I was waiting for a Harry to show up.
Nowadays, they’re probably going to be either very old, or very young.
My friend’s daughter, who is in her mid 20s, is named Helen. As a youngster, they were often asked if Helen was actually her grandmother. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s been asked if she’s Helen’s mother. (She has no children as of now.)
My sister’s middle name is Jo, and she’s always hated it. As a kid, she would say it was Joann or Josephine, until she was told to stop.
That’s my nephew’s name. Not Harold. . .Harry. His father was Harry and so was his grandfather, which makes my nephew a III, which must have been fun as a child. Not as bad as my childhood friend, Harry Crouch. I don’t know what the hell his parents were thinking.
I’m a Patrick; I prefer that to Pat.
I’m known to many people IRL as Kron, which is a diminutive of an online username I’ve had for 25+ years in various contexts…
I use my full name. It’s highly unusual in the US - Marita - so people stumble over it a lot, but mom was not a fan of nicknames so I never had one.
Plus people don’t seem interested in giving me one, except when they say “that’s too hard to remember/pronounce; I’ll just call you Mary/Rita/Maria, etc.” And no. No you will not.
It depends on situation, region and generation.
For official documents and my French friends it is Donald.When I was younger it was Donnie and people who knew me from that time still call me that (as well as my Irish friends). I now go by Don.
When I was a young boy of about ten I asked Junior Ah You for an autograph; a large and intimidating football player: “Is your name spelled with an ‘ie’ or a ‘y’?” he asked. '“It can be spelled both ways,” I responded. “Choose!” he said, before signing my paper plate with “To Donny/Donnie”.
Maybe Hairy Couch? … but that brings us already into JD-Territory…
We have tons of Names that scream “MY PARENTS HAD NO EDUCATION TO SPEAK OF AND ARE PROUD OF IT” …
- Jhonny
- Brayan o Brayatan
- Daiann (as in Diane)
- Ledidi/Ledidai (Lady Di - that took me a while to figure out)
- Meikel
- Washington
… unfortunately a big stigma in a country where classism is still rampant (I had a business-owner as boss once that was pretty blunt about it: We hire no Washington’s in this company).
Huh, try Sequoia. Don’t wanna shorten that. She’s probably 30 about now.
That might be a special case - the “Jh” is meant to indicate an English “J” sound rather than a Spanish “J”, which is closer to an English “H”
I go by my full name (Nathan). For a brief time in high school and the beginning of college I went by Nate. Some people still call me Nate (including my sister) even though I haven’t been Nate since about 1996.
Occasionally people assume that my full name is actually Nathaniel and go the wrong way entirely.
of course it is (except it isnt*)…
Which obv. begs the Q: “why give your kid a name that you have to evidently dumb down in writing so people around you will pronounce it moderately well?
I suppose a Jhonny (pronounced: Ee-onny [see, still not a proper pronounciation]*) pretends shows you are well travelled?
It certainly doesn’t show you are well-travelled - it might just mean that you wanted to name the kid after a baseball player named “Johnny”. Or now, that you wanted to name your kid after one of the 20 or so MLB players named “Jhonny”. Same kind of reason that there is a name spelled “Mariah” - listen to They Call the Wind Maria. “Maria” in English used to be pronounced the way “Mariah” * is now but it has changed (at least in the US) because of the Spanish/Italian influence. If you wanted the original pronunciation ( as Mariah Caey’s mother apparently did) you have to change the spelling.
* Also pronounced that way in the phrase “Black Maria”
It’s apparently a reasonably common name (and spelling) in several Latin American countries, and I’d suspect that most Jhonnys in the U.S. are of Latin heritage.
Now, if you’re seeing white kids with no Latin heritage with that name, then it gets into the realm of the dozen different spellings for “Mackenzie” or “Mikayla.” Non-standard spellings for kids’ names is a thing now.
My first name is one that is commonly shortened in English, but no one calls me by the shortened version, and some people even state that I do not look like someone with shortened version of my name anyway, whatever that means. There were a few exceptions in college. Although most professors at the beginning of the term asked me (and others with similarly possible shortened names), which I preferred, there was at least one older professor that did not, and I did not choose to correct them.
I always go by my full first name, though one summer, I went by my first and middle initials just for the fun of it. I haven’t run into anyone that I met while I was a camp counselor that summer so it has been a while since anyone called me that. I also use the local language version of my name with Spanish and French speaking people (the French one actually being on my French passport).
The thing I find the most annoying is when I receive a reply to a work email by someone who does not know me, using the shortened version of my name. My email signature has my full name and I never indicate that I use the shortened version of my name, so they should not assume that I use it. I do know some people at work that do use their shortened name, so I will use that in my communication with them, but I am always careful to not make that assumption and check their messages to me and others before using a Kim instead of a Kimberly, or a Rob instead of Robert, etc.
//i\\
Washington is a name with a stigma? As a UK member, I’m surprised at that. How did that happen? What about Washington Irving?
We parted ways somewhere in pre-puberty, but I can only imagine his first day in junior high gym class: “Hey, Hairy Crotch!”
I once worked with a young guy named Michael Hunt. He did not go by Mike. I still wanted to smack whoever gave him that first name.
I do the same with names in emails. 
I always try to address people by their preferred name, which includes never assuming that a nickname (or longer version of the name they’ve provided) is alright.
It also includes pronouncing names correctly…or, at least, as close as an American can get.
I’m going to add Nevaeh to your short list. Mom & Dad (but usually Mom) thought they were being clever and unique with that one.
Funny, but so did I in the Navy. And he went by Mike.
My grandmother had such a name. She and her parents had no education to speak of, but I’m not ashamed of that.