When I was in school, I kept being asked if I preferred my full first name or the shortened nickname. I didn’t have a preference, but since people kept asking, I decided I should get one. I realized my family called me by the short version, so I picked the full name. My mom and my little bro still call me by the short version and my dad and older sis call me by my full name. Everyone calls me by my full name except my mom and bro and some of my mom’s friends who have known me my whole life.
At work, there is another guy with the same name as me, not just first name, but first and last. We started about the same time and HR kept getting us confused. He goes by the nick and I go by the full version, so people eventually got us straight.
Also at work, we have a Mike and a Wes. Everyone calls them that. My boss calls them Michael and Weston. We also have a guy with an unusual name that most of us call by his full name and the same boss calls him by a one syllable nickname.
Gagundathar was a very common name where and when I was decanted, and I typically go by my last name at work (Dr. Inexplicable) or by my nickname, Hawk, pretty much everywhere else.
Shortening a person’s name in my culture is a shooting offense so I don’t have to endure being called ‘Gag’. This is true except for online, of course, where I can’t physically chastise the offender.
Well, Leafy, it is an affectation du jour to get a little too precious over decrying the un-permissioned use of a diminutive. There is a small control pleasure which enters into the equation when permission to use a diminutive is taken unilaterally by a relative stranger.
“Pardon; it’s James, not Jim. Thank you.”
It’s my personal observation that the trend is driven by historic preferences of the wealthy and privileged–or at least a perecption on the part of the masses that that is how the rich do it. An unscientific observation, certainly, but the polloi have never been shy to pick up on free affectations which associate them with education and means.
The tide will turn and Bo will return as soon as the trend is so pervasive it is no longer special to be Beauregard.
The fun part about my nickname is that it’s a boys’ name (Think Billy or Bobby). So sometimes salespeople call and hear me answer and assume I’m the assistant. They give me some BS line about how “Mr. Harmonius is expecting my call and said for you to put me right through.”
I always then chuckle and say - “how weird. I’m Ms. Harmonius and I don’t remember doing anything of the sort . . .”
I do end up with a lot of Mallard Duck stationery and swiss army knife presents from vendors . . .
I was Julie until I was hired here. There was another Julie already, so I became Julia, and use it everywhere now except at home.
I recently changed my pronunciation, too! It seemed that people had difficulty understanding “Joolya” on the phone, but I noticed it always sounded so pretty when my Mexican co-worker pronounced it. Now I say “Joo-lee-yah” like she does.
We did that with. Then, right after we did that, everyone in the world named their baby with our name. So in **Attacklass’ **school, there are fifty zillion other Attacklasses in the years below her.
Someone in my mom’s prenatal class heard the name my mom was thinking of and named her daughter that name 3 weeks before I was born.
Realizing that we would be classmates, my mom changed my name enough to keep my name different from hers - hence why she always calls me by both of my first names.
I’ve heard of this stereotype too. I guess I’m the exception, along with my friend Drew who refuses to go by Andrew under any circumstances less formal than his university diploma (partly because he changed it in order to break away from his parents).
Interesting, my situation is the same (apart from the last name) and I’m 28. Only my family calls me Matthew, as well as people who are taking liberties and calling me by my first name when I didn’t invite them to do so. When I introduce myself by my first name (in English) it’s always as Matt.
I sometimes get the three syllable pronounciation. I firmly let them know that if they use more than two syllables, they need to give it the full Spanish (hoo-ly-a) treatment. Most people get it right though.
Amongst my closest friends and family, I mostly go by the first syllable only.
I have an un-shortenable one syllable first name, so no nicknames for me. But my brother-in-law is a different story. He has one of those WASPy sounding “Buckminster Nathaniel Winchester III” kind of names. For his own reasons, he has decided that he likes his full first name and refuses to let anyone shorten it; which is completely his decision, so everyone respects it and calls him what he wants to be called.
Except his parents.
They decided long ago that he would get both the WASPy full name and an official nickname, whether he likes it or not. Though no one else in the world calls him anything but his real, full name, they call him by their preferred nickname and he and everyone else can go to hell if they don’t like it. I have no idea what their problem is, but I do know that this falls pretty low on their list of “problems” anyway.
Most people get it right though.