

When I was born, my mother specifically told everyone "Her name is Kristen, not Krissy, or Kristy, or anything else you can come up with". I've never been called anything other than Kristen, until recently. A couple years ago my dad started calling me Kris, and I hate it. My name is Kristen, and that's what people should call me. On the other hand, when my sister was born, my mother went through the same process of telling everyone "Her name is Kaitlyn, not Katie, or Kate." but it didn't stick. She's been a Katie since day one. All the kids at school call her Kaitlyn, but everyone in our family, and anyone who knows her outside of school, calls her Katie.

3 years 7 weeks

Nicknames are a funny thing. Most of the nicknames in my family are traditional nicknames for the given name. My sisters are Emily and Bethany and are called Em and Beth/B. I was named Meredith. There is NO nickname for that. All of the nicknames I have have nothing to do with my name (Bucket...don't ask, MeiMei, and Sunshine). The nicknames I've given friends usually refer to their name. My roommate's name is Laura and is called Lauralei, Cassandra is Cassie or Casska, and Christina became Christa. I also had a friend whose name was Thomas Abraham Michael, some how he became Rammy from Abraham but he hated that and is now going by Thom. So be careful about nicknames because sometime they can really suck.

3 years 7 weeks

I am one of the millions of "Sarah's" born in the early 1980's. No one ever called me Sarah. They called my by my entire first and last name ALL THE TIME. It became my nickname...sort of a nickname, I guess. Now that I am married and changed my last name, I miss those days. Sometimes I still introduce myself as my old name (I've been married 2 years!).

3 years 7 weeks

I chose my son's name - Grant - on the basis that there is no nickname for it! I hate nicknames!! When you get called- Jennifer, Jen, Jenny, Jenna, Jenny-Jen-Jen (yep that was a name a cousin called me for YEARS) - you learn to hate nicknames

3 years 7 weeks

There are no nicknames for "Sarah", which I find almost depressing.

arienne 3 years 7 weeks

Not everyone has a nickname. My brother's name is Thomas. It would seem inevitable that he would be Tom or Tommy, but my parents always called him Thomas so everyone else calls him Thomas. He's 26 now so I don't think he'll ever be called anything else.