s/o Names vs Nicknames

[raangoli]

The name thread made me wonder if we are the only "weirdos" that still do not call our daughter by her actual name. We still call her the nickname I came up with when I was like 7 weeks pregnant. I find it so incredibly weird to call her by her given name. The nickname has absolutely no correlation to her actual name.

Do you call your child by their given name or a nickname?

Edit: the daycare and pretty much everyone else does call her by her given name. So it's just us (and my MIL) that use her nickname. 

[scm1011]

My 11 year old niece still goes by the name my sister called her while pregnant (Bean), which has nothing to do with her name. I think its cute

[Koala]

Nicknames all the way (specifically nicknames that aren't anything like their names)!
I've started trying to use their names once in a while recently, to make sure they start understanding they have an actual name! It makes me feel better that our nanny uses their names.

[kdubs923]

DS goes by a nickname 100% of the time. At least it's the shortened version of his name?

Thank goodness for daycare that goes over teaching their full names, because he can tell me his full first name, middle & last name. Even though I've maybe ever called him by his full first name.... maybe 5 times in his life?

[pooh8402]

we typically call E by our own nickname (Bubba) more than his actual name. He is Elijah and we called him Eli while I was pregnant. But once he was born, Eli just didn't seem right, so we call him Elijah now if we're using his actual name. Our family members all use Eli though (and it kinda makes my skin crawl, tbh). we figure he'll choose which he prefers when he's older.

[Susie]

We call Hobbes by a short version of her longer first name. I still do a double take when we're at the pedi and they call her full first name, and I'm like oh yeah, that's us!

One of her daycare teachers calls her both, the other teacher uses the same short version we do. I use the short version when labeling all her stuff.

[IrishBelle]

Mostly given name but we (me and DH) use nicknames sometimes. Everyone else uses their given names.

[glitzy07]

Usually given name. H calls him by a nickname, but it didn't exist until he was about a year old.

We have a family member who still calls their son by the nickname they used in utero. She had a dream while she was pregnant that she met him and he said his name was Banjo. He has a real, normal name, but his parents still call him Banjo because it stuck. His grandparents refuse and will only use his real name. lol

[mskitkat]

I think I've called DD her real name like, twice. She was "baby girl" for the first three months, and now I call her Sweet Pea.

[sunshine608]

I use his name more than anyone else- everyone else uses nicknames- My sister calls him Bean/Beanie Weanie, H calls him Nums,MIL has a name for him ect.

I realized that I'm just not a nickname person. Oh and my dad doesn't like nicknames so he calls him his name or his initials.

[raangoli]

Aug 4, 2016 10:53:31 GMT -5 Susie said:

We call Hobbes by a short version of her longer first name. I still do a double take when we're at the pedi and they call her full first name, and I'm like oh yeah, that's us!

One of her daycare teachers calls her both, the other teacher uses the same short version we do. I use the short version when labeling all her stuff.

I do the same thing when she's called by her actual name. And it's so weird to see her first and last name on her bottles/labels. 

[raangoli]

I do laugh that since she did not have name for the first 3 days of her life, she was listed as "BabyGirl" Lastname in the NICU and on all the paperwork, systems, etc. Eventually they added her name to the system, but for some reason she's now listed as "Firstname BabyGirl Lastname" in the hospital system which is connected to many of the doctors we use for her. I am sure I've corrected them, but whatever, I will let it go. It will be funny when shes 18 and still listed as that

[drloretta]

Aug 4, 2016 10:48:17 GMT -5 raangoli said:

The name thread made me wonder if we are the only "weirdos" that still do not call our daughter by her actual name. We still call her the nickname I came up with when I was like 7 weeks pregnant. I find it so incredibly weird to call her by her given name. The nickname has absolutely no correlation to her actual name.

Do you call your child by their given name or a nickname?

Edit: the daycare and pretty much everyone else does call her by her given name. So it's just us (and my MIL) that use her nickname. 

Our DD's name really doesn't lend itself to a NN. DH has given her a variety of nicknames, none of them related to her given name. He alternates between the 2.

My dad was given a NN when he was in utero, and still goes by it. I would bet at least half the people who know him don't know his "real" name

[pooh8402]

Aug 4, 2016 10:59:49 GMT -5 raangoli said:

I do laugh that since she did not have name for the first 3 days of her life, she was listed as "BabyGirl" Lastname in the NICU and on all the paperwork, systems, etc. Eventually they added her name to the system, but for some reason she's now listed as "Firstname BabyGirl Lastname" in the hospital system which is connected to many of the doctors we use for her. I am sure I've corrected them, but whatever, I will let it go. It will be funny when shes 18 and still listed as that

to be fair, that's everyone, until the birth certificate is filled out and filed. ALL of my patients are BabyBoy/BabyGirl MomsLastName. 

[countthestars]

We use nicknames and given names about 50/50. Poor DS responds better to Grubby than his real name though. (wilted)

[raangoli]

Aug 4, 2016 11:02:57 GMT -5 countthestars said:

We use nicknames and given names about 50/50. Poor DS responds better to Grubby than his real name though. (wilted)

 <- those are because I am LOLing 

[Deleted]

I have to consciously remind myself to call DS by his actual name because his nickname is so ingrained in me. When we get called at the pedi it always takes me a second to react.

[Deleted]

Well my first was nicknamed chunky so we eventually needed to phase that out. Especially after 6 months of using it on a skinny toddler.

I call dd2 FIRSTNAME BEAN. Or just bean. I probably will stop this eventually but not currently while she is so cute and pudgy.

[bananapancakes]

I still call him Chicken most of the time.

[midwest07]

Aug 4, 2016 10:53:18 GMT -5 pooh8402 said:

we typically call E by our own nickname (Bubba) more than his actual name. He is Elijah and we called him Eli while I was pregnant. But once he was born, Eli just didn't seem right, so we call him Elijah now if we're using his actual name. Our family members all use Eli though (and it kinda makes my skin crawl, tbh). we figure he'll choose which he prefers when he's older.

We mostly call our DD "baby girl" or something similar. We work on her name and she does look and smile when we say it, because they use it at daycare.

Her name has a pretty common nickname but we don't really like/use it, but some people just go ahead and use it and it does bother me. I don't correct them but just say her full name and hope they will catch on. I am not opposed to eventually using that nickname, I just don't know that it "fits" her and we may go with something else or just keep with the full name.

Honestly, I think back to all the names we considered and I am still not sure what fits her. She just looks like baby girl to me!

[pooh8402]

exactly midwest07. I'm also just continuing to use his full name, as is DH. my mom has caught on, because she is socially astute like that, but no one else has. I'm hoping he ends up preferring his full name.

[hilwithonelary]

DD is 4. DH and I still frequently call her "Bee" despite it not relating to her name in anyway. Sometimes we throw her first name in there too, "Elsa-Bee."

[drloretta]

Aug 4, 2016 11:02:12 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Mostly given names.


When I named Elizabeth, I did it with the intention of convincing H to call her Beth. We've never called her that, and I can't imagine her being anything but Elizabeth. 

In a similar vein, my mom had a boy and girl name for me that had a shared nickname (think Ronald and Veronica, NN Ronny/ie). As soon as I was born my mom decided the nickname didn't suit me, and called me by my given name after that.

[Deleted]

I call DD sis or sister a lot of the time, but the only other nickname we use is Bridge, so not really anything unique.

[cjeanette]

We do call them sister and brother a lot. To the point where other people have done it.

Mainly we use their given names. I often use both first and middle, even when they are not in trouble.

[Marmee]

3 of 4 of my kids go by nicknames....nicknames that aren't even really typical nicknames of their given names. DD1 & 2 go by non-standard nicknames of their middle names. My DH goes by a nickname (which is a common girls name)....that is not really even related to his given name at all. I grew up going by a typical nickname of my given first name. I know some people hate nicknames and all that jazz...personally I like it. Someone could hear me or someone else call my kid their name & they literally couldn't track them down or anything since it's not actually recorded as their name anywhere. Alter-egos baby

[lishie]

We're about 50/50 between their given names and nicknames. But when we use their given names, it's always the full name--I'm not into the shortened version of either of their names. And everyone uses their full names when they speak to them.

DH and I also use the nicknames we gave them as babies, but we're the only ones that use those nicknames...and they have nothing to do with their real names. If anyone else tries to use those nicknames they get weird looks from the kids.

[ElizabethBennet]

Dd2 is named Olivia and most of the time she's either Lu or Lulu. Dd1 is named Dahlia but about half the time I call her Boba.

[auntie]

I used to be the only person on the planet to call DS by his given name ever and even I use it only about half the time. The rest of the time it's a different shortened version of his first name than everyone else uses or his middle name which is Holmes.

When he turned 21, he suddenly started using his real first name.

[miamigirl]

We call her by her name. Ironically, DH and I both go by our nicknames