<p>I say aunt (as in rhymes with pants). H’s family calls aunts “auntie” (with the same pronunciation), so I’m Auntie PG to nieces / nephews on his side and Aunt PG to nieces / nephews on my side.</p>
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<p>What on EARTH is sad about this??</p>
<p>My mother had the same name as her mother and went by a nicknamed version, which has a different initial (think Peggy as a nickname for Margaret, but those aren’t the names in question). She hated it. She made a vow to name her children names that aren’t nicknameable, which indeed she did. I gave my children names that are classic and not nicknameable either. I see nothing wrong with a parent who names a son William or Robert not wanting the child to be called Bill or Bob. It’s their prerogative and there’s nothing sad about it in the least.</p>
<p>I don’t like nicknames generally. I specifically chose a name for my daughter for which there was no nickname. Some people insist on trying to come up with something now and then, but they made no sense and are quickly corrected.</p>
<p>My son has never had a nickname; he’s always been James from the moment he was born. Not only his parents’ decision to call him that, but, ultimately, his own. He just isn’t a Jim or a Jimmy. He’s a James, and it suits him. Nothing sad about it; I think it’s a wonderful name!</p>
<p>I don’t think there are any nicknames for Donna, but I never used one for my old name, either, and absolutely hated the common nickname for it.</p>
<p>^missypie, no, you aren’t my sister! Just sounds like we have mom-name issues in common. My M actually gets annoyed if any family member calls her by her given name. </p>
<p>This has been a most entertaining thread…</p>
<p>:-) We can be CC sisters, though…</p>
<p>khsstitches - I get annoyed when my H calls me by my real name because it means he is annoyed at me. Normally we call each other by the same nickname, a habit that started more than 30 years ago.</p>
<p>“There is something sad about a young boy (Jonathon, William, etc.) who is never given a nickname, or parents who discourage a shortened version.”</p>
<p>I agree. Nothing says sexually confused dodgeball target like a boy who demands to be called William, Matthew, James, etc.</p>
<p>missypie, I still say aint for aunt even though no one else here does. Where I’m from, that’s what everyone says.
I have a different sort of southern accent so lots of things I say sound funny to people fr. other areas. I’m used to being different:)</p>
<p>My sister and I got lucky our cousin (and her mother) got the handed down middle name- Priscilla. </p>
<p>I like nicknames, they are much less formal. Also my parents would only use my given names when I was in trouble- X— Y—, … so there is an association there.</p>
<p>Our neighborhood of the '50s and '60s had plenty of girls so there was a big and little Kathy and Debbie- not always liked by the younger girls I’m sure but our way of differentiating which one we were dealing with.</p>
<p>It is fun when this thread topic comes around. Apologies to those who’ve heard these names before, but they are priceless so I will repeat. I went to school with a Mona Lisa Crump and Katherine Lidder (called Kitty). My great aunt’s last name was Wind. They family hadn’t been in the US long when she was born, so asked the doctor to suggest a nice American name. So he suggested Augusta. Yup. Augusta Wind. She had blonde hair so we always called her “Goldie”</p>
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<p>If people try to shorten my real first name and make a nickname out of it (there is one, though it’s not super common), it is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. I don’t want to be called by a nickname, and I won’t answer to it.</p>
<p>Names are funny. wis75- I like the name Priscilla. Its unique without being strange. My mother’s name was Cleo. I always thought it sounded like a cat’s name (thanks to Disney). Now I kinda of like it.</p>
<p>“If people try to shorten my real first name and make a nickname out of it (there is one, though it’s not super common), it is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. I don’t want to be called by a nickname, and I won’t answer to it.”</p>
<p>Wow, you must really shake your head when you meet a Richard who’s just fine with being called “Dick.”</p>
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My older sister’s name is Donna. As a child, I couldn’t quite pronounce it, so she became “Nunna” and it stuck.</p>
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<p>What a non-sequitor. I couldn’t care less if a Richard wants to be called Dick. I’ll honor his preferences and call him by the name he desires. My own H goes by a nickname except for legal documents. I’m describing MY OWN feelings about MY name being shortened to a nickname. Where you extrapolated that to my having feelings about what other people want to call themselves – I don’t quite get the connection.</p>
<p>I’m with pizzagirl. I don’t like my name shortened. Some people at my office have picked up the habit of calling me “Ca” (like Cathleen), and I can’t imagine where that came from. I hate it.</p>
<p>Ca? Well, it’s better than Ca-Ca, I guess. I have a friend named Catherine who likes to be called “Cat,” but for some reason that just sounds very strange to me, so I usually call her Cath.</p>
<p>I had heard of La-a before and thought it had to be an internet hoax. La “dash” a ??? I’m still not convinced.</p>
<p>We knew a girl named Da-veed. Spelled AND pronounced exactly that way, which is a mercy, anyway.</p>
<p>I have an uncle Marion whom everyone calls “Mookie.”</p>
<p>And being from the South, I say Ahnt, not Ant. Occasionally someone will find this funny. Our relatives in Boston also say Ahnt, so it must be correct. :)</p>
<p>One good thing about unusual names–they make it easier to do genealogical research. Instead of coming up with a pile of common names that might be your relatives, you can zero in on the weird one in the right decade and be confident you’ve found the right one.</p>
<p>We discovered we were related to someone by accident when we were chatting about ancestors from the same area. The list of first names recited removed all doubt that we were talking about the same family!</p>
<p>Your uncle is Mookie Wilson?</p>