{"id":11839,"date":"2016-01-25T13:44:34","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T17:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=11839"},"modified":"2021-01-12T10:28:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T14:28:54","slug":"baby-names-to-consider-classictraditional-names-with-atypicalnon-traditional-nicknames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2016\/01\/25\/baby-names-to-consider-classictraditional-names-with-atypicalnon-traditional-nicknames\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Names to Consider: Classic\/Traditional Names with Atypical\/Non-Traditional Nicknames"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle!<\/p>\n

I’m an avid reader of yours, but not actually pregnant yet so I understand this question may be low priority. I send this with the hope that it will catch your interest, as I can’t find a similar discussion online, plus you and your readers are my favorite.<\/p>\n

I have been trying to brainstorm a certain type of girls name. I’m drawn to them whenever I hear them, but they are hard to find because sometimes they are generated by a creative mind.<\/p>\n

Basically they are medium-long, typically classic\/traditional (at the very least recognizable), names that naturally (ish) shorten to a nickname that does not sound like a typical\/traditional name. Obviously the categorization of typical\/traditional is subjective in this case.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/p>\n

Prudence –> Prue
\nClementine –> Clem
\nAnnalise –> Dise (prounounced Dees)
\n____ –> Len
\n____–> Tru<\/p>\n

More often than not I love the nickname, and either don’t know a full form or don’t love it. Prudence\/Clementine are a little more obscure than I’m looking for in the root name. I’m desperate for more names that fall into this category so I can find the perfect mix where I like both forms. Also welcome to suggestions for long form of Len and Tru.<\/p>\n

Emily<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am not sure I yet have my finger on what we’re looking for, but I am interested to try, and I have high hopes for the comments section. Is this at all the sort of thing you mean?<\/p>\n

Alexandria – Lex, Xan, Andy, Dearie
\nAdelaide – Lady, Del
\nAnastasia – Taze
\nBernadette – Bernie\/Bennie
\nCamilla – Mills
\nCharlotte – Chaz
\nCharlotte – Chip
\nClementine – Minty
\nEleanor\/Eleanora – Len
\nElizabeth – Bet
\nElizabeth – Bo
\nEvangeline – Van
\nFelicity – Flip
\nGertrude – Tru
\nHelena – Len
\nJosephine – Fee
\nKatherine – Kit
\nLenore\/Lenora – Len
\nMadeleine – Del, Len
\nMeredith – Red
\nPenelope – Pip
\nPhilippa – Pip
\nRebecca – Bex
\nRoberta – Birdie
\nSavannah – Van
\nSusanna – Zan
\nTemperance – Perry, Ren
\nValentina – Len<\/p>\n

One way to get a nickname that is unconventional and yet easy to explain is to use initials. Let’s say your child’s surname started with a U; then you could name her Temperance Roberta U. and call her Tru. Or if her surname will not start with U., you could name her Temperance Roberta Ursula Smith, or do some fancy footwork with T<\/strong>emperance Ru<\/strong>th.<\/p>\n

It’s too much to hope for, but it’s even possible the surname will lend itself to something many people try to avoid, which is having a first name the merges with the surname. Let’s say the surname were Rupert, and you named your daughter Juliet: many parents would avoid this combination because of the way the -t of Juliet blends with the Ru- of Rupert, but it would be a plus for anyone looking for the nickname Tru. Again, I realize this is a very unlikely scenario. But perhaps something to consider when looking for co-parents of future children. “Pardon me, cute stuff, but before I give you my number would you mind telling me your surname? And do you have a pen and paper so I can play with some combinations?”<\/p>\n

Another way is to brazen it out. We have seen many, many parents on this blog who would like to use a nickname but can’t find or don’t like any long forms, and while you COULD for example name her Verity and then call her Tru as a clever joke, at a certain point I think there’d be less of an issue just saying, “This is Elizabeth Smith; we call her Tru.” Follow-up questions could be answered with “It was a baby nickname that just stuck” or “It just kind of happened!” or “Oh, it’s a long and boring story!”<\/p>\n

Another option is to use the nickname you want as a middle name, and then use the middle name as one of her nicknames. Elizabeth Tru Smith, called Tru. Margaret Len Smith, called Len. “It’s her middle name” is a nice, simple explanation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name update:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi Swistle, I was encouraged by your reply to my comment to send in an update on an old, formerly hypothetical, opposite sex baby name update! <\/p>\n

Last year we had a beautiful baby boy who we named August Oak, and we call him Gus 99% of the time. We love his name for it’s double barrelled nature-ness, it’s soft nickname, and the Oak is in honour of his great-grandma who didn’t quite get to meet him. I love the name August so much, and am sad that we don’t use it more! If he had been a girl, he would have been Ruby Joan (NN to be used abundantly: Rue). Thank you to you and all the readers for your helpful comments that did indeed pave the way for us to zero in on a girl’s name many years later!<\/p>\n

Emily<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle! I’m an avid reader of yours, but not actually pregnant yet so I understand this question may be low priority. I send this with the hope that it will catch your interest, as I can’t find a similar discussion online, plus you and your readers are my favorite. I have been trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update","category-reference"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-34X","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11839"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15160,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11839\/revisions\/15160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}