I should show this thread to my 18 year old niece, Margaret, whose parents decided she’d be called Peggy in honor of our great grandmother.

Peggy went along with nickname until 6th grade when she was called Piggy one too many times so went back to Margaret. Now she’s Margaret to her parents and older relatives but will introduce herself as Meg.

I personally can’t stand nicknames outside of family shorthand and I have a long name (Gwendolyn) that I refuse to shorten. Don’t call me anything other than how I’ve introduced myself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wouldn't Zaza be pronounced "zaz-a"? She says her name like Zaw-Zaw.

She absolutely knows her real name and how to spell it. I agree that it looks weird written out, but in real life nearly everyone we meet starts calling her that. I think because it fits her personality.

What!! You said she pronounces it like "Zah-Zah" in the original post?!

I was assuming it's the sound at the end of "Huzzah". Now it's Zaw???

I say this kindly: Your daughter, you, and maybe (?) your husband care about this issue. No one else cares. It's a made-up cutesy nickname for a kid who has a big personality and a boring first name that doesn't seem big enough for her big personality. Spell her not real nickname in as easy a way as possible for everyone and move on.

Yes, agree. Spell it Zaza because that's the easiest way. Make sure your child also knows how to write/answer to her real name as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wouldn't Zaza be pronounced "zaz-a"? She says her name like Zaw-Zaw.

She absolutely knows her real name and how to spell it. I agree that it looks weird written out, but in real life nearly everyone we meet starts calling her that. I think because it fits her personality.

What!! You said she pronounces it like "Zah-Zah" in the original post?!

I was assuming it's the sound at the end of "Huzzah". Now it's Zaw???

I say this kindly: Your daughter, you, and maybe (?) your husband care about this issue. No one else cares. It's a made-up cutesy nickname for a kid who has a big personality and a boring first name that doesn't seem big enough for her big personality. Spell her not real nickname in as easy a way as possible for everyone and move on.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wouldn't Zaza be pronounced "zaz-a"? She says her name like Zaw-Zaw.

She absolutely knows her real name and how to spell it. I agree that it looks weird written out, but in real life nearly everyone we meet starts calling her that. I think because it fits her personality.

What!! You said she pronounces it like "Zah-Zah" in the original post?!

I was assuming it's the sound at the end of "Huzzah". Now it's Zaw???

OP here. Wouldn't Zaza be pronounced "zaz-a"? She says her name like Zaw-Zaw.

She absolutely knows her real name and how to spell it. I agree that it looks weird written out, but in real life nearly everyone we meet starts calling her that. I think because it fits her personality.

Substitute school nurse aide here; I implore you to register Suzannah 😆 with her full legal name AND include her nickname.

In an emergency, I need to look her up as Zaza, because that’s the name she or her classmates and or teacher will be yelling. It is terrifying for me to waste time trying to determine who this sick or injured kid is…

Anonymous wrote:Zaza. No capital letter in the middle.

+1

Anonymous wrote:She’s little and just learning phonetic spelling. Use the spelling that will help her make those connections in the most direct way - Zaza.

Adding extra capitalization or silent letters is not helpful.

Agreed. ZaZa is even more stage name-y and having capital letters in the middle of the name will be confusing to her K classmates. My daughter is going into K and last year in PK she had a classmate with a hyphenated name - think "Anna-Kate" but that's different because not only is it the child's legal name, there is a hyphen before the second name. When teaching letter sounds and grammar a Hungarian spelling of a made-up nickname or cutesy capital letters is too much.

Anonymous wrote:She needs to write her given name. She can tell the teachers and classmates to call her by her nickname.


-teacher

+1 Zaza is cute, but Eliza or Maritza or whatever her real name is needs to learn how to write her legal name as a basic life skill.

She needs to write her given name. She can tell the teachers and classmates to call her by her nickname.


-teacher

Zaza. No capital letter in the middle.

Zaw Zaw, like Maw Maw and Paw Paw

I think most people would pronounce Zaza the way you describe. I have a capital letter in the middle of my name (so, imagine ZaZa) and it can be annoying when spelling it out. I prefer the way it looks written with the capital and I’m used to it, but I’m don’t think I’d pick to do that if starting out fresh.

She’s little and just learning phonetic spelling. Use the spelling that will help her make those connections in the most direct way - Zaza.

Adding extra capitalization or silent letters is not helpful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it's not pronounced like the actress?

How does she spell her actual name, or can you give us just the syllable? Is the end of her name -za

All signs point to ZaZa.

OP here. It's a pretty common name like Zelda, Izabella, Elizabeth, Suzanna. She was named after a great grandma who has the same name.

I'm not great with phonetic spelling, but it's like Zaaah,Zaaah. I think the person above who said that both Z's should be capitalized is correct. It's not zuhzuh, which is how I think Zaza would be pronounced.

Zahza would fit the preferred pronounciation too.