I am not typically a fan of name shortening, unless the person whose name is being shortened is the one requesting it to be that way.
My first name has three syllables and is not particularly common. In a world full of shortened names, apparently there are too many syllables in my name that people would rather just shorten it to the first three letters. If you have spoken to me in person any time in the last 15 years, you know for a fact that I ABSOLUTELY HATE my name being shortened. Therefore, I would hope that you would respect my preference and only refer to me by my FULL first name (or, The Most is acceptable, also). :) I always refer to people by their full first name unless they tell me otherwise.
Many older, traditional names get shortened a lot, but they sort of puzzle me. For example, if your name is Richard, why would you want to be called Dick? This name is sort of old-fashioned; typically only older men shorten their name this way – seems to be a generational thing. I understand Rich or even Rick, and it’s likely that you were named after your father or grandfather, so you want to differentiate between yourself and your family member – I get it. Also, Jim is kind of an odd derivation of James, but that is so widely accepted these days that no one questions it. Another example is Michael: does Michael sound too formal? Is Mike more casual?
I’m guessing people who shorten their own names just don’t care much for their full names, or just want to be slightly different in a crowd full of people of the same (likely common) names. Take the name Jennifer – it is quite the popular female name – so I can understand why it is often shortened to Jen or I’ve even seen Jenn (which is definitely much less common). Also, the name Timothy is a somewhat common name, but every Timothy I’ve ever met has gone by Tim – so why do people keep naming their boys Timothy if no one actually goes by that name? Do one-syllable names sound more powerful than their full-length counterparts? If your intent is to refer to your child by a shortened name for the rest of their lives (Daniel --> Dan, Matthew --> Matt, Christopher --> Chris, David --> Dave), maybe you should go ahead and just keep the name short to begin with.
A friend of mine’s parents’ names are Russell Anthony and Diana Susan, and both of them go by a shortened version of their middle names: Russell goes by Tony and Diana goes by Sue. A relative of mine’s sister-in-law’s name is Rita Teresa and mostly everyone calls her Teresa, but sometimes people refer to her as Rita as well. Using middle names as first names is SO CONFUSING. What’s wrong with your first name that you have to use a form of your middle name instead? Does this go back to the other-family-member-is-named-that-so-I-want-something-different thing? GaahhhhhhhhHH!!!
Combined with name shortening, something that completely irritates me is the way people spell their shortened names when it has absolutely nothing to do with how their name is originally spelled. I know a guy whose given name is Salvadore, but everyone (including family) calls him Seve. I don’t know if that’s some sort of Italian thing or what, but I’m not sure how you get Seve from Salvadore. Also, I know of a woman whose given name is Kimberly, and she spells her shortened name Kymm. How do you get Kymm from Kimberly? Why not just Kim? Are there too many Kims that you need to distinguish yourself by spelling it outrageously? Last but not least, I know another woman whose given name is Rebecca, and at some point in middle or high school she decided that she was going to switch from Becky to Behkey. I’m not even going to touch that one, because I can’t even begin to explain how entirely messed up that is.
Thank you. :)
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