Baby Nick Names: Pros and Cons

What do you think about baby nick names?

There are pros and cons to nick names and many parents are torn in how they feel about them.

There are some names which are very commonly called by nicknames instead. Names such as Christopher shortened to Chris or Joseph shortened to Joe are common. One downside to this is that some people don’t want to be called by these common nick names and have to constantly ask people to call them by their full name instead.

Another con to this is if people make up nick names the baby doesn’t like, such as calling a Robert “Bobby” in his toddler years and when he’s older, he doesn’t like the nick name.

Here are a few examples of names without nick names:

• Casey
• Asia
• Ashton
• Lauren
• Jamie
• Aaron
• Alan
• Emery
• Felicity
• Tara
• Talia
• Dallas
• Lyle
• Ryan

When you use these names, your baby won’t have to worry about being called some nick name they don’t like for the rest of their lives. Of course there are always rare exceptions where someone will try to take a name without nicks and give it one such as calling a Ryan “Ry” but there isn’t much you can do to prevent this.

Now here are a few examples of names you didn’t expect that have nick names:

• Aileen can be Allie or Lena
• Cornelia can be Nelle, Nelly or Nelia
• Emeline can be Emma, Emily,
• Emmy, Millie or Em
• Melissa can be Lisa,
• Lissa, Mel, Milly or Missy
• Alexandra can be Alex, Alla or Sandy
• Augustus can be August, Austin or Gus
• Elwood can be Woody
• Josiah can be Joe or Si
• Morris can be Morrie
• Chester can be Chet
• Lucas can be Luke or Lu

These are just a few examples of baby names with nick names that you may not have known about. In our ever-increasingly informal society, many parents are opting for casual baby nick names instead of their longer, original form on birth certificates. The only problem with this is that it never gives your child the opportunity to choose a more grown-up name and in a way, it forces them to stay a baby forever.

Popular opinion in the baby name industry is that it’s better to give your baby a longer name that can have a cutesy nick name than to give them the cutesy nick name on their birth certificate to have them one day outgrow it and not appreciate the fact that they are missing a mature alternative.

Now that you know more about baby nick names and the pros and cons of using them, you can make a decision about whether or not you want to use them with your child. One option you have is to give your baby a name that can be shortened to a nick name later in life if they decide they want to.