I don't have any grands yet. We were at a party last weekend. There were 20+ kids running around and two of them were named Atticus. My father was named after a street in Paris. First name Rue, middle name was the street. I had a "working" name during my pregnancy. Co workers kept asking me if I was really going to give my son that name. It ended up his middle name. My youngest son came to us as a foster baby. He had 5 names, all unusual to me. When we adopted him we gave him a simple first name and made his original first name his middle name. One of the names we dropped was Barack, I wasn't familiar with that name back then.

When I was a kid, most everyone had nicknames or shortened versions of their names. I myself had three names to which I answered, "Christine", "Chris", "Christie" (this usually by older people). I never felt bad about it, but I do remember my Mom didn't like "Chrissy". lol As an adult it's either Christine or Chris.

Some parents automatically give the child a nickname. "Thomas John, but we are going to call him T.J.!"

I met someone years ago that actually gave her daughter just initials for her name. It was her ex's idea and at the time she liked it, but had come to regret it.

i kind of like when the kids are called by their initials, esp when they're a junior-- much better than going the big john/little john route, imo!

Mimou,

What an interesting story. There is a road we sometimes go over when we visit friends, and it is called "Barrack Hill". My kids used to read it as "Barack".

Two of my husband's uncles were given initials instead of names. The family story about the maternal uncle was that the doctor refused to put the chosen first name on the birth certificate, and used an initial instead. The paternal uncle was given only initials by his parents--I don't know why, but they both had to have a name for each initial when they entered the military. First uncle used the name his parents had intended. The other uncle made up a name which included a girl's name--Johnny Fay. He thought it was hilarious.

We never used nicknames for my kids, but each has only a 2-syllable first name. My son's MIL often shortens his name to the first syllable--after all those years of calling him by his given name, hearing it shortened grates on my nerves.

My name is commonly shortened, like Elizabeth is often called Liz. I answer to both the short and long versions, although prefer the shortened version. What really sets my teeth on edge is when people add a "y" to the end, such as Lizzy. Ugh, I hate that.

We picked names for our kids kind of like Mtn - not popular (although one wound up being so) but acceptable and not uncommon. Their names cannot be shortened (no nicknames for us) and they were both spelled in the traditional way, as both names can have more trendy spellings as well. And no one had a say in their names except us.

One sister has a daughter Nicole - she is not Nic or Nicky, she is Nicole. When she was in school and friends would call and ask for Nic or Nicky, my sister would say that you have the wrong number and hang up.

I have another sister with an Elizabeth and a Michael and from the day the kids were born they were Lizzie and Mick.

My SIL was a tyrant about Christopher being ALWAYS just that. Once he went to school--as we know she lost her control. He is Chris to anyone outside the family. My son almost did not get a name. My husband was very aware of the teasing and nick names that haunt kids at school. It had to be a name that was never used as a girls name, it could not be a name easily shortened into something ugly... We took our new son to a friendly BBQ and as we entered the room shouted out "Luke use the Force". How did he ever miss the Star Wars reference?

One of my dearest friends just became a grandmother last month - her granddaughter's name is Magnolia. I asked if they would shorten it to Maggie but she said that so far her DIL is insisting on the full name.

The comments about no nicknames are interesting. A different version of this where I live has been to give the child the name, which could be a nickname, that the parents are planning to call him/her. Two of my DGDs have such names and a friend's DGS's name is "Ben". Not what I would pick, but as others have said, no comments from me!

Thanks for all the interesting comments and stories. I took my mother's advice when naming our kids:

1. Would you like to grow up with the name?

2. Does it go well with your last name?

3. Will the child be teased or ridiculed for the name?

Our friends are about to be grandparents in a few months. The couple chose not to know the sex. They like the girls' names OK, but do not like the boys' names at all. They are long (and their last name is long) , do not really lend themselves to nicknames, and are not common here. She is afraid the poor little guy will be teased and, in the case of one of the names, be discriminated against. Of course she isn't saying anything to the couple, but she sure is hoping for a girl!

A different twist based on elbecca's comment, how do you like your own name?

my forum name is a nickname, one I hated at the time but now own. (Kippy the hippy was a favorite bully chant. We were poor, had a VW bus and lived next door to an actual hippy house)

but I hated my given name too. Between my dad and his sisters family 5 of 8 pretty much have the same name. His sister had already used his name and dad figured if it worked for her is would for him too. Only moms side of the family can't pronounce it. Ugh

I was pretty obsessive about choosing my daughter's name. I'm an analytical sort, and still have the Excel files that parsed the Social Security Admin's top 1000 baby name lists from the 1890s through when my daughter was born.

Along the lines of what Junco just said about parents naming their kids what could be a nickname, one of my pet peeves is naming kids a diminutive version of a name. Timmy, for example. I mean, it's fine when your kid is 5, but what 50 year old wants to put that on the top of their resume? Maybe it's a peeve because it hits a bit too close to home for me, because my name, while common enough as a given name during the 60s and 70s, is a nickname for a longer name. But there is no short version, or any nickname really, for my name. So it isn't like Elizabeth, where you can choose to be Liz, or Lizzy, or Beth, or Betty, or Bette, or Liza, or Ellie. I always kind of envied people whose names gave them options, and that factored in (a bit) to the name I gave my daughter.

I gave my daughter a name that at the time was considered old fashioned. I wanted a name that everyone would recognize and know how to spell (barring poor spelling skills, which unfortunately seem to be pervasive), but not something that would be at all common. The name we chose had never broken the top 100 (that SSA database analysis). Of course, with the recent trend toward old-fashioned names (we were at the cusp of that trend), I think it has made it up into the 60s. I'm hopeful it will never make the top 50. My mom thought that it was too formal a name for a baby, so for a while she was using a nickname. I'm not sure if that meant she didn't like the given name, exactly. But she eventually stopped, since she was the only one using it, and I think maybe there was some influence from her friends.

In the abstract (meaning just the name, without a person to go with it), I tend to be judgy about names that you can't figure out how to pronounce from the spelling, or how to spell from the pronunciation. I think that just makes it hard all around. Inevitably, it seems when a name becomes newly popular, after a couple years, people start trying to put their own spin on it by changing up the spelling. Again this may a peeve because this happened to my own name--there are at least 7 spellings of my very simple two syllable name (there was only one when I was named).

Oh, and we had a method we used while I was pregnant to shut down unwanted input on names. We'd say, "We're going to name it Drew if it's a boy or Belle if it's a girl." The last name was Lee.

Two grands from my oldest dd. Love both names. They fit the kids. The second one is Sophie. Not Sophia...Sophie. So sweet.

younger dd just texted me that this grand due in October is the size of a lemon. If it's a girl, she's thinking Lila. Also a sweet name.

when I had my twins my girls were practically grown. They each named one boy and they each are a Godmother to the one they named. The only requirement was that they had to be nice, conservative names :-)

I don't really think kids make fun of unusual names anymore; at least my kids don't think anything of it at all; unusual names are "in", if anything.

I have an unusual name & hated it growing up. My nick name was ok. Now I like my given name.

One of my distant cousins' name is, believe it or not, "Chlorine." =:-0

I just remembered something. Remember I mentioned my nieces and
nephews. Well, when the boy was a baby and growing up he went by his
middle name - somewhere about high school age he began going by his
first name.

When I was a kid there was a family in the
neighborhood in which each kid eventually got a nickname - and some were
pretty funny names. Like "Slats", "Knobs"(!), "Muskrat", "Pud". Even
the parents and adult relatives weren't spared. "Becky", the Mom - whose
real name was Betty. "Spider", the Dad whose real name was Merle. And
then I recall older citizens of the town having some peculiar names
other than their own too. I think this was far more common then it is
today.

You find this among some Amish too. Since there are alot
of Andy Millers or Abe Troyers, sometimes they refer to "Sam's Andy" or
"Abe's Sarah", etc. Well this has been a fun and interesting thread. Sorry if I went OT.

Oh my gosh, I actually like Chlorine! ha

When my daughter was in 6th grade her regular teacher was out for several months with a family illness and they had a long-term sub. One day I met him in the school office, introduced himself, and said how much he enjoyed having "Kitty" in his class. Her name is Sarah.

My son's name in Jonathan, and that is what I call him. He choses to go by Jon-which is ok with me, because I've always liked that spelling. My DD's don't have names which can be shortened or made in to nicknames.

My DH is David-but who ever goes by that? I call him that tho. My cousin is James, and as a small child it was hard to call him that, but his parents insisted, and to this day he's still James. My brother is a junior and was always called Joey by everyone. He went by that (except professionally) until our dad died and then it seems everyone started calling him Joe-even our mom.

Blfenton said - We picked names for our kids kind of like Mtn - not popular (although one wound up being so) but acceptable and not uncommon. Their names cannot be shortened (no nicknames for us) and they were both spelled in the traditional way, as both names can have more trendy spellings as well. And no one had a say in their names except us.

Could have wrote this exactly.

I have a relative that works in law enforcement and some of the names we hear about are absolutely cruel. Typically the last name is one that actually says something vs. a name like 'Smith' and they add something interesting to the beginning so it becomes a, usually vulgar, phrase. Use your imagination.

Our niece has a very common first name that typically is shortened. Before she was born we were told, not by the parents, that everyone was going to call her the nickname. Niece arrived and I've never heard the parents call her anything but her given name. I'm not sure if there was a misunderstanding or if the parents changed their minds. Once we caught on, we've always called her by the first name to be respectful to the parents. One person calls her the nickname and I have no idea if it's an issue or not.

My daughter's name has a common nickname ending in "ly." Combined with her last name "Lee," it sounds like you are stuttering. I was pretty adamant that no one use that particular nickname (and explained why), and people have generally complied. One of her friends uses that nickname, though.

Names and nickname stories...one thing you want to consider would be the initials...don't want to be spelling something untoward, like Amy Sarah Smith.

Friend of mine named her son Dave. Not David, but Dave. So some people call him David which is now his nickname, I guess...

I remember an old Reader's Digest story about a family who wanted to name their daughter something that wouldn't be turned into a nickname so they named her Amber. They bring her home from the hospital and her older brother looks at her and says, "Hi Amberger!"

Another RD story...the couple is visiting friends, meeting the newborn for the first time. They tell them that her name is Heather Noelle. The husband whispers to his wife, "I never knew you spelled Heather with an L."

For initials as names, some of you may remember M*A*S*H did a whole episode on finding out what B. J. Hunnicutt's real names were. They finally found out it was just BJ. Hawkeye says, "No one names their kid with just initials." and BJ replies, "They do if your mother is named Bea and your father is named Jay."

Then there's the old joke about the girl who was named Debbie Schitz. Such a terrible name that she went to court to change it. Now she's Veronica Schitz.

Annie, that made me remember tha my father had a friend named "Arnold Samuel SomethingwithanS." LOL! How could parents not see that coming? Yes, he survived elementary school...

I never liked the "jr" bit. While I understand it, I find the 2 names the same confusing and I find it belittling for the son to be called a junior or boy. Family I know, the GS is the III so it gets really confusing when all 3 have the same name....though it does make it easier to call them to the table for dinner! My cousin is a junior but he picked up the nickname Buddy and has been known as that all his life. Much easier.

I'm also not a fan of exotic spellings as I think it just makes things more confusing for everyone involved. Some of the names I've seen with accents and apostrophe's and oddball letter combos, I can't even begin to pronounce...some look like they were letters chosen at random from the scrabble bag.

My real name was a fairly common one for the era, but it's one that has a lot of different suffixes, so I was usually in classes with girls of similar name. As a child, and even as an adult, I am very fussy about being called by my correct name, and not one of the derivatives, as I always felt they were referring to someone else, not me.

My mother was named Marguerite only because my grandmother knew it was a flower and wanted to name her daughter after a flower. Mom told the story of being in the first grade and teacher is helping students write their name...Tom, Mary, Ann, then she gets to my Mom and says, "We'd better wait til next year for you." Dad always called her Marge, her friends always called her Marg, and her father and my MIL always called her Margaret, and my father's mother always called her Margie. No one ever called her Meg, Peg or Peggy. As she got older, she decided she wanted people to use her full real name. So while her friends never switched, everyone new to her learned and called her by her real name.

I did take a phone message at work one time from someone named Patience Wait. Yes spelled that way too. I couldn't believe it when decades later I was listening to "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" and the person who called in was, in fact, Patience Wait. I can't believe there'd be more than one....

Fellow I know went to school in the south and he said there were quite a few names that were unusual, including one fellow whose name was General Washington. Yes, his first name was General.

"No one names their kid with just initials." and BJ replies, "They do if your mother is named Bea and your father is named Jay."

My grandpa's name was RC - just initials. His father's name was Ross and his mother was Carrie. They just put their initials together and came up with a moniker for their baby boy. ;-)

I have read zero of the 73 responses! But as a grown child, when my mother made fun of a future grandchild's name, I did not tell her any names until the kid was 4 days old. (didn't have a name until then!) But it was very annoying to have her make fun of a name we had chosen and loved.

If we had a girl, we still would have named her 'Hazel' despite my mother's objections. I still think that name is adorable (and 'old fashioned') as a pp mentioned. Instead we got a pretty modern type name that old women have never heard of but love!

ETA: I do have to say.. .with all the fancy updated names now, I don't find that kids are getting picked on for their names like my folks thought they would be. Different times!

Annie D, there is a family in our area with three generations named General--Sr, Jr, and III. Maybe more by now.

The man who used to pump our septic tank was named Major, and in my grandmother's extended family Squire was used several times.

younger dd just texted me that this grand due in October is the size of a lemon. If it's a girl, she's thinking Lila. Also a sweet name.

When a friend named their little girl Lilah, another friend smiled that she tells her daughter "lilah tov" every night (Hebrew for "good night") To this day seeing Lilah brings to mind that sweet and loving moment between a parent and child.

I would *never* refer to my child as BJ even if those were his initials. Even if our minds are not in the gutter, his/her friends' are.

My oldest is named a rather genteel English name. When I was pregnant, a girlfriend warned me he'd be bullied on the playground with that name. Fast forward and I agree with those above, unless you're "BJ," kids generally don't pick on others for their names based on my observations. My oldest is a kind, caring soul but is also tall and very strong. He tends to defend kids who are bullied is very fair-minded, and because of his stature, he doesn't face opposition. I should have him be on the watch for any kids named "BJ" who are being picked on.

ETA the best advice I received about naming my kids was to forget them as children and picture them as adults in the professional world. What would I want them named then?

As an aside, one of my sons has a unique name. I've been at school functions and have heard groups of girls refer to <son's name> and giggle with affection... As a mother of a son, I was taken aback. That's my baby boy they were referring to!

My name is Anise. It is the name of the spice that gives licorice it's flavor. It has been a curse and a blessing. Most people pronounce it wrong or are afraid to try to pronounce it. I pronounce it like Janice without the J. It is most often mis-pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable.I was in eighth grade before my teacher snickered and pointed out that he thought it was pronounced anus. Luckily most people in my small town didn't even know that word. So I say an unusual name is ok but the spelling and pronunciation should be clear.

All my grandkids have great names but my ex-son in law remarried and they just named their first son Aslan. I can't spell or pronounce the middle name so I'll spare you that. :-)

Lisad82, I admit to being a bit naive. What's in the gutter about BJ?

"Another RD story...the couple is visiting friends, meeting the newborn for the first time. They tell them that her name is Heather Noel. The husband whispers to his wife, "I never knew you spelled Heather with an L."

What does this mean? I don't get it.

Bpathome, I'll share the urban dictionary link. And no, I don't mean beef jerky or a friend of Barney the purple dinosaur. It's more well-known among parents of teenagers because of an increase in intimate relations among teens that don't involve copulation. Teens are engaging in non-copulation acts believing they're not as serious or "real" or meaningful, when in actuality, they are as real and carry all the same emotional and physical risks other than pregnancy.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BJ

LucyStar1, consider this: Heather, no "L." So the husband is wondering why "Heather" would ever have an "L."

I had to read that a few times myself!

Annie, as far as your family of Generals, the senior partner at my dentist's office used to be a man whose first name was Judge. It was very confusing.

The Russians say that the person beautifies the name. Whatever the name is, if you love the person, you'll come to love the name.

Bpathhome...how sweet. I will share this with dd. And also the spelling.

Lisad

I think it should have been spelled "Heather Noelle".

Noel is a boys name and rhymes with "coal", which kind of messes up the joke ..

Fixed it...I thought it was Noel, like at xmas time, pronounced No-el. But I figure I'm lucky I remember the joke at all considering I probably read it 40+ years ago!

Noel is a boys name and rhymes with "coal"

Hmm, someone ought to tell my cousin that. She and her family pronounce it Noël and have done for 60-some years.

I don't think I've ever met a girl/woman who used the "feminine" spelling, now that I think about it, but I can see that it would eliminate some confusion sometimes.

Regarding Heather Noelle/Noel, no matter how it was spelled, when the parents spoke the newborn's name, phonetically it sounded like they were stating the baby's name was "Heather, no L." So, the husband asks when was Heather ever spelled with an "L."

That's the joke.

God knows why I still have a baby name book, but it shows those versions by gender. Of course people can spell things however they like. I actually considered Noel if we had had a 2nd boy.

I remember Mom told me that if I was a boy, I would've been Ken.

My GS Dane was called dame last week~apparently it was mentioned in a story the teacher was reading. I can't imagine what book or *story* would use the word, but when DD picked the kids up, that's what he told her. I told DD to ask the teacher if it was a book. Sheer curiosity.;)