Juliet or Julianna?

[Anonymous]

Juliet or Julianna? DH and I like both names. We like Juliet more but are ambivalent about the Shakespeare connotations. Also dislike nn Julie - is it possible to completely rule it out as a nickname?

[Anonymous]

No you can not control the name others use.

So if you don't like Julie this is silly.

Some people use Jules instead to shorten.

[Anonymous]

I like the sound of both equally but can't get past the Shakespeare connotation. It's a wonderful cautionary tale about what not to do!

So, I'd do Julianna, but I think that you can't guarantee with such a long name that you won't get Julie. If you want to try preventing it, maybe using Jules or Lianna from the beginning would work.

[Anonymous]

Juliet is more unique to me

[Anonymous]

I like the French spelling of Juliette.

[Anonymous]

I don't mind the Shakespeare connotation of Juliet because I feel like the name is common enough that I don't feel like it overwhelms the name. I have met some little girls named Ophelia and that one... it's too much. At least Juliet is a character with agency who experiences true happiness. Tragic yes, but Ophelia is literally miserable from start to finish and her life is 100% at the whims of people who barely care about her. And can you think of a single Ophelia other than the one in Hamlet?

Regarding the nickname issue, though, let me be a cautionary tale. My DD's name has a several common nicknames. I like two of them and did not like the third. I explained to my DH this and he was like "well we won't call her that then." We loved the name. We used it. My DH's family immediately started using the nickname I didn't like. And he did NOT back up on it, and then my DD decided she loved that nickname and now it is just her name. She's my child and I love her and respect her wishes and as a result the name has grown on me and I'm okay with it. But it's not the name I picked out for her and not what I ever wanted to call her, and while I got over the name part of it, I have never quite gotten over the fact that I felt like I basically got tricked into giving my DD a name other than the one I wanted to give her.

[Anonymous]

I like Juliet better regardless of Shakespearean implication. But I agree with PP re nicknames you don’t like — you never know what kids/society are going to settle on. I named my son a common name with many nicknames and since he’s named after my father I thought a lot about nicknames. I don’t hate any of them but there’s one nickname I like better than any of the others so I decided I’d call him that. His daycare teachers all call him a different nickname, in part because the one I like is less common and in part better there are other kids in the class with similar bashes so they find it easier to use a different nickname. Which worked out fine since I don’t hate any of the other choices (and thankfully daycare didn’t settle on the nickname my dad uses) but if you really didn’t Julie you can’t guarantee your Juliet won’t just decide that’s her name now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At least Juliet is a character with agency who experiences true happiness.

How did you come to that conclusion? At what point in the play would you say she is experiencing true happiness?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least Juliet is a character with agency who experiences true happiness.

How did you come to that conclusion? At what point in the play would you say she is experiencing true happiness?

The wedding night!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Juliet or Julianna? DH and I like both names. We like Juliet more but are ambivalent about the Shakespeare connotations. Also dislike nn Julie - is it possible to completely rule it out as a nickname?

Juliana is trying too hard. What about Julia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind the Shakespeare connotation of Juliet because I feel like the name is common enough that I don't feel like it overwhelms the name. I have met some little girls named Ophelia and that one... it's too much. At least Juliet is a character with agency who experiences true happiness. Tragic yes, but Ophelia is literally miserable from start to finish and her life is 100% at the whims of people who barely care about her. And can you think of a single Ophelia other than the one in Hamlet?

Regarding the nickname issue, though, let me be a cautionary tale. My DD's name has a several common nicknames. I like two of them and did not like the third. I explained to my DH this and he was like "well we won't call her that then." We loved the name. We used it. My DH's family immediately started using the nickname I didn't like. And he did NOT back up on it, and then my DD decided she loved that nickname and now it is just her name. She's my child and I love her and respect her wishes and as a result the name has grown on me and I'm okay with it. But it's not the name I picked out for her and not what I ever wanted to call her, and while I got over the name part of it, I have never quite gotten over the fact that I felt like I basically got tricked into giving my DD a name other than the one I wanted to give her.

Is it Isabella nn Izzy?

I know 3 women with daughters named Isabella, and each one swore when they were pregnant that they wouldn’t let anyone give their precious daughter a nickname. They constantly corrected friends and family and neighbors and teachers who called them Belle, Bella, Isa, or Izzy. They were able to control it until kindergarten or first grade when the child opted to use a NN…typically created by a fellow classmate.

The cautionary tale is that you will have zero control over what name your kid ultimately goes by. Zero. Choose wisely what first and middle name you give them.

PS - I know a girl named Juliet who was called E.T. It stuck for a long time. I know a girl named Julianna who is white/not Hispanic who somehow picked up the Spanish NN that sounds like “Who-Lee.”

[Anonymous]

Julianna for sure. Juliet has always been ugly and then for some bizarre reason, got popular and overdone a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

My niece is Julianna and I don’t know a single person in her life that has stuck a nn on her. School, friends, family. Everyone calls her Julianna. She’s in HS now so it’s up to her if she’s ok if someone tries a nn on her.

[Anonymous]

Julianne. One less syllable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least Juliet is a character with agency who experiences true happiness.

How did you come to that conclusion? At what point in the play would you say she is experiencing true happiness?

The wedding night!

I can totally imagine telling my child “I named you after Juliet because she experienced true happiness at 13 by sneaking a guy she just met into her bedroom to have sex.”