Rambles for the New Year

[wolfcaroling]

Well, my most important new year's resolution is to lose more weight. I make this resolution every year, and yet somehow I am at my heaviest yet. i KNOW I CAN lose the weight, I lost 20 pounds one determined summer, and I kept it off for a year. Unfortunately, my subsequent depression and Jonathan's "I don't feel like eating in. Why don't I treat

Comments

[bcdm]

I shall have you know that I have met several Elizabeths, and almost none of them have been bad people, especially when the shortened version is "Beth", which is why I like the name.

...okay, maybe a little bit with the Lizardbreath thing too. But mainly the positive associations. :-p

And I will admit, grudgingly, that Cadence is growing a little bit on me. It still isn't at the level of Alice, Charlotte, or Elizabeth, though.

[grinning_dagger]

Oh, here's a though, you could leave it at Elizabeth too and not shorten it at all. I've known a couple Elizabeths who didn't have any such nicknames and they were both lovely people.

[grinning_dagger]

*thought

[bcdm]

Very true, but both Carol and I have noticed that if you don't give a nickname to a child who has a nicknameable name, then their school friends/teachers/whoever else will choose a nickname for them. I'd rather choose it up front than leave it to chance.

[grinning_dagger]

It'll still be up to chance whether you take the impetus to nickname your child or not. I mean, they could end up with a nickname that has nothing to do with their name at all, like T-bone, or something like that. I just don't think you should give up using their full name before you've even begun. Myself and my 3 siblings never had a nickname in school, and Christian easily could have. He even tried to get people to call him Chris, but it never stuck. A friend of mine started calling me Cori for a time, but that didn't stick either. I just don't think you can predict these things with any accuracy.

[wolfcaroling]

Two syllable names often aren't nicknamed, since nicknames often have two syllables as well. The most comfortable name to pronounce has two syllables, emphasis on the first. Those names often don't get shortened. For example, Carol, Corrine, Kerry, and so on. But three syllable names or names that don't fall easily off of the tongue do tend to be nicknamed. Elizabeth will inevitably be addressed as Liz or Beth or Lisbeth or Liza or something by her close friends, even if it isn't her acknowledged "name". Jonathan got shortened to "Jon" even though he HATES the name Jon. That's why he called himself JP at MtA. He accepted that people would not call him "Jonathan". It is a long and therefore formal name. So he GAVE them a nickname

[grinning_dagger]

But as I said, I have known two Elizabeths that had no nicknames to speak of. I think it also depends on how easygoing said person is about being called something else. I mean, if Jon had made a stink every time someone called him Jon, he probably wouldn't be called Jon. The same thing with your dad. I mean, look at Michael and Mike. My brother-in-law IS Michael, because he makes a stink if someone calls him anything else. Mike thinks of himself as Michael, but he really doesn't care what people call him, so he ends up as Mike. Plus Michael is a two-sylable name, and gets shortened more often than it doesn't. Maybe Jon shouldn't have given up so easily. I knew a couple Jonathan's in school too who didn't get knicknames. I started calling him Jon because that's what everyone else called him, and by the time I found out that he didn't like it, it was too late and he was and ever would be Jon in my mind. And what about the Tiffanys of the world? I knew so many in school, and their names were only shortened occasionally and by

[blythilie]

My parents always thought it was important for a little kid to get called by their full name-it's easy enough to come up with a diminutive for someone small, but it's important for them to come to their own identity too. No one ever shortened by name except my best friends family until university when it was universally shortened to what I wanted it to be. Just saying 3 syllables doesnt necessarily mean nickname.

[wolfcaroling]

Yeah, "Cor" just doesn't work.
Jon says he used to make a stink about it, but people kept doing it so he gave up. The thing is, when Jonathan makes a stink about something, people want to do it more! :-p

[grinning_dagger]

Okay, so Jon's a bad example. If he liked being called Jon we'd probably call him poop-fag instead. Heheheheh.

[wolfcaroling]

LOL

[orenda]

See, he denies it, but I'm certain he ASKED Becky and I to call him Jon, like all his other friends did. I could never get the hang of it until a few years ago. I always used the full name before that. I thought he disliked JP before MtA because only his family called him that.

[grinning_dagger]

Ah HA! The truth comes out at last!

[wolfcaroling]

And really, Eleanor is your name. We call you Ele, but it's really just a nickname. You are and will always be Eleanor, Ele to friends.

[wolfcaroling]

I think I prefer Hazel to Cadence at this juncture.

[suminycricket]

I agree