I have been thinking about a name for my baby

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

[QUOTE=DiosaBellissima]
I think it’d be pretty mean (you know, in the abstract sense) to name your child a nickname for their given name. “Robbie” “Charlie” etc all sound tremendously childish and it wont look very professional when he gets older.

My mom wanted my nickname to be Angel. Not Angela. Not Angelica. Not Angie. So she named me Angelique and just always called me Angel. Growing up, everyone knew me as Angel and called me that. Now that I’m an adult, I go by Angelique more often (Angel sort of sounds like a stripper) and it wasn’t until recently that I started getting random nicknames. People seem to have a problem pronouncing Angelique, so I am regularly called “Angelina” or “Angelee” or “Angie.” But now I’m a grown up, so I can smile, while politely correcting them to either Angel or Angelique.

So, you could always give your kid a grown up name, but choose his nickname accordingly.
[/QUOTE]

There are plenty of adults known as ‘Robbie’. Robbie Williams, Robbie Fowler.

62

[QUOTE=Princhester]
I forgot to add: you live in Australia. You should know that it is impossible to avoid nicknames here. Any one syllable name must be lengthened till it is multisyllabic and vice versa. Give it up :slight_smile:
[/QUOTE]

What about ‘Bruce’, ‘Shane’, ‘Wayne’ ? They are made into nicknames are they?
Or is that ‘boof’ ?

63

[QUOTE=ZipperJJ]
Don’t name your boy Darcy. Yeesh.
[/QUOTE]

I got ‘Darcy’ from ‘Pride and Prejudice’ because I do not like the name ‘Fitzwilliam’ as a first name.

64

[QUOTE=Caridwen]
All great names!

I do love the name Darcy! Please don’t take this the wrong way but if my dog was a male I was going to name him Darcy after Mr. Darcy. It doesn’t sound like a dogs name I just like it. Maybe a tad feminine.

I also love the name Charlie. I’m a little biased because it was my Dad’s name.
Except for my Mom most people called him Charles. I like Charlie and Charles.

I don’t think Robbie or Charlie sound childish at all.

I think my favorite out of your list is John-Paul. People might shorten it to John or JP, but it’s a nice name.

All the names you selected are nice and not names that most kids would object to as being cutesy. My nephew has a popular name and when he was young wanted everyone to call him Mike because he said his name sounded girly.
[/QUOTE]

Thankyou. I got John-Paul from a book I just read about a Polish boy being named after the Pope

65

[QUOTE=gigi]
Had your mom introduced you as Missy?
[/QUOTE]

I don’t remember. I’ll have to ask my mother about it.

66

[QUOTE=Mama Tiger]
My mother many years ago had a 3rd grade student whose full legal name was Teddy Jack. As a result, she impressed upon me the stupidity of giving kids nicknames as legal names.

And obviously I’m looking at your list with a different-hemisphere bias because almost none of those names either appeal to me or sound nickname-proof.
[/QUOTE]

‘Jack’ is about the most popular name for a baby boy in Australia at the moment.

67

[QUOTE=Mama Tiger]
Come to think of it, our landlord’s legal first name is Ricky. It’s not surprise he goes by his middle name, Shawn.
[/QUOTE]

The captain of the Australian cricket team is known as ‘Ricky’.
I agree though that it is a little kid’s name. Not a name for a 31 year old

68

[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
What about ‘Bruce’, ‘Shane’, ‘Wayne’ ? They are made into nicknames are they?
[/QUOTE]

Meet my mates Bazza, Shazza and Wazza. Or maybe Brucie, Bruiser, Shane-o, Waynie or Wayn-o.

69

[QUOTE=Princhester]
Meet my mates Bazza, Shazza and Wazza. Or maybe Brucie, Bruiser, Shane-o, Waynie or Wayn-o.
[/QUOTE]

But you are not serious are you?
People with names of Shane, Wayne, Bruce, Adam Craig have nicknames made from their last names do not they?
They are usually very creative - Glichrist is called Gilly, and Fleming is called ‘Flemo’, Warne is called ‘Warnie’ Thomson is called 'Thomo.
Of course one member of the team is always called ‘boof’ for some reason.

70

Do people down there only get nicks from names?

Middlebro: Crazy Wolf (one of the words in our lastnames means wolf in Basque), Edusup (short for Ed Survival), Pockets (he’s one of those guys whose pockets look like Mary Poppins’ bag)… as well as several variations on his first and last names.

One of my classmates had a pretty common firstname (still, we only had two in our class) and a long lastname, we called him by half his lastname. If you called his home and didn’t remember to ask for him by full firstname his mother would hang up on you and refuse to pick it up again :smack:

71

[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
But you are not serious are you?
People with names of Shane, Wayne, Bruce, Adam Craig have nicknames made from their last names do not they?
They are usually very creative - Glichrist is called Gilly, and Fleming is called ‘Flemo’, Warne is called ‘Warnie’ Thomson is called 'Thomo.
Of course one member of the team is always called ‘boof’ for some reason.
[/QUOTE]

People get the nickname that their friends (or sometimes enemies) give them. It can come from anywhere. The point is that it is futile to try and give your son a nickname proof name. His friends will be quite capable of coming up with something based on his first name if they want to, and there’s nothing you can do about it. They could just as easily call him something based on his last name or some distinguishing feature.

Call him Darcy Blinking and he could get Marcy, Dazz, Darko, Donnie, Blinker, Blinko, Blinkers, Blizzard, Lanky, Tiny, Skinny, Shorty, Snowy, Freckles, Biff, Biffo, Pizza Face, Crater Face, Moon Face, Moonie, Eagle Boy, etc.

What you should, IMO, do is call him the nicest name that you can think of, and resign yourself to the possibility of him being called something totally different for his adult life.

At my work we have Ryan “Raz”, Ian “Rags”, Graeme “Greg”, and David “Steve”. I shit you not.

72

This thread reminds me of a story I read in a Reader’s Digest. The parents had a baby girl and after trying their best to think of a name that had no nickname, christened her Amber. The little brother walked in, took one look at the baby, and said, “Hello Amberger!”

73

[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
But you are not serious are you?
People with names of Shane, Wayne, Bruce, Adam Craig have nicknames made from their last names do not they?

[/QUOTE]

You would think, but I know a Shane called “Shay” and a Bruce called “Boo.”

Gotta say that giving up on the no nickname policy will probably save you frustration later on. My mom has yet to give up on it, and it’s been 30+ years, that’s a lot of frustration. My name is easily nicknamed, but she tried harder with my brother’s name and he still gets called by a nickname (although not related to his given name).

I really like John-Paul, that’s nice. I do wonder if there will be a little surge of John-Pauls born over the past few years, but I wouldn’t care about that too much. It’s a good name. Here in the US, there’s a cadre of Johns with the middle name Fitzgerald and whenever I see it on a business card, I can guess pretty well how old that person is (usually right after the Kennedy assassination).

74

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
(I’m telling you, it can’t be done. There is no nickname proof name!)
[/QUOTE]

Best. SNL. Sketch. Ever. :smiley:

(Starring guest host Nick Cage, for those who don’t know, who finds a way to mock every proposed name his pregnant wife can come up with, in increasingly amusing ways. Always kills me.)

75

[QUOTE=DiosaBellissima]
My mom wanted my nickname to be Angel. … (Angel sort of sounds like a stripper) …
[/QUOTE]

I will never think of my niece the same way again. Which is really sad, because she’s eleven years old. Thanks a lot, missy.

76

[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
‘Jack’ is about the most popular name for a baby boy in Australia at the moment.
[/QUOTE]
It’s right up there in the US too.

[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
I got ‘Darcy’ from ‘Pride and Prejudice’ because I do not like the name ‘Fitzwilliam’ as a first name.
[/QUOTE]
How about Bennett?

77

[QUOTE=SCSimmons]
Best. SNL. Sketch. Ever. :smiley:

(Starring guest host Nick Cage, for those who don’t know, who finds a way to mock every proposed name his pregnant wife can come up with, in increasingly amusing ways. Always kills me.)
[/QUOTE]

Link?

78

Quote:
Originally Posted by blinkingblinking
‘Jack’ is about the most popular name for a baby boy in Australia at the moment.
It’s right up there in the US too.

My point is that many names are made from nicknames. Many people here say I cannot call my baby ‘Robbie’ as a full name

79

I like John-Paul. Charlie is nice too, but might turn into Chuck or Chaz.

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
…and be aware of the initials (I had one friend in school whose initials were SOB, and of course we all figured that out right quick.)
[/QUOTE]

I agree with choosing initials with care. I knew someone named Stewart Allen Tan. Because of the way his employers chose to standardize their work email addresses, initials followed by last name, his appeared as ‘satan@workplace.com’.

Talk about your memorable business cards.

80

[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
Quote:
Originally Posted by blinkingblinking
‘Jack’ is about the most popular name for a baby boy in Australia at the moment.
It’s right up there in the US too.

My point is that many names are made from nicknames. Many people here say I cannot call my baby ‘Robbie’ as a full name
[/QUOTE]

You can name your kid whatever you want (unless you live in Quebec), names that end in a long e just (at least in the U.S.) sounds babyish or girlish on a grown man.

When naming girls there is a “stripper or CEO” test. Say the name, then say whether that person is more likely to work a pole or a balance sheet.

Consider that you aren’t naming a baby, you are naming a person. Robbie is really cute on a three year old. And significantly less cute at fifty.