Anyone's kid pick their own nickname at school?

[Anonymous]

Possibly helpful to share: https://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2023/09/misnamed-and-mispronounced-picture-books/

[Anonymous]

There are ways to pick names from a culture that also “sound” somewhat normal here. Our Indian neighbors choose two names that everyone has heard here but still used Indian spellings. Ivaan and Aanya. Easy to pronounce and don’t sound out of place; but still honors the children’s heritage.

[Anonymous]

I think any parent of a child with a multi syllabic first name should always do some nickname planning. While a few kids will stay “Jonathan” or “Victoria”, for many of them it’s going to get cut down in syllables as other people start calling them by their name, especially if there are combinations of sounds that require someone to change their mouth shape/tongue positioning a lot to say in quick succession. So have something in mind to use for “Endicott” or be prepared to go with the flow when the kid or their schoolmates generate something else. I still use my kid’s multisyllabic name, but we’ve already degerated to that old joke “hi, I’m Enny, only my mother calls me Endicott”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think any parent of a child with a multi syllabic first name should always do some nickname planning. While a few kids will stay “Jonathan” or “Victoria”, for many of them it’s going to get cut down in syllables as other people start calling them by their name, especially if there are combinations of sounds that require someone to change their mouth shape/tongue positioning a lot to say in quick succession. So have something in mind to use for “Endicott” or be prepared to go with the flow when the kid or their schoolmates generate something else. I still use my kid’s multisyllabic name, but we’ve already degerated to that old joke “hi, I’m Enny, only my mother calls me Endicott”

We did something similar. Wanted to use the name Elizabeth. I was worried it would be shortened to Liz or Beth at school, both of which I dislike. So we preemptively made the nickname Libby, which I really like.

[Anonymous]

DS has a name that is commonly shortened. I like the short version but DH didn't want him called that. In first grade DS came home from school and said he wanted to be called the short version now.

My dad hated his first name and went by a nickname based on his last name starting in high school. Most people in his life had no idea what his real first name was. Only his family of origin still called him by the original name.

Ultimately what they are called in the world is up to the kid.