Audra writes:
I’m expecting a boy any day now and we have decided to name him Hugo. (A special and significant name to us for many reasons!) The plan has been for his middle name to be James after my Granddad.
Recently though, we’ve brought the name Huck to the table. We love literary names but in the end didn’t like Huckleberry or even Huxley as longer name options. Huck doesn’t seem to stand as well to me on it’s own for an adult. (also the unfortunate rhyming word with it.)
Is Huck an acceptable nickname for Hugo or does it seem far fetched? I personally don’t feel the need to shorten a name I love and find short and sweet as is, but my husband says he’d like to call him Huck.
And with that being said, should we consider changing the middle name to something like Jack (another family name) to maybe make the nickname make more sense? Hugo James (Huck) or Hugo Jack (Huck)
Thank you so much in advance!
We had a similar question yesterday, about using the nickname Jack for James. Using Huck as a nickname for Hugo is like using Kate as a nickname for Kara, or Madd as a nickname for Mark: you can certainly do it, but I wouldn’t even try to make it make sense. I would just brazen it out: you want to call him Huck sometimes, so you’re calling him Huck sometimes. We call my daughter Elizabeth St. Claire, Elizabeth Louise, and Elizabeth Marie—and NONE of those are her name. One of my sons went by a nickname the equivalent of P.J. (where only the second initial was part of his actual name), and he chose to use it even at preschool. There were occasional confusions with other parents if I used his actual first name instead of his nickname, and people often asked where the nickname came from, but it was no big deal.
I wouldn’t change the honor name just to try to make the nickname make sense: I don’t think it helps enough to be worth it. If I were you, I would start by naming him Hugo James as you originally decided, and then have your husband go ahead and call him Huck if he wants to. If it sticks, you can move on to the decision about whether to have other people use it as well. Plenty of children have nicknames that are unrelated to their given names; in this case the easy explanation would be something like “That was his dad’s pet name for him as a baby, and it just stuck!” I think that will make more sense to people than “His middle name is Jack, so it’s kind of like Hu- from the first name and -ck from his middle name.”
I think it would be fine. To me, Huck as a nickname fits with names like Champ, Tiger or Bud-I wouldn’t assume any of these were associated with the actual name.
I agree. How many people have actually been named Huckleberry or Huxley historically? It also helps that unlike James with Jim, Jimmy, Jamie, etc…Hugo doesn’t have an obvious short form that you aren’t using.
I wouldn’t change the middle and lose the honor name just to get the nickname. It’s something of a stretch but not impossible and I don’t think adding Jack helps much. I also like Hugo James more than Hugo Jack.
I would stick with Hugo James. My oldest has a nickname that only semi-derives from her first name, but now that she is school aged she only gets called that by family. Around the time she was three she decided what she officially wanted to go by on her own, but we still call her by the nickname now and then. I think Huck is a totally cute nickname and you can still easily use it with Hugo James.
I think it is fine to try out Huck as a nickname after he is born and see if it sticks. My little girl has a ton of nicknames that have nothing to do with her name. There were also nicknames that we THOUGHT we would call her that just never stuck, as much as I wanted them to. Jack as a nickname for John never really made sense to me.. they are the same about of letters.. one syllable.. but it is a nickname, nonetheless.
The last post (Using the Nickname Jack for James) has a great comment with the origin of the John–>Jack nickname in case you are interested.
when a trendy nickname catches your eye…..remember its just a trendy nn…..
if Hugo has such significance…..why try to JUSTIFY Huck?
if you have to justify something it probably means its not the right move.
id be more inclined to accept a double middle: Hugo James Huck
Hugo James.
(1) Is Huck an acceptable nickname for Hugo or does it seem far fetched?
It seems far fetched.
(2) Should we consider changing the middle name to something like Jack (another family name) to maybe make the nickname make more sense?
Even with the mn Jack the nn doesn’t make sense.
Huck isn’t actually a persons name (which of course doesn’t make it unusable as a name, but it is more like Gwyneth Paltrow using Apple). Huck comes from Huckleberry, which was original Hurtleberry for the European blueberry. Sometime in the 17th century people started saying huckleberry instead. The word huckleberry has also evolved to mean ‘someone inconsequential’ which is how/why Mark Twain gave a Huckleberry Finn the name that he did…
I guess my conclusion is: Huck doesn’t have great meaning behind it as far as using it as a name & has no relation to the name Hugo
Maybe not what you wanted to hear, but hope its helpful in some way!
my sons name is Hudson Tucker (both family surnames) and we call him Huck sometimes. it’s just a family thing- none of his friends call him anything but Hudson, but we’ve never had any problems with it.
Confession: I am always slightly confused when people are planning for a nickname in advance of the birth, and are giving a legal name but aiming for using a cool nickname. I’d be curious to know if Swistle ever gets any updates that are like “We thought we’d use this cool nickname, but then it turned out that we… didn’t.” or if people generally do end up using the nickname they picked out beforehand?
Anyway – I think that Hugo James is a great name. I am not a huge fan of the intentional cool nickname, but Hugo is great, and if a nickname organically develops, fantastic!
I don’t know that it was really a “cool” nickname, but something like that happened with the name we picked out for my son. Let’s call him Jacob. My husband liked the longer form (Jacob) and I preferred the nickname (Jake). We used the long form as I figured I could always call him the nickname. I never have. He’s been “Jacob” since he was born. Not once have I called him “Jake.” The only nicknames I’ve used for him been “Booger” and “Dude.”
Yeah it happens. My son is the fourth so he needed a nickname. We had one planned out, but then ended up calling him something totally different (Jack, actually!) and unrelated to his given name. We do plan on having him go by his given name once he starts school though, which is what my husband “Skip” did as a kid with no problems.
I vote name him Hugo James and call him Huck if/when you feel like it. Hugo James is a really great sounding name!
Hugo is such a great name that I think it would be a shame to use a nickname. Huck is cute though!
I have heard Huck used as a nickname for Henry before so I suppose Hugo to Huck isn’t any more of a stretch than Hank to Huck is it?
What about James Huckleberry or Henry Huckleberry nn Huck? Henry James or Henry Jack nn Huck are great too!
I say stick with Hugo James. If your husband still really wants to use the nickname Huck for his son I don’t see why not. It can be that special name that only his Daddy uses. Too cute!
Good luck!
I agree. My first thought was that Hugo is lovely and Huck is harsh (with the unfortunate rhyme that would plague for son for many years) so why use a nickname at all.
I would go with Hugo James and your husband call him Huck if he wants to as his own “pet” nn.
Hugo James is a great name, and Huck would work as a nickname. Mostly because Hugo doesn’t have a traditional nickname and Huck isn’t a traditional nickname for something else. But see what pops up. We have lots of nicknames for our kids, but they are nicknames, not “goes by” names.
(Which, aren’t there different words for those categories? Like, Elizabeth that is known as Beth is different from Elizabeth that gets called “Bug”? Anyone know what I’m talking about?)
Oh that’s a good point!
I’m not sure what its called either… pet name vs nickname?
Yes, I know just what you mean! I call them all “nicknames” but am often frustrated by the difference. Like, some nicknames a child might very well use at school (Hank, Jack, Beth), and some nicknames a child DEFINITELY WOULDN’T (Bug, Peanut, Bean), and then there are some in the middle where it’s less clear if it would ever be used at school or not (Huck, P.J. when the child’s initials are not P.J., a boy I went to school with where his name was Mitchell but his parents ended up inexplicably always calling him Scott, etc.). Perhaps something like “nicknames,” “pet names,” and “family nicknames”?
Yes! Pet names vs nicknames is a good idea. I am racking my brain because I know that somewhere I read something that differentiated among the different types and had different labels. Because yes, my dad is Robert but no one ever ever calls him that–he is Bob. My brother however is Robert but Bob or Bobert to close friends and family as a pet name (like I’m Nan from Nancy, but I’d never actually introduce myself that way.) Or Big Guy and Pumpkin to our mom. :)
So yes, there should be better categories!
I think the technical definition is that a diminutive is directly related to a person’s name…either a short or affectionate form, whereas a nickname takes the place of a name without being a form of it.
Yes, I would call nicknames like Bug for Elizabeth pet names or family nicknames.
For the OP, I would say go with Hugo James, and use Huck as a nickname if it happens that way.
When I hear about a nickname that doesn’t come naturally from the formal name, like Huck from Hugo or Jack from James, I don’t have a strong feeling about it. It sounds okay to me. I know of a Joseph who is called Jake.
I have absolutely no issues with Huck as a nickname for Hugo. Hugo> H-long U-g> Hug> Huck boom done. I think it works really well, I’d use it in a heartbeat.
Plus, it doesn’t matter if it makes sense to other people. If you like it, use it !