# Baby boy's name dilemma **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 31, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189 "2010-08-31T22:16:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/61 "2010-09-01T17:19:36Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > [ > > Giving a kid a name with a spelling mistake in it means that he’ll spend the rest of his life correcting people on how to spell his name. It could also be counter-producutive in the area of credit - if a bank or a credit card company starts misspelling his name, by using the traditional spelling, it could be difficult to correct all the different records. I’ve already addressed the second part (hooray for sending letters to credit agencies to correct fuck ups on behalf of stupid store clerks!), but to the first: amen. My name is Angelique, but it is always a trial when someone over the phone is trying to take down my name. Like I said, my name isn’t an odd spelling, it’s just a different name. “It’s Angelique.” “Angeline?” “No, Angelique.” “Angela?” “No, Angelique. A-N-G-E-L-I-Q-----” “L-I-N???” “NO! A-N-G-E-L-I-Q-U-E.” “Right. Angelina! Got it!” “GODDAMNIT, NO. THERE IS A Q. A Q. LIKE . . . “QUARTER”.” “Oh, so a C. Angelica, I’m sorry!” “AAAAAAAH, A Q!!! MY KINGDOM FOR A Q!!!” It’s the Q that really fucks people up, let me tell you. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/62 "2010-09-01T19:11:51Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > I’ve a nephew Max which could be short for several fun names (Maxwell, Maximilian, or even Maxfield, Maximos). I felt they made a mistake when they put just Max on the birth certificate. :smack: In my teaching career I had several Maxes, some just-plain-Max, a couple short for Maxwell. My two favorites (namewise, but they were neat kids too) were Maximillion (yup, that was the spelling) and Maximus. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/63 "2010-09-01T19:22:07Z")
I love how threads about names so often feel like Twenty Questions. “I’ve got a formal name with a common nickname…” “My name is the moral equivalent of Mary Johnson…” “I have a four-syllable Slovenian last name with a first name that isn’t Slovenian-sounding at all…” “I won’t tell you my actual name, but it kinda sorta rhymes with Fried Eggs…” Sort of the Herb and Jamaal of the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/64 "2010-09-01T20:02:31Z")
Give him the longer name. You need to be able to call him by it when he’s in trouble. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/65 "2010-09-01T20:32:54Z")
Two things make me pro Alexander. First it was my great-grandfather’s name. Second, and less purely personal taste, my grandmother’s given name was Jessie. That’s how it was recorded on her birth certificate, which I have seen so I know she wasn’t exagerating. Throughout her life people insisted on changing it to Jessica. Government documents, that required her waiting on lines to correct ( I can still hear her saying “You show me where I filled out your form with my own name wrong and then I’ll pay a fee to get it fixed!”), newspaper articles, yearbooks, an expensive brass memorial in my home town. . . If he’s called Alex plenty of folks will assume it’s Alexander anyway. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/66 "2010-09-01T21:10:01Z")
Go with Alexander for the name on his birth certificate, but feel free to call him Alex. ( **Don’t** go with Alexandor. So-called “spelling variants” are indistinguishable from misspellings.) IMHO, people shouldn’t be named a nickname, because nicknames are by definition informal, and aren’t appropriate at formal occasions (like when the person is being sworn in as President). Don’t ever forget that a name for a child needs to work for the child, the adolescent, the young adult, the experienced professional, and perhaps the elder statesman. Picture your child as a Supreme Court Justice. What sounds better–Justice Alexander [Lastname] or Justice Alex [Lastname]? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/67 "2010-09-01T21:41:55Z")
The chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is Romania-born Alex Kozinski. As far as I can tell, his legal name is “Alex.” So Judge Alex Kozinski isn’t too far off from your example. I’m still in the Alexander camp, though. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/68 "2010-09-01T22:15:56Z")
I’m a name traditionalist so I also vote for giving him the formal version and calling him by the shortened one. Alexander is my boyfriend’s name and has always been one of my favorite names. 🙂 No one ever calls him anything but Alex, unless he’s in trouble. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/69 "2010-09-01T22:38:14Z")
Perhaps let him decide. Have all 3 of you together, ask him and just see what happens, you may get a feeling towards one or the other in agreement with your spouse. Or maybe have a way that he can select, maybe put him on your wife’s breast and see what nipple he goes to. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/70 "2010-09-01T22:44:52Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I have an uncle Don and a friend named Danny. These are the names on their birth certificates. _Everyone_ assumes that their real names are Donald and Daniel, and they’ve had to correct people all their lives. I vote for naming the baby Alexander and calling him Alex. Having to correct people constantly is bad enough , but my husband had a couple of jobs where the first few paychecks were made out to “Daniel” instead of “Danny”. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/71 "2010-09-01T22:53:02Z")
I like the name Alexander Armstrong. This is probably in part because one of the main characters of a series of YA books by Richard Peck that I loved as a kid has the same name. I’m not sure if anyone will notice or care about that, though. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/72 "2010-09-01T23:07:08Z")
I think we may have found the one thing in the world that the entirety of the SDMB agrees with. Another vote for Alexander, which is a wonderful name. Edit: Oh, and congratulations on your new baby! ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/73 "2010-09-02T00:49:59Z")
Name him Alexander. As noted above, it better passes the Presidential swearing-in test. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/74 "2010-09-02T01:15:51Z")
Name him Alexander. Then show him this thread one day. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/75 "2010-09-02T01:46:46Z")
The more I think about it the more I have to go for the full name. A name that is only just a nickname sort has the feeling that something is missing, one not worthy of a ‘real’ name, and it will come up in his life many times, and having to admit that you have been given only a nickname conveys a certain context of inferiority. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/76 "2010-09-02T02:27:38Z")
Nothing much to add here. Another vote for Alexander, which has a slew of variants that the tyke can choose. And never having to explain, “Actually, Alex is my full name.” TBH I don’t even get why someone would consider the shortened name. I know Jims who are never James except on legal documents, but they have that option. Alex is either Alex, Lex, or Al. He gets more options with the full name. Creatively spelled names will only lead to countless life hours squandered explaining how to spell it, and quite possibly, bloodshed when he snaps at 33 when his paycheck can’t be cashed because his name is misspelled. And as someone upthread mentioned, people are going to assume that mom and dad weren’t smart enough to know how the name is spelled. And bless you for not bringing another Cayden/Kaiden/Jaden/Braden into the world. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/77 "2010-09-02T03:33:12Z")
I know of three boys, the oldest of which is barely 2 – a William, an Edward, and an Alexander. Known as Will, Eddie, and Alex respectively. Go with the long name. Think of when he’s an adult, not just a wee newborn. Also, those names give me hope for the future – they’re so normal and not misspelled. Ahhhh. Not that I’d have said one single word to the mothers in question if they’d gone trendy, but I’m glad they went the way they did. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/78 "2010-09-02T04:35:32Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > As the father of a Nathaniel (not Nate or Nat or Nathan, which he can choose to go by if he wants) I vote for Alexander. To be fair, Nathan isn’t really considered a nickname. Another vote for Alexander. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/79 "2010-09-02T22:15:13Z")
Well? It’s after “tomorrow”. What name did you go with? ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189/80 "2010-09-03T18:38:17Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Another vote for the longer, formal name. If you have a common last name, I would also recommend a variation of the spelling of the first name. Like **Alexandor**. I have known plenty of people who have had credit snafus with people with identical names. I strongly advise against unusual spellings. Credit snafus should be sorted out with the combination of last name + first name + birth date. But an unusual spelling will mean that half of the time, official stuff will be misspelled, and every time he has to give his name, no matter how trivial, he will have to spell it out. Everybody writing down the different spelling will think his parents are pretentious or illiterate jerks. Oh, and if you give him one or more middle names, not only does he have more choice later on, you also make mixups less likely. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-boys-name-dilemma/552189.md?page=5)