I’d much rather be an Anastacia than a Stacy. 
I’ve known an Annette for over twenty years. In that time I’ve rarely heard her called anything other than Annie.
I’ve never known an Elizabeth, William or Catherine who didn’t use a nickname except for the most formal of occasions.
We thought about this a lot while thinking up baby names. Someone had suggested the name Valerie for our girl, but I knew it would always be shortened to Val and I don’t like that as much.
My name gets shortened to one syllable a lot and, while I don’t really like it, my reaction is less severe than it used to be. Eh, what’s in a name, right?
For some reason loads of people try to call me Mike as soon as they can after meeting me. What’s so difficult with saying “Michael”???!! :mad:
My first name is almost always shortened. I don’t mind as i hate my full first name anyway. When asked i prefer to be called by my surname, which is my user name here.
My brothers almost always suffer the same fate too.
Harry becomes Haz.
Charlie becomes Charl, though i imagine that will change as he gets older.
Alfie and Arthur are pretty lucky, most use their full names.
And then there’s Thomas, i don’t need to continue on that one it seems.
I always refer to them using their full names however. Although i have always referred to Arthur (the youngest) as Anakin. I really must stop that. I named him that after Han/Leia’s third child, before the new (crappy) films came out. Thomas sometimes gets called some choice names too, but i think that’s for another thread…
My youngest daughter Catherine gets called Cathy all the time. I have a co-worker, Crystal, who goes by Cris.
I hated my given name and especially hated the nicknames attached to it. So I changed it to something relatively un-nicknameable, and now people who want to nickname me call me by my first initial. This is satisfactory but still somewhat amusing. One of my co-workers has gone so far as to add words to my initial to make it a rapper name. (As in, “Yo, wassup <initial>-money?”) This cracks me up and was worth the price of changing the name in the first place. So the impulse to nick-name is evidently remarkably strong.
My name is Eleanor.
People try to shorten it to Ellie–but I ask nicely that they don’t. If they continue, not so nice comes out.
I get “shortened” to Rigby or Roosevelt–gee, what a surprise. But I did have a teacher who called me Aquitane.
My son’s name is Robert-shortened to Rob at times. Never Bob or Bobby.
People are very touchy about their names and I try to respect that. I have a friend who doesn’t mind Jess, but hates Jessie (she is Jessica).
It’s about the only thing that is totally yours, one would think that people would be more respectful of the person’s preferences.
My name is Ellen; there aren’t many nicknames for it, but throughout school a number of my friends called me “El”.
I had one friend growing up named Maureen. Her mother (apparently) named her this BECAUSE it had no nicknames…until all her friends started calling her Mo. However, we had to remember to use the full name when calling her on the phone, because if her mom answered and we asked to speak to Mo, she’d say “there’s no one here by that name” and HANG UP. :rolleyes: Then we’d have to call back.
My first husband’s name is Dan. Not Daniel, Dan. That’s what it says on his birth certificate - he was named for a cousin or something. However, he goes by his last name almost exclusively…I think his family, my mom & I are the only ones who call him Dan… I think his new wife even calls him by their last name. Whatever.
Jeffrey checking in here!
I went by Jeffrey until about 5th or 6th grade. I was hardly ever called Jeff before then. As I got older, I felt like Jeffrey was too much of a little boy’s name, and started using Jeff. Only my mother was allowed to still call me Jeffrey. She named me afterall. But over time, even she stopped using Jeffrey. So now, I’m almost never called anything but Jeff.
There is one business client that refers to me as Jeffrey when I talk to him on the phone. I have no idea why, as I’ve never introduced myself to him as Jeffrey. It annoys me, but not overly so.
I have rarely been called Jeffy, though. And Kepi is the Hawaiianized version of Jeff.
My sister Monica never gets called by a shortened name except one person who calls her Mo.
But even when names have no logical shortening, nicknames happen. Apparently my brother couldn’t pronounce “Monica.” So she started going by the name that he could pronounce. That’s why I have a 5’2" 100 pound sister named…
Moose.
I call hubby Christopher only when I’m being “serious” and playing around, “telling” him off. The rest of the time he’s Chris, or sweetie. His middle name starts with a J, but he won’t let anyone call him CJ.
I have a cousin whose name is Peter but was always called Bobby as a kid. As a child myself, I never questioned this and just assumed Bobby was a normal nickname for Peter. But when I got old enough to realize this wasn’t true and asked how he got the name, I was told his older brother hadn’t been able to pronounce the name Peter when he was very young and had called his new brother “baby” all the time.
My name is Dominic and is always shortened to Dom. Same with all the other Dominics that I know.
I have a couple friends called Siobhan, one in particular is mostly called Sibh, prounounced Shiv.
My name is Kathleen, which I went by up intil 10th grade. Each year we moved and the teacher would introduce me as Kathy, a name i abhor, and each year I would start off the year as the smart ass who corrected the teacher. My 10th grade I gave up and went by Kathy, but when we moved in 11th grade I decided if I have to have my name shortened, I would give them an acceptable version. I now go by Kate. To this day, the only people who call me Kathy are dentists and gynocologists. They look at my name and assume. It somehow doesn’t help me get over my hate of the nickname.
Well, I’m a Thomas and it’s always been Thomas. In the past, teachers have called me Tom, but it never caught on outside of that. To me, Tom just doesn’t sound like a whole word. Occasionally, some people call me Toe-moss, but that’s different.
My name is Taylor, and people want to call me Tay. The only people who can call me that are my parents and best friend. I’m Taylor to everyone else, gawdammit.
I pity the fool who dares call me Tay Tay…growls
For me the obvious female ones to shorten would be Victoria, Nicola, Catherine (& variants) and, possibly, Charlotte.
For the lads, Andrew, Thomas, Nicholas & Benjamin.
(All most Engish eh ?) Although I’d never shorten anyone’s name on first meeting - with a new colleague I’dv probably ask if they had a short form they used, in a social setting I’d use the name I was told.
My dad has the same nickname for the same reason. It’s entirely unrelated to his name - but my uncle simply couldn’t pronounce that (or “baby”) correctly.