Annoying name shortening trend

I am reading a novel written by Antony Trollope in 1858. Several characters have their names shortened - and what about Little Women? Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth, three of the four names are dimunitives.

The Queen was called Lilibet in the family, after how she first pronounced her own name. then of course there is Good Queen Bess.

No name is so short it cannot be shortened (in which case it usually ends up longer) and the fashion for how a name is shortened varies from generation to generation.

Cladiaclaws that just gives your age away. Most Andys and their parents have no memory of Andy Pandy.

You wouldn’t want to live here, just about everyone shortens everything
Brekkie = breakfast
Sickie = having a day off work. Names are nearly all shortened, it is a form of friendship and endearment I think.
I do it,too, these days.

My late mother ,born in the 30's was christened Elizabeth
Family eg mum dad aunt siblings etc called her Betty
Non family called her Elizabeth and woe betide you if you said Liz
Father called her Lizbeth
With my son's name husband and I are the only ones to call him that , everyone else calls him a three letter name
My grandson we also use his shortened name
Shortening of names has been around for decades

I think it's pathetic when grown men are called "Andy" I always think of Andy Pandy and then imagine the man in a blue and white cotton suit with a frill.

mollygo

What a great idea! I wish I'd thought of that.

My aunt called her daughter Pamela Anne Margaret. She said she expected it’d get shortened, so she arranged the initials.

GrannyRose15

Pippa

I have some sympathy with your view. The problem is however that it is often not the individual who chooses what they are called but friends or in some cases casual acquaintances. I often shorten my own name because many people seem incapable or unwilling to pronounce my full name as I would wish.

I would agree with that though GrannyRose, I think you should be called what you want to be called. Anything else is just bad manners

Well I didn’t choose to be called Pam (rhymes with Spam) .
I was always called by my full name then all of a sudden, when I moved it began to be shortened.
I gave up in the end. There are only so many times one can say politely “actually it’s”...... I’m still the real deal to my old friends and family.
I gave my girls names that couldn’t be shortened. It worked with one and not the other. Well 50% is a win. Isn’t it?

Pippa

I have some sympathy with your view. The problem is however that it is often not the individual who chooses what they are called but friends or in some cases casual acquaintances. I often shorten my own name because many people seem incapable or unwilling to pronounce my full name as I would wish.

I have a family name, my mother and grandmother had shortened versions of it, I am call by the full name, DD inherited the dimunitive of her great garndmother, but changed the spelling.

I work on the one stroke and your out principle. If someone new shortens my name, I explain that I am known by the full name. After that I ignore anyone calling me anything but the name I am known by and prefer.

It's interesting to hear people's own experiences with names although I must admit I would be reluctant to put as much personal and family information on an open forum as some have.

However, could someone tell me why what others are called or call themselves is any business of the rest of us. The idea that any control or even judgement on this should go further than your own name is a mystery to me.

I'm not a fan of shortening names and have always called my children by their full names. I would always hesitate when one of their friends would call them Dan or Joe or Nikki. But they were teenagers by then so I never even tried to correct anyone, but have always called them by their full name. I admit it did bother me when my MIL called Joseph Joey right from the start when he was a baby., but I let it go as her pet name for him.

I work in an industry (longshoring) where most men had the strangest nicknames not related at all to their actual name, especially the old-timers. Shrubby, Bluey, Jumpy, etc.
I was a little afraid to get a nickname, but thankfully never did. One fellow I had always known as Jake was actually named Fedelis. His wife called the office looking for him and I told her no one by that name worked here. That was how I found out his actual name!

I named my son Stephen hoping when older he would be called Steve but alas no it's Ste which he prefers

I was determined my children's names wouldn't be shortened. I gave up when all her friends started shortening my daughter's beautiful, unusual, and rare name to B.

My mother hated the fashion for adding y onto names eg Annie, Susie so she named me Wendy. Everyone calls me Wend.

One trend I really don’t like is to give children two names and then call them by the initials.eg Peter John - PJ. In our area (fishing community) it’s quite common to call children by both of their given names, so you get Stephanie-Louise, Matthew-John.etc

The ones that amuse me most are when people call Kirsty, Curse and Darcy, Darse.
My dog's name is Oscar and I call him Ozzywozzybozwoz.
Daft, aren't we.

One of my cousins was named Helen after her late maternal grandmother, but when she started school, other children started calling her 'Hel'! Her parents were furious about this, as they were very religious people, so changed it to her middle name of Julie, only it didn't take long for the class mates to shorten that one to 'Jue' which again did not fare well with their religion!
My Eldest daughter was named Claire, but often got called Bear by her siblings, or 'Care bear' after the cartoon characters if they really wanted to annoy her!

Love shortening or lengthening names. I think it's more friendly. I have a colleague called Sian and I call her Siany. She loves it!

I was always called Christine by everyone when I was young but decided I preferred Chris as I got older. It is only my aunts and uncles and cousins who I didn't see very often still call me by my full name.
We named our daughter Lucy, which she didn't like and she shortened it to Lu - she has since changed it by deed poll. Our son, on the other hand, we named Benjamin though we have always called him Ben - just thought that he may like a choice as he got older
A friend had the opposite problem. Her name was June but some people insisted on calling her Junie which hated.

We have 2 sons, David who is known to every as Dave exept us, to distinguish between him and DH (who he is named after he gets his full name. When his brother was born we decided on a name that couldn't be shortened so he is Lee (popular in the mid 70s). When he went to school there were 3 others in his class, so 1st letter of last name was added so they became Leer, Leef, Leer, these days he lives in Hanoi, with his partner Le!

My name is Maureen, but always been called Mo, for as long as I can remember, if my late husband called me Maureen, I knew straight away he was annoyed with me. But the best nickname I've heard is one my neighbour uses for his dog, the dog's name is Juno, but he always calls him Oi! It's Oi come here, Oi sit down, Oi, don't do that etc.

Haha!

I’m called Jacqueline and someone I didn’t like persisted in calling me Jaxie. I kind of adopted it out of irony. A friend asked me if I understood what its popular meaning was. “ Asshole” I replied, “ and according to you I can be one sometimes.” Puzzled look on her face, end of conversation.

It's always been a "thing". My cousin was born 1960, call Derek and was always called Del Del. Other names were also shortened.