My sister is almost the exact opposite of that. She just had a daughter named Lillyana and she never calls her that. It’s always Lilly this, Lilly that. And it kind of bugs me because I, childless and selfish, wanted to name my daughter Lillie. Still getting over it. NOT easy!!

Even the one syllable names don’t work. I hate nicknames, so I was VERY particular about giving my girls short, one-syllable names. So what do people do? Add -ie to the ends of their names. Brynnie? GAG Reesie? WORSE. I just tell people not to call them that. I don’t care if it’s rude. Pick any pet name you like (sugar, baby, boogerbutt, dumplin, honey, etc.), and that’s fine, just don’t wreck the name I agonized over while picking it. I’m with you, girlfriend. I just went with the indelicate approach. They’re family. They have to love you anyway.

My parents named my brother “James”, not Jim, Jimmy or Jamie. When people tried to call him “Jimmy” they just smiled and said,”No, his name is James not Jimmy”. It became very apparent that as James got older, he would not tolerate the Jim, Jimmy or Jamie business either. Now the only variation he likes/allows(at age 26) is “Jamesy” or “Uncle Jamesy”

My name is Katrina, and my mother would not let her brothers nickname me Kat since apparently there was a hooker named Kat on a tv show she watched. I grew up as Katrina or Nini (my little sisters couldn’t say my name). I didn’t even know Kat could be my nickname as a kid!! Just imagine the best case scenario that your son won’t even remember ever being called Gordo because you will have curbed it before he leaves babyhood.

My mom just told people straight out, “I named my children Jessica, Jeffrey, Joseph, James, and Jaundrea. Not Jess, Jeff, Joe, Jim, Johnnie!” We didn’t get nicknames till we were grown and out of the house. If someone called and asked for one of us by nickname, she’d tell them that no one by that name lived there.

Now that we have kids, they have TONS of nicknames. I only object to ones I don’t like, like my husband trying to call Janeia “Ja-Nay-Nay”. When someone does it, I just look at them and say “No” with a very serious face. They get the point.

Katy, my son is James. He’s just James, or sometimes Jamey. Not Jim, and certainly NOT Jimmy. So far, so good on that, but he’s only two. We’ll see how school goes.

My parents had us all called by our full names (Laura, Arnold, Douglas, Tiffany, and Jamie… Aaron John was AJ because my dad didn’t really like his name, haha.) until we hit highschool Then the battle is lost. Lor, Arnie, Doug, Tiffy… still Jamie though. ;)
My hubby fought hard for our Nicole to be Nicole and not Nikki. I thought Nikki was cute but he had Adam Sandler references in his head from the name and so it was just Nicole. And our Olivia is Olivia… he says he named them what he named them and that they’ll be. (Ironically, he is a Christopher who goes by Chris 99.9% of the time.)

My son’s name is Matthew. Before he was even born, I told people that he would be a Matthew and we would stick to his given name. My side of the family insists on calling him “Mattie” and dad’s said calls him “Matt.” Ugh. My husband keeps saying that his peers will call him Matt and there is nothing we can do about it. Who knows. I don’t correct anyone because I am spineless, but I definitly have not joined in changing his name. I will always call him Matthew.

Funny thing. I named my boys with multi syllable names, because I wanted them to have nicknames, but I hate it when people call them Max (Maxwell) or Jack (Jackson), because that’s not their name.

When naming our sons, we went for good, strong, old-fashioned boy names that sounded good for a baby as well as an adult and were (as we thought) hard to make fun of. I went one syllable as well because I believe if you’re going to call your child something, then that’s what they should be named. It drives my nuts when someone is like “We’re naming our daughter Allison, but we’re going to call her Allie”…then name her ALLIE! lol Anyways, I digress… Our first son, Jack, undesireably became “Jackie” (the south is notorious for adding the “-ie” at the end of a name). I put a stop to that immediately by reminding people that he was a boy, because to me, “Jackie” had a female connotation. He’s 3 now, and he’s “just Jack!: Our second son we named “Mark”, and I braced myself for the undeniable nickname “Markie”…which to me is even worse than “Jackie”. But luckily, Jack unknowingly intervened when he came to visit his new baby brother in the hospital and nick-named him “Marker”. I thought it was too cute not to use! So now, pratically everyone calls him that:) Just stick your guns, and since nicknames seem almost inevitable, pick one that you like (or can live with) and start calling him that. That way people will call him something you’re ok with! Ever since Mark inhereited the nickname “Marker”, not one person has tried to call him “Markie”!

I made sure when I chose my daughter’s name (Ellasyn) that I approved of all the nicknames I could think of (Elle, Ella, Ellie?). Unfortunately, my father in law insists on calling her by her middle name, Hannah. It really isn’t a big deal, because I like that name too… but it still drives me crazy! When he asks where or how Hannah is… I always answer by using her first name. I hope one day she will tell him which one she prefers… and that he will respect her wishes. For now, she doesn’t have a clue!

@Jessica- that’s a lot of J’s!!

We have a bajillion nicknames for our kids (uh, Fuzz and Shnook?) so if someone else comes up with one, I guess we can’t turn them away unless it’s flat out offensive.
Gordo might not be so offensive when you’re talking about a cute fat baby, but when he gets older is another story…

I am married to a Gordon who was called that by his parents who wanted to give him a name that you couldn’t shorten. In all the 30 years I have known him (since we were 19) he has been called Gordo by me and most/all his friends and it suits him! To be honest guys I think you need to consider when you name a child that you are not doing it in a vacuum, in world you can fully control. We’re Australian and Aussies always shorten names and if they are short they lengthen them. I just think my parents in law were kidding themselves if they thought they could come up with something that Australians wouldn’t change. In their own house, yes, but outside, no.

I deal with people trying to nickname my son Lucifer and for some INSANE reason they all want to nickname him “Lucy”. It’s a freaking girl’s name! I hate when people want to shorten my kids’ names anyway, but to try to use one of the opposite gender just annoys the crap out of me even more. I deal with a lot of whining but just keep repeating to people that if I had wanted people to call my son Lucy, I would have named him that in the first place!

Another Aussie here, hi Fi (LOL) would have to agree that “Gordo” was always going to happen… and good chance that older people will call him “Gecko” at some point.
My husband is a Nicholas…I have never called him “Nick” and yet his mates, brothers and father do. I think it is because we met in a workplace setting where his full name was used. We named one of our daughters for him, but avoided Nicole because neither of us particularly like Nicole (or “Nikki” as a nickname). So we went with Nikita and Kitty as her nickname (which she loves). At the same time we acknowledge that her name will be tied to “La Femme” and is often given to boys. On the other hand, Julie I have to say if I had to choose between calling a boy Lucy or Lucifer, I’d go with Lucy. Lucifer is a lovely name of itself, but the name is tied to that of the devil. Actually I think it would be cool for a guy to be called Lucy…like a man named Sue! But he’d need lots of tattoos.

We name our son Augustus, liking all possible nicknames. We decided to call him Gus for short rather than Augie (we like Augie but have a dear friend with a baby the same age who goes by Augie). Between all our friends & family we call him Gus, Gussy, Gusman, Guster, Gustus, Gustapher, GusGus, etc. But my MIL hates the name and will only call him Augie! NO one else calls him that and it drives me nuts. No one knows who she is talking about – especially Gus! I am just waiting for the day he can speak so he can say to her “Who are you calling Augie?! I’m Gus!”

Our oldest is 6 now and named James after his great grandfather who was actually a Jim. I made it very clear in the beginning that he is JAMES and after many a firm, but gentle reminder, they’ve all caught on. He actually corrects people now :)

Our son’s name is Bowie, which we too thought no one would feel the need to abbreviate. But, we hear “Bo” a lot, which we both HATE. It’s awkward, but we have to say, “Please don’t call him Bo.” Sometimes we get “Bo-man”, which is sort of acceptable.

We’ve been telling people not to use nicknames with our daughter because it will confuse her and we need her to know what her name is before she starts walking. To be honest, it’s total crap; we call her Piggles as well as Calico and she answers to both, but no one else needs to know that.

My name is Barbara and though I ALWAYS call myself by my full name, people can’t resist shortening it to Barb. I prefer the longer version but have resigned myself to the fact that people REALLY want to call me Barb, maybe because it shortens their name-saying time by a nanosecond? I don’t know.

In the long run, I think kids choose what they want to go by. When my sister was ten she decided to go by Jennifer (her given name) rather than Jenny (what my mom wanted her to be called). It really upset my mom that my sister no long wanted to be called Jenny. I can rember her saying on more than one ocassion that she would have never named my sister Jennifer if she knew that she would some day go by it.
Now I have a five month old little girl named Abigail, and everyone seems wants to call her Abby. When someone does I just let them know that we’re just calling her Abigail right now. Even though I know that at some point she may choose a nickname, I want it to be her decision not mine. Good luck!

I am married to a Gordon who introduced himself to me as Gordy…