# Parents who name their child just the diminutive/short form of a given name **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 10, 2023, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382 "2023-12-10T20:30:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2023, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/261 "2023-12-15T22:58:34Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Excuse my ‘Not A Catholic’ brain, but why the need to name your child the same as a random saint? I don’t know for sure about the “why” - it’s not a rule anymore if it ever really was. The current rule is > “Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to take care that a name foreign to Christian sensibility is not given.” And the way I heard the rule ( again , if it really was a rule) was that baptism required a saint’s name but it was just fine if the kid was named Jessica and baptized using her middle name, Anne and if you can do that , I don’t see why you couldn’t have Maggie on the birth certificate and use Margaret for the baptism. But priests and nuns and mothers like to make up their own rules and I’m sure part of the reason was so the child had a “patron saint” . ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/262 "2023-12-16T06:09:27Z")
If you’re not named after a saint, you don’t get a name day. [Name day - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_day) ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/263 "2023-12-16T11:56:30Z")
Speaking as one of the aforementioned clerks, you’re close to the point without actually hitting it. Databases such as driver’s licensing, vehicle registration, and so forth have to be usable for multiple purposes; they don’t just sit there, holding records forever. Adding things like diacritics and non-Roman characters may be easy to do on a technical level, but it would make the system a nightmare for some users. For example, multiple departments use the same driver’s licensing database, under different circumstances. The clerk at the Department of Health may be calmly sitting at a desk and may have the luxury of considering whether Maria has a diacritic in her name or whether Hagai is spelled with Roman or Hebrew letters. The police dispatcher looking for a suicidal person? Not so much. There just isn’t time to go through different iterations of what is essentially the same name. Many state databases are also still built on the finest technology 1986 had to offer, at least some of Pennsylvania’s are. The state (any state, including PA) isn’t going to spend money to upgrade a system if it doesn’t have to, and it’s probably not going to just to support cultural norms in languages other than English. If the system ends up supporting that, it’s a bonus. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/264 "2023-12-16T12:15:23Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > There just isn’t time to go through different iterations of what is essentially the same name. Yep, I worked for one of those government agencies that had the best technology available in 1986 - and because of that, even newer functions, like electronic case records used 1986 technology . \* It was bad enough looking for Obrien vs O’Brien - and that’s assuming the person looking had the correct spelling and it wasn’t actually O’Bryan ( or Obryan). it would be way worse if there were five different “a” s that the person who originally entered the name might have used. Sure only one is correct - but I guarantee there would be mistakes. \* black screen, green text , difficult to correct mistakes- if you accidentally typed “can” instead of “can’t” you had to retype everything afterwards so we left blank spaces at the end of each line. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/265 "2023-12-16T12:20:59Z")
I have a client who named her son Brodee. A cute name for a five-year-old boy, but not for a Supreme Court Justice. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/266 "2023-12-16T14:17:35Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > > [@MsRobyn](#): > > > > There just isn’t time to go through different iterations of what is essentially the same name. > > Yep, I worked for one of those government agencies that had the best technology available in 1986 - and because of that, even newer functions, like electronic case records used 1986 technology Thanks to both of you for the report from the trenches. There’s also > **[Soundex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundex)** > > Soundex is a phonetic algorithm for indexing names by sound, as pronounced in English. The goal is for homophones to be encoded to the same representation so that they can be matched despite minor differences in spelling. The algorithm mainly encodes consonants; a vowel will not be encoded unless it is the first letter. Soundex is the most widely known of all phonetic algorithms (in part because it is a standard feature of popular database software such as IBM Db2, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Soundex ... which was an early attempt to bridge the gap between literal database lookup and what we might now call fuzzy search that can automatically find every conceivable variation of e.g. “O’Brien”. But which of course brings its own long list of biases and blind spots to the party. And still fails when Officer Billy Jim-Bob Thornton tries to pronounce Vivek Ramaswamy or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/267 "2023-12-16T15:34:10Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I have a client who named her son Brodee. A cute name for a five-year-old boy, but not for a Supreme Court Justice. Or a girl “Brandi”. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/268 "2023-12-16T16:32:46Z")
Should have gone with [Salmon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_P._Chase). Or [Bushrod](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushrod_Washington). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/269 "2023-12-16T16:33:47Z")
Holy personal sequential threads, Batman! I just clicked from the last post of this thread to the last post in this different thread. > [@Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition/963442/8237): > > Yesterday it was Baphomet. > > Today Sodom and Gomorrah are trending on Twitter/X. > > The dark forces are encroaching… I think naming your kids Baphomet, Sodom, and Gomorrah would be great. I’m not sure which genders go better with which names though. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/270 "2023-12-16T16:41:50Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > The police dispatcher looking for a suicidal person? Not so much. There just isn’t time to go through different iterations of what is essentially the same name. Which is why, if you want people searchable in a database, you use something like a unique identification number instead. Which we sort of had, until people decided they were security risks, and so everyone has a number that must never be used. Or rather, we decided to prioritize the banks’ ability to quickly and easily find individuals over the police and public services. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/271 "2023-12-16T16:49:33Z")
I assume you are referring to social security numbers - but they really never took the place of names. I’m old enough that my college grades were posted by my SS number on walls that anyone could see- but I’ve always had a separate number on my driver’s license ( DMV didn’t even have my SS number until Real ID became a thing ) , my health insurance, my car insurance and every other place that needed some sort of ID number. . But you can’t look me up by my driver’s license number unless you already _have_ my license number - if you need to look up my DL number you are pretty much going to have to search the database by some name and birthdate combo. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/272 "2023-12-16T16:52:57Z")
No, I know that’s how things work now. I’m saying they COULD work by just SSN if we wanted to. If the DMV database were searchable by SSN, you could pull up all the other data with one number. Cross-checking with another unique identifier is always a good idea, though, because it’s even easier not to notice typos in long numbers than in names. I suppose, now that phone numbers are individual and portable, we could use those. But I have a unique name which at least I can spell, so I don’t really care how all the Ashley Smiths distinguish themselves. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/273 "2023-12-16T17:06:56Z")
I’m disagreeing with this part > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Which we sort of had, until people decided they were security risks, and so everyone has a number that must never be used. We _never_ sort of had that with SS numbers , not even when it wasn’t considered a security risk. At the exact same time my SS was my student ID number and posted on the walls of my college , the DMV didn’t even ask for my SSN. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/274 "2023-12-16T17:51:49Z")
There are some computer tables to disambiguate easily-confusable characters, with or without diacritics. As for Brian vs Bryan or Briam, a fuzzy search may take care of it, but even if everything is typed in exactly correctly, what is the government agency going to do when it is looking for John Doe, not to be confused with John Doe? It is not diacritical marks that are at the root of the problem, it seems to me. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/275 "2023-12-16T19:35:16Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > > [@MsRobyn](#): > > > > The police dispatcher looking for a suicidal person? Not so much. There just isn’t time to go through different iterations of what is essentially the same name. > > Which is why, if you want people searchable in a database, you use something like a unique identification number instead. Which we sort of had, until people decided they were security risks, and so everyone has a number that must never be used. Or rather, we decided to prioritize the banks’ ability to quickly and easily find individuals over the police and public services. Numbers exist; people have driver’s license numbers, cars have title numbers and license plates. But in an emergency, they’re not helpful because the person reporting the incident may not know the number, or in the case of a missing car, the number is on the registration, which is in the missing car. So search by name is usually the only thing to do. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/276 "2023-12-16T21:59:48Z")
I’m sure that’s true for your system. I was talking about a hypothetical system. The point made elsewhere about people not knowing their numbers is a good point, though. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/277 "2023-12-16T23:27:18Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I knew a guy called Dolph. His full name was Adolph, he was born in 1948… and he was Jewish. The only Adolph I’ve ever known was an African American from Oklahoma originally. He was my boss for a few years. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2023, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/278 "2023-12-16T23:33:50Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I’m old enough that my college grades were posted by my SS number on walls that anyone could see The company I retired from used ssn’s as the unique employee identifier until 1995. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2023, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/279 "2023-12-17T00:18:11Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I knew a guy called Dolph. His full name was Adolph, he was born in 1948… and he was Jewish. Apparently “Adolph” had been his grandfather’s name, When the old US census data was released a few years ago, I found a Jewish relative in Chicago in the early 1900’s with that name. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2023, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382/280 "2023-12-17T01:34:38Z")
My grandfather’s name was Adolf, may he rest in peace. He was a very religious Jew, born around 1910. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-who-name-their-child-just-the-diminutive-short-form-of-a-given-name/994382.md?page=15)