Nicknames vs Full Name

My son's full name is Romanov... we call him Roman.

The upside to nick names? When I'm mad, he know's it. ROMANOV!!

We went a bit backwards on this one... of all the names I suggested, my hubbs & oldest daughter chose the name Lexie. I specifically wanted Lexie, and let my husband decide if we just named her Lexie, or did we want to go with a 'full' name. He was on the side of a full name, so Alexis it is. We use her full name all the time. "Alexis Paige- get off of the counter! Alexis Paige - do not throw the cat into
the pool! Alexis Paige!!!...."

Nicknames are great! Why don't we call a cell a Cellular Phone?? Or a Mac a Macintosh? Or have acronyms for anything? It's to make things easier or to make things cute or easier to remember.

A full name sounds more professional.
A nickname sounds child like.
Our kids are Jayson Ian and Brianna Elizabeth
We call Jayson, J, or Jman , and Brianna is B or Bgirl
or We use their names it all depends on what's going on
My name is Nancy Elizabeth, I am called B..
It's less formal and I like it like that , But I also like having my "full name"

My name is Christina... I answer to Christina, Chris, and R. (I'm a redhead). My brother's name is Nicholas, and he goes only by Nick. (we also have an Andy (Andrea), Angel (Angelique), Chet (Chester), Kenny (Kenneth), and Tom (Thomas) as far as my siblings and nicknames go. (I have more, but their 'proper' name doesn't shorten to a nice nickname) My Fiance is Travis, but goes by TJ. Obviously, my family believes in nicknames. lol. For the most part, full names (in my family) are for when you are in B.I.G. Trouble.

Oh.......I have news for your husband.
Whatever you name your child, you will call them all kinds of things other than their actual name.
Honey....sweetie, sugar, pookie butt.....
You never know until they've been around a while what their nick names might end up to be.
Trust me, you'll likely have little "pet" names for your kids regardless of what you name them.
Choose a name you like.

Best wishes.

I personally would want to go with a full name. Just because when they get older, they may not want to go by "Bobby" and would prefer Robert. I had a few friends growing up, Jessie, prefers Jessica now, and Bri perfers to be called Brianna. They think it sounds better as adults. Its always nice to have the option. But, I think Alek could go either way. Sounds like a full name to me.

I would give him a full name because as an adult, on a resume it will look more professional. However, I would not hestitate to use a nickname through a child's life either. Our daughter's name is Samantha Marie. Most of the time she is Sam or Sammi. Occasionally I will use her full name.

Good luck and congratulations on your future child!

When you pick a name for a son, pick one your child will probably be happy with all his life - kindergarten, Cub Scouts, basketball team, music camp, law school. Same goes for daughters.

One thing a nickname can do is to make a grownup name OK for a child. It isn't that the real name doesn't count. Aleksei is a wonderful name! But "Alek" might be easier for him to handle when he's young. When he's older, he might prefer "Aleksei Johnson, DVM." Alek (or Alec) is sometimes used as a regular name, and sometimes as a nickname for Aleksei or Alexander.

Your husband needs to know that sometimes children give themselves nicknames! Historical example: British writer C. S. Lewis' first name was Clive. He announced as a child that he would be known as "Jack." And that was that, as far as his family and friends were concerned. He kept his real name for the outside world.

And at certain times nicknames have been, more or less, customary. Often friends gave each other nicknames. I read once that nicknames for children were especially popular when the children were named after long-dead relatives and Civil War heroes!
:^)

Find some long-lasting names you both like, and just see what happens. You'll love your child so much that you'll love any name that you end up calling him or that he ends up calling himself.

My daughter's full name is McKenzie, but she only goes by Kenzie. No one calls her by her full name...at school, there is another McKenzie, so she's Kenzie. She is Kenzie to everyone unless, of course, she gets in trouble! For example...OMG, McKenzie Anne, why did you cut your hair and the cats hair?! And what's funny, is when we call her by her full name, she looks at us and says 'I'm Kenzie?'
I like the nicknames...but a longer name is nice!

People will call them what they will......even if it's not what you *think* they are supposed to do!

My hubby was not OK with girl names that shortened to what he considered boy names. So we agreed to a name that really didn't shorten to a nick name at all. I am glad we did.

Both hubby and I have always been known as our nick names, and now as an adult, I mostly dislike it. Its not very professional sounding...even tho I work with children and don't need a very prof sounding name! But after 40 years of being called the other, I now (with friends and family) go by an even shorter version of the nick name! LOL...but when I make calls or introduce myself in any other way, its with my full first name.

Most of my siblings and the adults nieces and nephews in my family, who have had children in the last many years...and many of my friends too, have purposely given their children a name like we did with my daughter...one that doesn't generally shorten.

But to each his own! Having a nick name hasn't harmed me any! I use both now.

Names like Claire, Connor, Shelby, Morgan, Lauren, Logan, Lance, Andre, Max, Cole, Noel,

My husband has a wonderful first name, but he is referred to by his nickname and he says as an adult he really wishes his parent had used his proper name. He tried once he got to high school, but his parents laughed at him and said he would always be,, the shortened name.. By then his friends also would not switch over. When I was born my mother wanted to name me Lauren, but my father and his mother said "we will call her L.".. My mother really wanted them to call me Lauren, but since she knew they would call me L., she went ahead with L.. It is a shame, because I love the name Lauren. When I was in school there were a ton of L.'s, but no Lauren's.

Our daughter has a long first name and she has never allowed anyone to try to shorten it.. She loves the long name. We had 2 middle names picked out and could not decided, until we actually saw her. The one we picked suits her perfectly..

FYI, we do have lots of pet names my husband and I use when she is ill, mad, or acting like a clown.. but no one outside of this house would dare use them with her..

My DD has a full name and nicknames. I like the versatility a nickname gives a child and, to be honest, they'll probably make up one or acquire one somewhere. My stepson's name doesn't have an easy nickname, but his friends gave him one anyway. And my stepdaughter swapped nicknames when she was little. You never know.

I also like having a name that can be used with more familiar people and/or as a child vs being really formal when the kid is 2. For example, if your kid is Elizabeth, she could be Beth or Liz but when she's 35 and managing a department, she could easily be Elizabeth and be taken more seriously than if you named her Bambi (no offense intended to Bambis. I'm sure you know what I mean).

I also did not want to give my child a wackadoodle name. No Apples here. And I used a common spelling. I wanted her to have a name that was versatile to whoever she might become without hindering her.

Would your husband compromise in that if you give him a full name that YOU can call him by a nickname and HE can call him by the full name and see what the kid calls himself when he is older?

I have a family nickname that I use with family, but around 5th grade I decided to use my full name for school. My name also has a common nickname I don't like so I tell people to call me x or y, but not q. Just as long as you tell people what your son prefers to be called (or teach him to do so), it'll be fine.

I say go with the full name, then you can call him the nick name but most importantly the child has a choice when they get older which they actually like and want to go by.

My family is chalked full of full names that get shortened to something else, including my hubby, he is a Michael but goes by Mike...we also have a Jacob that goes by Jake and a Matthew that goes by Matt....my boys on the other hand have names that can not be shortened.

Funny thing is we have a grip of boys and we finally had a girl...it took me forever to pick her beautiful name, we settled on Gillian and went with the G spelling because I DID NOT want anyone to call her Jill. After she was born EVERYONE calls her something else, nobody uses her first full name...she is Gilly-Bean, Gigi, G, Sis, but mostly just Bean! My only girl is called Bean! So funny how these things work out...you just never know!

~When I had my first son I wanted to name him Coup...but hubby didn't think it was a real name and said we should just go with Cooper if I wanted Coup...but I didn't want Cooper, way to popular...so we went a different way :)

Well, personally we don't do nicknames. We call our kids by their name we gave them bc that's the name we love! But you know, you can always call your child by his nickname and your husband can use the full name. Sometimes a child will tell you what they want to be called. My mom named me Carolyn but when I was 5 I insisted (to my mom's dismay) everyone call me C.. :)

I grew up like you, had full names but also had nicknames. I've also known people who went by their nickname in elementary school then by high school wanted to be called by their full name, that was hard to adjust to, but finally it came rolling off the tongue.
My husband has a nickname for me that I just absolutely adore. I like having nick names or shorten names but have the formal name when needed.

Here is a few of our family's name and nickname
Deborah = Debbie
Allison = Ali
Emily = Emmie
Jennifer = Jen
Kendra = Kendi
Jordan = Jordee
James = Jim
Steven = Steve
Lucas = Luke
M. = Mel
Just to give you a few...

I'm with you on this! Love the nicknames, I even love my nicknames, have many...

Named DS Benjamin with the intention of calling him Benjamin (which at 5 he prefers). Have become very good at correcting Ben, Bennie and even Benjie (sorry, Benjie is a cute little dog, not my kid).

BTW don't feel sorry for girls with boy or unisex names. I have one and have always loved it. Besides (and sadly as well) having a 'boy's name' still opens doors in the work world. May still get you that job interview that you would otherwise never know about.

No nicknames for either of us, but my brother and Dad both go by their middle names. This is because they, and my Grandfather, all had the same first name. My Dad didn't seem to mind, but my brother still tells stories of the first day af any class and how the teacher would do roll call. He would get really mad that he always had to explain!
We named our first son Andrew and planned on calling him Andy. When he was a baby he didn't look like an Andy, so we called him Andrew. Now, at 3 1/2, we try to call him Andy and he gets mad!
My point? Whatever you decide, call your child by that name from the beginning!

I love nicknames! I specifically named both of children more adult, professional sounding names so if they want to use them in the future, they can. But I also specifically named them their "long" names with their nicknames already picked out. My son's initials are JAC so he will always be Jack to me. My daughter is Samantha Josephine, but is called Sami Jo. She is 5 and has recently started saying she wants to be called Samantha. It's her wish so I will do it, but I sure had hoped to hold on to Sami Jo a lot longer!

I say go with the Aleksie and call him Alek. Then he can choose later on if he wants to go by Aleksie.

BTW, just wanted to give you a HUGE KUDOS on going the adoption route! Best of luck to you and your hubby!

There are 5 kids in my family. My parents thought it would be fun to name us all with the first initial "K". Well, 2 out of the 5 are actually called the name they were given at birth. My parents and family have used my nickname since the day I came home from the hospital.

Before I was even married I knew that I would never name my child something to just shorten it once he was born. When I finally had my son my husband and I picked names that could not be shorten for that reason.

His name is Davin. Its not very common and people can't make up a shorter version.

Our daughters name is a nickname for something longer. I didn't name her that because I figured she would just get a nickname anyway, I just liked the way it sounded better then the long versions. So her actual name is a nickname...even with that I call her by other nicknames.
My name has always been nicknamed, both being said and written...Jen, Jenn, Jenny, Jennie, J....all short of Jennifer.
In our family we have deborah/Deb, Jennifer/Jenn, Jason/Jay, Jeremy/Jerry, Sandra/Sandy, Micah/Myk, Katherine/Kat, Aimee/Aim, and many more. We also have people that have nicknames having nothing to do with their real name...my grandma on my mom's side was called "babe" and thats how people refer to her, not by her given name.
Who knows what that child will want to be called when they get older. People always shorten my name but most of my friends call me by my last name! Go figure. Something similar to the name you gave my friends child is names Maleek....we have always called him leek....his REAL first name is Lawrence, and no one calls him Larry! It's eaither Lawrence, Maleek, or Leek. He wants me to call him Leek and not Lawrence. I say let your husband call him by his proper name, and you can call him by his nickname, as he gets older he'll choose what he wants to be called.
Good Luck!

I am with your husband. My sons name is Kristopher I am adament about the fact that he is called Kristopher and not Kris. I have even made sure that he can spell and write his entire name before Kindergarten because I dont want someone shortening it just because it would be eaiser for him to learn.
This is something that has to definatley be decided between you and your husband but since you are taking votes I agree with him.
:-) Good luck ...

My husband wanted to name our son after his father, Kenneth, which i knew I would never call him. I wanted to honor my husband's wish to name him after his dad but really didn't want that name on his birth certficate. We decided to name him Kenny (on his birth certificate) because that is what I knew I would call him. My reason for this was because I knew for sure I would NEVER call him Kenneth, and when he started school his formal name would have to be on record and he would constantly get called Kenneth (which in my opinion is a very old fashioned name) by teachers because that is what would be on the record. I didn't want him to have to keep correcting teachers that he went by "Kenny" not "Kenneth".
I don't really have a problem with nicknames but my husband does. My five year old I still call "Munchkin" all the time, which is definitely not the name on his birth certificate ;)
Whatever you put on his birth certificate is his name, even if it may have been used as a nickname for previous generations.
So in answer to your question, i guess I'm with your husband on this one, you may aswell put Alek on the birth certificate if that's what you know you'll call him.
Also, congratulations on your upcoming happy event.

I will admit that I did not read all of the previous posts, so if I reiterate a point already made I apologize in advance. I like the idea of the child being able to choose what they want to be called as they grow up. We chose a name for our son that gave him 3 options. Our son is named Daniel and for the first two years of his life that is what we called him. We also knew that he may like to be called Danny or Dan as he grew up. We felt that the option would be his to choose. However, Dan really stuck as his nickname and Danny did not seem to fit him well. He prefers to be called Daniel, so that is what we use most often, he if fine with Dan too. So I guess the long answer short is go with the full name and let the child decide what they want to be called.

I am ok with full names and using nick names.

I say this to people who are "against" nicknames. My name is like what your husband wants the shortened nick name of a longer name. All my life, when asked to give my full name or legal name I say it, then I'm asked your full name isn't (the longer version of my name). No, no its not. So while I don't think this will necessarily happen with Alek, this is what can happen when your named just the nick name for a full name. Is it the end of the world, no, but does it get annoying sometimes sure. I also all the time have people calling me the full name. Just because they think it is or just to do it.....

So my stance is name your child whatever you want and call them whatever you want! :)

Well my daughters name is audrey and she has a few nicknames mainly boog though thats how i grew up although my boyfriend really never had "nicknames" it was always MAtthew for him

name him/her what you will call them. and use their first name. it will make it easier when they are in school and or work. the nickname can be something between you and the child. good luck, stay strong. R.

I didn't read all the respnses - but just adding my experience. We started out saying we would name our children what we would call them. Then at the last minute my husband wanted to name our son after himself, and we would call him by his middle name. My son is now in 6th grade, and he does get tired of starting out every year being called his formal name and having to get people to call him by his nickname. Also, when it comes to documents, papers come to the house and they have his formal name. I'd go with what you will call him. I am a Susan who goes by S. and I have switched my name several times over the years, trying to be more "grown up" with Susan. It messes up my corporate email accounts and now I have people who call me both. Wish I'd stuck with one name.

My son's name is Banyan... Some call him Ban and some call him Banyan... I call him Ban and Banyan...

I think you should name the child what you are going to call him on a daily basis.But there's nothing wrong with nick names or pet names being used occasionally.

Unfortunately, I have to agree w/ your husband! We went through the same argument -- and I have to say, we named our kids what we call them and they never have to repeat what they liked to be called during that first day of school when the teacher calls out the full names and all the kids end up laughing. Either way -- I'm sure your little one will be just fine -- but it is nice not to have to go through the whole "that's my name, but I like to be called...." Good Luck!

first off i love this question! when i was pregnant me and hubby actually thought what can we name her so she has a cute nickname lol so Samantha Nicole :) and we nick name her Sam, Sammii, Sammy-jo(dnt kno where that came from but sounds cute lol), nicki... i think she will grow into Samantha lol.. i love the fact she has alot of nicknames since i never had many my name is Esmeralda so its always been E.... but i agree with you

I think its nice to have both options for example there could be another Alec or Alex in his class so his full name may come in handy, My Husband is Nicholas but most people call him Nick, he likes to use Nicholas for more formal affairs.Calling a child by a nick name is nice because its an affectionate expression, My daughter is Amelie and her friends couldn't say it when they were little so she was Ami and that was so sweet. I would just check out that a name cannot be shortened to a name you really dislike.
Oh one thing I wish I had done was choose a name that wasn't hard to spell or people could say wrong, Amelie is always called Emily or Amelia and Briony is spelt two different ways and I have to spell it each time.

My oldest and youngest are called by their proper names; you can't really *make* nicknames from them.

My middle daughter's name is Charlotte, but we call her Charly - she just hasn't 'grown into' being a Charlotte yet :o)

My whole life I've always written my given name, but friends called me by my nickname.
When I started work I wanted to be a bit more formal/professional, so all my work friends call me by my given name, my husband, family and neighborhood friends call me by my nickname.
There's no reason why you couldn't name your son Alek - Alec is certainly popular. (But then his nickname could be Al.)
Sometimes kids choose their own nicknames. For awhile my son and his friend were referring to each other by the first letter of their first names.
Z and E were great friends till Z moved away.

I didn't read all the posts, so sorry if this is repetitive.

We named our kids names that nicknames could be derived from, but it turned out we ended up calling them something else entirely. My son is Alexander, we call him Al; my daughter's initials are K T, and we call her Katie most of the time.

My mother named my siblings and I names that if we ever needed a pseudonym (ie publishing or clothing design-- no kidding, she was completely serious about this we could drop our last name and use first and middle as a whole name. We each also have names that could have nicknames, but we never used the traditional ones. Example: my sister is Cassandra and always insisted her name was Cassandra, not Cassie, and my other sister has always been Victoria, not Tori or Vicky. But as families and small children will do, the names inevitably got shortened and we have Auntie Sondra and Auntie Tora.

Point being, no matter what you name your kids somehow someone will always end up calling them something else. I say name then something that will last their entire life, childhood, high school, professional, because you might call your son Alek and not Aleksei but he might not want to be Alek as an adult and would rather use Aleksei as a professional.

I think Alek can be a nickname or a full name depending on what you want. If you like the name Aleksei, then I would absolutely name him that and call him Alek. You would be amazed all the nicknames that will come out of your mouth that are not even related to your child's name. ;o)
Our son is Parker and we call him Park, Parky, Parkster, etc Our daughter is Ashlyn and we call her Ash, Ashy, Ashyboo, etc Both our children go by their middle names b/c we knew what we wanted to call them but the names sounded better in the reverse order. Joshua Parker and Emma Ashlyn.....we did learn after our first that when you fill out any paperwork for the doctor, the school, etc we now write J. "Parker" and E." Ashlyn" so they don't get called by their first name. But if they do, they just get corrected and it doesn't happen again. I definitely believe in nicknames from full names just in the everyday too. congrats and good luck!

Call the child what you name it, don't shorten it... don't make it cute... don't make it babyish. Just my two cents as it drives we crazy when my childs name is Braden and people call him Brady or Brae Brae... what the hell is that!?! Let's not confuse nicknames with terms of endearment.

Good luck :)

We call all of our kids by their nicknames!! Kaelyn is normally called Kbear, Cameron is called Cam, and Keaton is called Keat or Scooter. Normally their full names are called only when they are in trouble or not listening to the nicknames :).

Go with the full name....No matter what you'll have nicknames....My DH rolls his eyes becasue I have so many nicknames for our three kids....Oh well.....I guess I am a little nerdy......I've recently been calling them my lil' love potions. :)

Well our kids first names are American, middle names are Russian.(Aleksei is a very popular russian name btw)
So we have
Israel Pyotr(nick names : Petya for my russian family and friends), Emmanuel Valeri,(nick names :Mayo(for most people here), Lera for russians)
Selah Maria.(Masha for russians, Shoo shoo for me and hubby:)).

I know I'm late to the discussion but since my mom and I fought for two pregnancies on this issue, I had to write...

My husband and I preferred, and named, our sons longer, more traditional names (William and Christopher). We knew others would "nickname" our kids (likely, Will and Chris) and we were ok with that (except calling William "Bill" because there were already two Bills in the family). We, however, call our sons by their full names.

We do have pet names for our sons, things we call them when it's just us. For example, we call William "Willster." Christopher has many pet names, but my favorite is "Ropher." When Christopher was two he escaped the yard and took off. A high school girl found him and asked his name. He replied, "Ropher Fish" since he couldn't say Christopher Fitch. It kinda stuck.

I tend to agree with you. I like the more formal name with a nickname.

Good luck!

I'm not too keen on nicknames. I named my two girls feminine names with no intentions of calling them nick names. I think your husband has a point. Why name a child Robert if he will be called Rob or Bobby all his life, or Kathryn if Kate, Kat or Katie is used all the time? The same goes with only using initial like R.J. or such. On another note, it also bugs me when girl names are shortened to male nicknames, like Harriet to Harry. Giving a girl a boy or "unisex" name like Elliot, Avery or Riley makes me feel bad for the girl, too. The surname as a first name trend is also tiring; Madison, Taylor, Hunter, Weston...

I have a Katelyn that we have called Katy since before she was born! I, have always loved the name Katelyn but my husband did not care for it at all (too common, he said). He did like Katy a lot so we agreed. I wasn't able to have a nickname so I liked it... She can be Katelyn, Katy, Kate or whatever when she gets older. Funny enough, she asked for us to call her Katelyn instead of Katy a month or so ago but my hubby said "you will always be my Katy!" Oh & our other daughter has a name with no nickname!

Interestingly, my two sisters are "Beth" and "Kate" b/c my parents knew that they would never call them "Elizabeth" and "Katherine", so just named them what they wanted to call them! We, on the other hand, named my son after his two grandfathers, but have called him by his initials from the minute we knew he was a "boy".

I would say name your son the more formal name and then each of you can call him as you wish. My FIL insists on calling my son "John" b/c "that's his name" which is both true and fine with us.

I name my kids based on whether I like the nickname or not bc I know that they will be called that nickname by their friends all their lives, so I am going to be hearing it! I have a little baby nephew named Alexander. I was calling him baby Alex but I found out my SIL doesn't like that she likes Xander for short. So I changed, but I personally wouldn't do it that way bc I know that the majority of people will call my child the more common nickname and life is to short to be correcting people all the time or inwardly cringing each time their name is said. Like I love the name Daniel, but I am not a big fan of Dan, for my child. So Daniel is off the table. But I love Samuel and Sam rocks, in my opinion. So that is my way to do it, I call my kids both their full names and nicknames, but come to think of it, I use their full names more and I think of them in my head as their full name. Good question!!! Glad your hubby saw the light, LOL ;)

We went with Andrew for our son's name. We call him Andy, most people call him Andy, but his aunt ALWAYS calls him Andrew and one of his grandpas usually does. If you ask him what his name is, he usually says, "Andy," but he has said many times that he likes the name Andrew, so that may be what he goes with when he gets older. (I've also known an Andrew who went by "Drew," so I guess that's another option.) We named our daughter Amy, partly because it went well with "Andy," and I never thought it would be shortened, but in just the last few weeks, her brother has taken to call her "Ames."

Both of my parents named one thing and called something else. My father went by his middle name and my mother went through a succession of nicknames before she met my father and he didn't like any of them and asked to call her by her formal name (Barbara). The result was that when they named their children, they wanted to name us what they planned to call us. My name is K., not Katherine or Katelyn or anything - just K. is on my birth certificate. The only exception they made was for my brother whose name is Samuel but goes by Sam.

I tend to think that you should name a child what you are going to call them with the exception of a name that is just shortened. My son is named Alexander and we call him Alex. I think Aleksei/Alek would be similar and cause very little problem. I do see why you think Alek would be a little strange to have as a stand alone name but I am sure many people think that about the name K.. But to me, it seems odd for it to be short for something. I was probably 8 or 9 before I learned that it was usually just a nickname.

Alec & Alek is indeed a name and have only heard of Alexi in the female form. If you are going to call him Alek, name him Alek. A nickname is something that is given not picked...its like what fits that person.