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Photo by OctoberXmomOf course, we all come up with fun nicknames for our little sprogs, whether in utero or out and just too adorable for a normal name. But there's another phenomenon I'm talking about here, one that Katherine Heigl's babe Naleigh Kelly knows all about: babies given a nickname from birth, with a fall-back option as their real name.
Naleigh Kelley is really named Nancy Leigh, but Heigl created a portmanteau moniker that she uses as her everyday name. Lourdes Ciccone was called Lola until, I assume, she got old enough to state a preference -- Lourdes is unusual, but gorgeous, IMO. On a less dramatic front, I have a friend who named her daughter Caroline, but has called her Carly from birth. My nephew Harry is technically a Harrison, but nobody has ever called him that -- not even my sister, and not even when she's really, really mad.
The flip side is, of course, kids given nicknames as real names. My mother-in-law was Patty Lou. Not Patricia Louise. Patty Lou. On her birth certificate. When we decided to name our first daughter after her, my husband said, "Just use the first letter. We can't name the baby Patty Lou. Patty Lou didn't even like being called Patty Lou." I went to college with a Bill (not William). Of course, these days, most people people don't even know Sally was originally a nickname for Sarah, or that Peggy's derived from Margaret.
Coco Arquette was given Courtney Cox's old nickname. And Dweezil Zappa's parents (Frank and Gail Zappa) were told they wouldn't be able to leave the hospital with such a weird name on the birth certificate, so they actually put Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa. (According to Frank's autobiography, when Dweezil found this out, he changed his name legally -- and yes, I read the damn thing. I'm a nerd like that.)
Did you pick your kid's nickname from birth? Or did you just go ahead and give a nicknamey-name? Tell us in the comments!
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Comments (11)
i told my child godmother that if i wanted to call her by the nickname i would have name her that, therefore our oldest has no nickname but our youngest does, that was my fault though lol.
Our daughter Clio is actually Claire Caroline Wren. Claire is a family name, and I figured that she'd end up with a nickname anyhow, if only to distinguish her from grandma. Plus, by using a nickname I felt like I left some space if my siblings wanted to use some variation of the name Claire, too. And lastly, my husband felt strongly that our kids should have formal names to fall back on, just in case they end up more Supreme Court Justice, less Performance Artist.
While my daughter is only 20 months, I don't expect it will be the big hassle some insist. I'm A. Abigail - and while my insurance company and bank refer to me by my first name, everyone else calls me Abby. I don't give it a thought.
I love the flexibility and choice provided by nicknames, though plenty of nickname-proof names are great, too.
My first daughter is named Alyssa but we have always called her Aly since day 1. She preferred Aly until she started kinder. The teacher insisted she go by Alyssa and write it on all of her papers. " Aly" has become a name reserved for close friends and family. Everyone else uses Alyssa.
My 2.5 year old daughter is Imogen, but goes by Immy 90% of the time. She identifies as Immy, but know her full first and middle names. Likewise, our son Oliver goes by Ollie most of the time. He's only 5 months, so he hasn't had any personal say on his name of any sort at this point.
One of the things I loved about my daughters name is that it has a variety of nns to choose from. My thought is this: it's HER name to live with all of her life, so it would be nice if she felt comfortable in it - nns provide options. While I've generally felt my name fit me over the years, I've come across many who have not felt that way. My hope is that kids are going to be happy with everything about their names, but if not, I hope that some aspect of them might feel like it fits. So my Immy may grow up to be Imogen or Mo or Mimi or Gen or I. Lily or any number of other nns for her name... or she might stay Immy.
Bottom line - I prefer full names and using a nn, but if a parent feels the right choice for their child is something else (putting Bill or Patty directly on the BC or sticking with William or Patricia and not tolerating any other monikers), well then, IMO that is what's right... until baby is old enough to express name preferences.
We named our daughter Micaya because her daddys middle name is Micah and we all call her Caya. She says Micaya is "cute" but she really like Caya! =) She does introduce herself as Micaya though, she just says her nickname is Caya! I also tend to call her Sunshine because when I was pregnant we always sang "you are my sunshine"
to her & I continued to sing it through her life. She really is the Sunshine in my life! =)
When my husband and I first found out I was pregnant, we wanted to call the baby something other than "it." So he picked the nickname "Ziggy." We still call our daughter, Elisabeth, by that nickname very often. As far as shortening her name, we're leaving that up to her when she's older. If she'd rather be called Liz or Beth, then it will be her choice. She may even rather go by the full Elisabeth. You never know. But she will always be our little Ziggy! =)
When my son Kenny was born he was so tiny I called him my little peanut. Today he is 19 and sometimes I still call him peanut!
Our son ,Jordan,was given the nickname " BooBoo" before he was even born. Over the years he has now become just " Boo".
We called our older son Richard, "Irch". His name is Richard Sherwood, and he pronounced it, "Irchard Sherdood". funny, as he spoke very clearly from a very young age, but had difficulty with his full name. My sister still refers to him as Irch and he is 21 years old.
My daughter's name is Emmaleigh, derived from the name Emma suggested by my husband's family and Leah suggested by mine. Most of the time she is Emmaleigh, but I've been known to refer to her as Emmy. When she was old enough to go to nursery in church they had trouble with the spelling and it turned out there was a little girl who's name really was just Emmy, so they began calling her Emma which in turn becuase our daycare provder also goes to our church ended up being used at daycare. So at home she is Emmaleigh and at daycare and church she is Emma. Most of the time she tells people proudly, I'm Emmaleigh, and sometimes she'll tell them I'm E-M-M-A, even though she does now how spell her full name.
Personally I don't care what she goes by, it's her name and I like that in choosing a different spelling she has so many more options of what she can shorten her name into.