I don’t get why people try to shorten names. It drives me batty. We’ll be introduced to someone and my husband will say “Hi my name is Steven” people ALWAYS respond with “it’s nice to meet you Steve” UM NO, just 3 secs ago I told you my name was SteveN. :!!!::!!!: It truly gets my blood boiling.
Michelle
My family has an odd tradition when it comes to girls names. My Great Grandmother’s name was Evelyn. My Grandmother’s name is Jayne Evelyn, Mom is Karren Jayne, and I’m Christina Karren. I think I got the short end of the stick.
I love the names Edana and Aiden. They’re not all that easy to shorten.
Hope it kind of helps… even just a little. 
–Riss
I always found strange that habit of shortening names. It’s not that common in French (at least not where I come from). Hyphenated names are often shortened, but otherwise if you introduce yourself with a certain name, this is the one people will use. In English (at least in Canada and States), it seems to be the norm to shorten your name! I got an email recently from a collaborator whom I met only once and we don’t know each other well at all. He used the same nickname as my mom and boyfriend use and it kind of disturbed me, to be honest! I’m still not used to that.:shock:
I LOVE Lauren. As for girls, I have a ton of names since I’m on my 3rd boy Alyssa, Alayna, Maya, Tessa, Brianne. Hmmm, I’m forgetting some. I have a friend expecting a girl and I gave her a list of about 20 names a few weeks ago. We’re trading names that we can’t use for our own babies. She gives me any boy names she comes up with and I give her girl names!
As far as shortening names. My husband is Jon. Not JOHN, not Jonathan, just JON. Besides everyone wanting to throw in the H, they assume it’s short for Jonathan since it doesn’t have the H. It drives him crazy too! I love the name Andrew and hate Andy. I used it as a middle name so no one will ever shorten it! We have Grant Calvin (my Grandpa died while I was pregnant so he got his name as the middle) and Jared Andrew. Neither one of those can be shortened.
As far as boys, I’m watching the thread for names. I have a few, but none we agree on- Elias, Canaan, Dylan (Grant’s backup), Evan, Heath, Derek. (I think they only reason he doesn’t like Derek is because Grey’s Anatomy is my favorite show and thinks I got it from there!)
Kelly
the best advice I got for naming was to pick a first and middle from the list.
go stand at the bottom of the stairs of the house, facing up the stairs.
yell the name really loud up the stairs.
Picture yourself yelling this name like this for the next 18+ years. still like it? (As in “Kayleigh Grace Get your Butt Down here or you will Miss the Bus!!!”)
That’s how we came up with Kayleigh Grace
We had Katarina, Adele, Julianna, and Marguerite as alternates. (we really wanted Grace as the middle.) We took the list to the delivery room, then when she arrived we watched her for a while and decided what we thought suited her best.
We also double checked what the initials would be. Emily Ann was high on our list until we looked at EAZ (Easy) as her initials
We also don’t like nicknames. I love Elizabeth, but don’t like Lizzy. Love Margaret, but don’t like Maggie. Sooooo there you are.
I love nicknames or shortened names… except my own. (Deb) I have a Trent, a Jen, and a Robi (or bob, she loves that one). I hate when people call me Debra and love the name Debi.
For boys names I like Brandon, Brian and Kyle.
Girls names, Cheyenne, Faith and Jasmine
For a boy i like Shace or Ronan
For a girl i like Lindsay or Marcia
IF I were ever to have kids the two names that I like the most and would want to call them would be:
Jake (or Jack) (Ok so its a derivative of Jacob but I love the name Jake)
Chloe (its a name I’ve always liked)
I also rather like the names Zach and Aaron.
My boss is an Andrew - woe betide anyone who dares to call him Andy!
Oh, you just brought back a memory! My dd’s middle name is Elizabeth, after my dh’s grandmother.
The first time we took her to see dh’s g’parents, his g’mother started calling dd “Lizzie.”
I really do like the name Elizabeth. It’s beautiful and is used by many people as a middle name.
Anyhow, have fun picking a name! You’ve gotten a lot of GREAT suggestions!!!
For girls, Olivia and Sophia
For boys, Nathaniel and Benjamin
This tradition is also in my family… sorta… I am kinda the starting point. My grandmother’s name was Kathleen, so my name is Krystal Kathleen. I loved it so much growing up I decided to start a tradition… So my daughter’s middle name will be Karen after my mom’s first name. I don’t think you got the short end. Karren is lovely.
That’s a really clever way to check name flow. Good Advice.
I too am not a big fan of shortening names. But it really depends on the name and the person.
People who dared call me “Krys” (minus my sister and friend matt) would receive the death glare and a very distinct “My name is KRYSTAL”
FH and I have decided on the name Elora Karen for our (some day) daughter. When I told my mom she immediately said AWW ELLIE!!! I cut her off so quick…I do not like names that end with “ee” sounds. They are fine for those who have them, but not for me. I will most likely use Ella for a nick name for her, just to stave off the inevitable “Ellie’s” that will come.
I really loooove the name Amelia in your list for a girl. Such a pretty name and no way to shorten it really.
If we have more than 1 girl the other names I like are Roslin, Zoe, and Amelia. Haha we are hoping we will have a girl one day because we cannot find a single boys name that suits our family.
From your list I like Samantha and David.
I don’t have kids, but I love to look at baby name books and websites. Some of my favorite names are Piper (name of my supervisor’s daughter), Tabitha and Savannah. For boys I like Mason, Jacob and Royal. I know Royal is kind of odd, but I remember watching Little House on the Prarie, and Almonzo had a brother named Royal. I think that is different without being too off the wall.
austin is cool
Amelia can be shortened to Millie, which I actually like just by itself.
I work with children and I take notice of how parents introduce their children and use that - for example, I had one boy called “Samuel” and as I was writing his name I just asked Mum if he gets ‘Sam’ as well and she said no, so I always made sure to call him Samuel.
Someone mentioned "little house on the Pairie’ - I was named after the actress who played Mary Ingliss (Melissa Sue) My family have always called me Melissa, but when I got into my senior years at high school I started to get ‘Meliss’ from my friends and then when I started Uni, I interchangably introduced myself either as “Mel” or “Melissa” depending on who it was.
Mel.b
I agree with the others, You ARE a funny guy:roflhard::roflhard::roflhard:
I love my G.D.'s name, Sophia Marie…
For girls I like:
Tiffany (my name :))
Celeste
Trinity
Michelle
Savannah
For boys I like:
Michael
Terrence
Nathaniel
From your list, I like Samantha and David.
My kids’ names: Michael Christopher and Jonathan Kyle. Their boys’ names: Andrew Michael, Tyler A. (yup, just the initial), and Christopher Charles.
I really don’t like the repeating letters thing. A very dear friend is named Kristi Lynn, but her childhood nickname was “Kay.” She named her oldest daughters Kaylyn and Kaycee. She remarried a guy named Joey, and wanted to keep the “K” name but also employ Joey’s name for their baby girl. Result? Kloey. The “Kl” part for Kristi Lynn, and “oey” for ummm…Joey.
For the rest of that little girl’s life she’ll be spelling her name. As does Kaycee who recently turned 14.
But [B]nothing[/B] is as bad as my entire, given, squished-onto-the-birth-certificate name: Janet Marie Therese Bernadette. YUP, Irish Catholic mother. (Now see why Dad nicknamed me Fifi/Feef? LOL)
So thanks Mom, for forcing me to write that name out on any legal document.
So, be kind to the babies!
I don’t know if this is how it is, but although I think it’s a beautiful name, if Amelia Badelia (?) is still a popular kids’ book, I wouldn’t use it.
I have a friend with incurable trauma… and she ended up shortening it to Amy.
Two of my favorite girls’ names are Heike and Zilke (or Silke), but maybe they aren’t very American. And Caleb for a boy, though I heard that was hillbilly some places, but I say whatever to that. Also Jake and Ben (if they start out shortened, they can’t get shorter).
I’m not a fan of shorten names either.
So my kids have names you can’t shorten, Keira Grace and Caden Alexander.
ok… from your list these 2 are my picks: amelia and benjamin
our dd is makenna colleen,(i know makenna is spelled wrong, but i like it that way). she gets ‘kenna’ a lot, but its cute for now. colleen is my mom’s middle name and mine too. i always knew my 1st dd would have colleen for a mn. if she had been a boy it was going to be corey dylan (or robert, dh’s middle name). our back ups (in case of multiples- we were waaaaaaay over prepared! )
Aimee Johann
Isabel Kay
Nicholas Andrew
Samuel Wilson
good luck!
after we had gotten home, i tried out the other names on dd, and told dh i thought she looked more like an Aimee Johann. he thought i wanted to change it. i didn’t. i still wonder if i should have. johann is my g’mas name, and kay is dh’s mom’s middle name. samuel wilson is my ggpa’s name and nicholas andrew is just something dh loves. and a side note on corey; it was supposed to be coriantimur, with corey being the nn we would use. but then i realized how cruel that would be to do to a little kid… 