<p>We had the following criteria for D’s name:</p>
<p>Not trendy
Feminine but not frilly
A name everyone knows how to pronounce and spell
Above all, we wanted a versatile name, a name which would serve her well no matter where she goes in life</p>
<p>When my kids were little, we knew a family in which the first three kids all had exotic, unusual names. The oldest was a boy, followed by two girls.</p>
<p>The fourth child, another girl, had a common, there’s-one-in-every-class name.</p>
<p>How it happened: The boy, who was 12 when the youngest was born, had hoped for a brother. To help him get over his disappointment when the youngest turned out to be a girl and hopefully help him to be enthusiastic about the new baby, his parents allowed him to name her. He was well beyond the stage of silly names but evidently didn’t share his parents’ tastes. They decided this was OK. The youngest child’s name does not resemble the others, but it sounds perfectly fine. And the parents’ strategy worked. There was a special bond between their oldest and youngest children.</p>
<p>I grew up knowing more than one Mary who was called Mitzi as well as a Marys called Mamie and Molly.</p>
<p>Both of my kids have very traditional formal first names and both go by nicknames. One reason we chose the names was that they both have options if they don’t care for the name we chose. S’s name has a few common nicknames, D’s has a whole bunch.</p>
<p>In general I don’t see nicknames used as much now as when I was growing up.</p>
<p>I don’t understand just giving the kid a nickname without the option for a more serious, adult-sounding name. Like just “Jake.” Or just “Jenny.” (The “John”/“Jack” thing I have never understood–why does a four-letter name with one syllable need a nickname? So I think of “Jack” as a freestanding name now, even though I agree that it is overused.)</p>
<p>My kids have traditional first names that can be shortened into various nicknames. One uses one, the other doesn’t. Their middle names are family surnames, which has been the tradition in our family for a long time.</p>
<p>Mil named a son James. They called him Jim. She actually talked about legally changing his name to Jim, since that is what people called him.</p>
<p>We have two Jacks - actual name on BC, not nickname - who are cousins born within a year of each other. I have never heard the story behind the second family’s choice to use the same name.</p>
<p>My friend’s dad thought that he had the perfect name in Robert, or Bob for short. I always thought that his feeling that way was fantastic.</p>
My husband and I had the same argument about D2. We actually wrote and crossed out three times on the birth certificate application and each time, the lady in the office sent it back, telling us to think about it some more. We ended up with my choice, which was classic name first and we were always glad because it fit. Also, trendy middle name was represented at least several times in every class in her life.</p>
<p>"(The “John”/“Jack” thing I have never understood–why does a four-letter name with one syllable need a nickname? So I think of “Jack” as a freestanding name now, even though I agree that it is overused.)"</p>
<p>My 85 year old father’s birth cert first name is Jack and people have always wrongly assumed it is just a nickname for John.</p>
<p>My mother is a Mary who has always been called Molly. I know some “Mairs” and bunch who use their middle name with a nickname plus Mary - like Mary Beth.</p>
<p>I like traditional, classic, not-nicknameable names. Since I have twins, their names sound nice and harmonious together, but they are not “matching” at all. </p>
<p>D’s middle name is my maiden name (which I wouldn’t do, in hindsight, as it’s not a particularly attractive name), but I did it largely in reaction to H’s insistence that S have his middle name - which was also his mother’s maiden name - as his middle name as well. In other words, H and S have the same middle name.</p>
<p>But absolutely - I wanted names that you could find on keychains and so forth, with “normal” spellings and no nicknames.</p>
<p>Our number 1 rule was we each had complete veto power over any prospective name. We both had to be at least okay with the final choice. That way the kid couldn’t end up with a name that one or the other parent disliked.</p>
<p>W also had what she called the Secretary of State rule, which is that girls’ names must sound believable as a high office holder. This was to avoid excessively girlie or trendy names that would cause a young woman to not be taken seriously or mistaken for a little girl or a stripper (i.e Bambi, Trixie, etc). The names of English queens make excellent Secretary of State names (Mary, Elizabeth, Victoria, etc), although neither girl ended up with a queen name.</p>
<p>I also wanted to avoid alternate spellings to save the kids a lifetime of correcting misspelled names on forms.</p>
<p>RE: “Mary”
I’m a traditional Catholic, so I know a lot of Marys (used a few times in our own family). I know a couple families that named ALL of their daughters “Mary”–one family had 8 girls, the other 7. They end up being called by their middle names. One named “Mary Helen” is called “Hel” by her sisters. Philomena goes by “Phil.” I’m not sure what they call Mary Scholastica. Can anyone think of a nickname for that?
H knew two brothers named Bill and William.
Another thing I don’t like–cute/alliterative/rhyming names for twins. Sibs need different sounding names–at least so they know which kid the parent is calling for. (Not Dawn and Don.)</p>
<p>The “John”/“Jack” thing I have never understood–why does a four-letter name with one syllable need a nickname?</p>
<p>I agree. I think maybe the habit started because John was such a super popular name that there were so many Johns around (including fathers) so calling a namesake “Jack” just offered some distinction.</p>
<p>I think the same thing can happen with Mary. In the 50s/60s there were too many Marys running around.</p>
<p>in my dad’s family, all firstborn girls are named Christine and all firstborn boys are named Francis (Frank). Since there are too many Frank and Christines running around their social circle, they all go by funny nicknames…including one nicknamed Snookie! (the first Snookie I’d ever heard of). </p>
<p>We had neighbors with 8 girls in the family…all had Mary as their first name. But they each went by their combo name…Mary Beth, Mary Ann, Mary Kate, Mary Sue, etc. </p>
<p>I know that parents like to look at how a first name sounds with a last name, but if your D marries and takes her H’s name, then that all falls apart. One of my mom’s best friends is named, Isabel…she married a man whose last name is Bell. lol</p>
<p>One of my grandmothers was named Indiana. Someone compiled a huge online genealogy in which she is listed as male (too much Indiana Jones, I presume :)). I tried to get them to correct it, but no luck. I have no idea whether they called her “Indy” for short.</p>
<p>WHen my twins were born, there were 2 other sets of twins in the hospital:
Arial and Zach (ugh - A and Z, get it?)
Nathan and Nathaniel (and Nathaniel’s middle name was Daniel)</p>
<p>I quite agree. Elizabeth can be Liz, Lizzie, Liza, Ellie, Beth, Betsy, Bess or even Lilibet when she’s in school, and forever to her family and friends, but still use Elizabeth if she happens to become a bank president or a college dean or Supreme Court justice (or, in the case of Lilibet, Queen of England). I am pretty satisfied with the names we gave our kids, but if anything, I do wish we’d given them names with more options for diminutives.</p>
<p>PG, I actually know a Nathaniel Daniel. I never got that one.</p>
<p>One of the attorneys at my firm has a brother who works at a different firm and they have rhyming names that start with the same letter, and the same very unusual middle name. Both firms use several of the same vendors and there have been multiple instances of their preferences/reservations being changed because the vendors couldn’t comprehend that there were two of them.</p>
<p>My parents didn’t have a name picked out for me when I was born. They were convinced I was a boy but surprise! So they gave me my name kind of on a whim. </p>
<p>My name is generally a nickname so I always get the “what’s your real name” question. Bah.</p>
<p>My best friend growing up had twin brothers Hayden and Ayden (yes that spelling).</p>
<p>My son’s first name is after my husband’s brother who died a few years before our son was born. His first middle name is my father’s name and his second middle name is my husband’s fathers name. Yes, we gave him two middle names. I know, I know, bad parents. But they are all spelled correctly!</p>