Don’t understand the “formal name” thing

I completely agree. Personally I want whatever they are called day in day out to be their name, otherwise, what’s the point? I just hate nicknames! I know someone who announced their babies birth and said ‘her name is Primrose but we will call her Rose’. Just call her Rose then?

yeah, i agree. it was a "thing" when I was a kid, but nowadays, the concept of giving a child a "formal" name and shortening it to a nickname is so outdated. there used to be a belief that a child named Sam would NEVER get a job if Sam wasn't a nickname for Samuel etc - hence you still get comments from generations about naming a child Teddy or Tillie, with raised eyebrows about job interviews and a woman named Tillie "not being taken seriously" or the idea that you would never get a doctor/solicitor named Teddy. 🤦🏻‍♂️

it's an outdated concept, because we've moved on from then - by the time our kids are older & applying for jobs, loads of them will be called Archie, Teddy, Elsie etc, as those names are popular so they're not going to stand out as unusual if they don't have"formal" full name to wrote on their CV.

if you always plan to call your child Hattie - for example - just go with the name you love. she doesn't *need* Harriet on her birth certificate unless you genuinely WANT to name her Harriet.

I really like the idea of a longer or more formal sounding name that can be shortened to something edgy or fresh but for a different reason 😅 I agree most people in 20-30 years will all have a wider range of names, lots of them more hippie ish or whatever so it won’t really matter in the workplace but I just find a lot of traditional names very cool and I think it’s also nice to give your kids the option to have a nickname or multiple possible nicknames for their choosing. There’s so many shorter names now that are becoming sooo popular and while I think they’re very cute, there’s more chances of kids having to share a name with their peers.

My second borns name is Romelia I chose it because it sounds really beautiful and it’s unique but also older sounding but we call her Romee, if she wants when she’s older she can go by Lia, Ro, Romee, Romelia, Mel 😂 idk as someone who didn’t like my name much growing up I would have LOVED to have nickname options like that.

you can also just have them out Evie in the vows, it doesn’t have to be a formal name. you can do your wedding however you want in that example. “formal” names are just typically longer names and they come with lots of nickname options. very normal

I completely disagree- my sisters name is Henrietta, and she uses this formally at work or with people she meets. However she loves having family and friends call her Henny.

I think its nice to be able to have a nickname that is used by your loved ones.

Even for me - my name is Amy and I use this name for every day life. However I love it when my close friends call me Ams

Im a Kathryn that grew up as Katie. Had to correct every teacher and it became very obvious who’d met me “on paper” rather than in person. Only my family called me Kate at home. My now-husband started introducing me to everyone as Kate so now I’m Kate, known as Katie by my family and old friends, Kathryn to my colleagues. I feel like my name has a different personality with each nickname so it’s fun.

nicknames are fine there normal I get referred to by family as a nickname. I mean when someone names their child a name they have 0 intention on using for the sake of the birth certificate looking more formal. Another example yesterday at work I came across a Michael I went and said hi Michael my name is… and his mum obliterated me rudely and was like his names Mikey he’s known as mikey… ok sooo why give him the name Michael if your not going to use it and be rude to people that do?