{"id":13383,"date":"2018-05-14T12:32:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T16:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=13383"},"modified":"2020-03-05T07:52:16","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T11:52:16","slug":"baby-naming-issue-would-an-emerson-be-nicknamed-emmy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2018\/05\/14\/baby-naming-issue-would-an-emerson-be-nicknamed-emmy\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Naming Issue: Chose the Name Emerson, But Have a Bad Association with an Emme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,
\nI am due with baby number 3, a boy, the first week of June. My husband and I have known what we would name him even before we found out I was pregnant, but we are now having serious second thoughts due to a potential nickname issue that just recently came to light.
\nOur first 2 children, one boy and one girl, are Colton and Hannah. We named them both with the thought that they would go by their full names, which is how we introduce them and how they are known amongst friends\/teachers\/teammates etc. However, over time they\u2019ve both developed nicknames used mostly at home, but my husband and I and a few other family members almost exclusively call them Coley and Hannie\u2014 names we never would have planned in advance!
\nThe name we\u2019ve chosen for baby #3 is Emerson James. But it only just occurred to me that if we follow our past trend, we will likely end up calling him Emmy. The name itself doesn\u2019t bother me so much. The problem I have is my association with the name. I have an estranged step sister named Emme (pronounced Emmy), who I\u2019ve never been particularly fond of, and over the past 10-15 years has battled a drug addiction and spent time in and out of jail. My immediate family does not have a relationship with her whatsoever, but she\u2019s the only Emme I know and the name feels very negative to me. I have never connected the name Emerson with Emmy until just recently when my daughter used that nickname for him.
\nI\u2019m not concerned about what other people will think of the association. I\u2019m more worried that I\u2019ll regret or dislike his name over time because I associate the two. So my question for you is: is there a way to avoid the nickname altogether or should we start from scratch and find a new name for him?<\/p>\n

Thank you!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

In general, I think the likelihood of the nickname Emmy would rest almost entirely on whether the Emerson in question were a girl or a boy. For a girl named Emerson, I would say I thought the chances of her being nicknamed Emmy could be quite high—high enough for me not to want to risk it if there were a very negative association with that sound. But for a boy named Emerson, I’d guess the chances of the nickname Emmy are much, much lower. Perhaps some parents of boys named Emerson, Emmett, etc., could weigh in on this.<\/p>\n

However, in the case of your particular family, you have gone Colton\/Coley and Hannah\/Hannie without anticipating that you would do so, and now your daughter has started using the nickname Emmy for the baby before he’s even born. This tells us the chances in your family are different than the chances overall. That is, in general a parent naming a son Emerson probably doesn’t need to worry that people in general will default to the nickname Emmy—but in your particular family, it is not only a possibility but a strong likelihood. The only thing that comes to mind as a way to avoid this would be to come up with a different nickname ahead of time and start using it preventatively—but I’m not sure that would work, and I’m not sure what alternate nickname to suggest.<\/p>\n

I can’t say whether it would make you regret or dislike his name over time; it’s possible it would instead erase the negative association with Emme\/Emmy. But I too would be worried, and I don’t think it would be a bad idea to get out the baby name books as you’re thinking this over, in case you end up coming down on the side of choosing something else. If it is of any help at all, the name Greyson kept coming to mind as I was working on the post.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle!
\nIt\u2019s nearly two years later and I\u2019m finally getting around to sending a long overdue update.
\nAfter discussing the name conundrum many times over, we decided to stick with the original plan and named our little guy Emerson James. And guess what! The Emmy thing has been a total non-issue. As far as I know, nobody has ever called him Emmy. Just like his siblings, he mostly goes by his full name, but our close family often calls him Em-J, another completely unplanned nickname.
\nThanks to you and your readers for your help, and for making me feel less like a crazy person for endlessly obsessing over finding the perfect name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle, I am due with baby number 3, a boy, the first week of June. My husband and I have known what we would name him even before we found out I was pregnant, but we are now having serious second thoughts due to a potential nickname issue that just recently came to light. […]<\/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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3tR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13383","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=13383"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14570,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13383\/revisions\/14570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}