For the most part, I am all for nicknames as first names, especially if you don't like the full name (or even if you don't love it). It totally makes sense to choose the the name you're going to call them by!u cousin is just Becky because her mom loved that name, but didn't like Rebecca. Totally reasonable to me. Unless I want to use the full name interchangeably with the nickname, I'd more likely just go with the nickname! Plus, I wouldn't want to go by Tori to everyone, then have the legal name of Victoria if I didn't have any connection to the me or identity associated with it.
(Although, I do have a small caveat for nicknames that are generally only used for kids though. I know people with the legal names Jimmy and Billy, and I just can't get behind those because they seem like kid-only names that people grow out of. The person named Jimmy usually goes by Jim now that he's an adult, probably because Jimmy has juvenile vibes here. )
Tess somehow feels more like a full name (and one of my favourites)! It's so established, a bit like Sadie or Nancy - I don't think many people would argue you have to put Sarah or Anne on their birth certificates.
There should absolutely be legal restrictions on what parents should name their kids. People try to name them crazy stuff, and yeah, sometimes we might need to get the government involved.
I think there should be some legal restrictions for names for sure. Many countries go too extreme in a way that takes away creativity and new names, but on the flip side, I think countries like the US should have more regulations to prevent people from choosing a damaging name. I can understand allowing parents the creativity freedom, but at the same time, parents name a real human being that has their own identity and life, so the parents should not be able to choose any name. The child is the one who has to go through life with that name. Because that's my reasoning, I think the restrictions on what someone changes their name to should be really loose. A person picking their own name is a lot different than a parent picking the name of another human.
I'm only aware of 2 cases of US government intervention in child naming. The first was in New Jersey (I think). The parents chose Adolph Hitler for their son, but a judge ruled that this would be too much of a handicap for the child.
More recently, Elon Musk was told that he couldn't use numbers as part of a child's name. Insted of using 12, he was allowed to use xii, a nice Roman numeral option.
For the most part, I am all for nicknames as first names, especially if you don't like the full name (or even if you don't love it). It totally makes sense to choose the the name you're going to call them by!u cousin is just Becky because her mom loved that name, but didn't like Rebecca. Totally reasonable to me. Unless I want to use the full name interchangeably with the nickname, I'd more likely just go with the nickname! Plus, I wouldn't want to go by Tori to everyone, then have the legal name of Victoria if I didn't have any connection to the me or identity associated with it.
(Although, I do have a small caveat for nicknames that are generally only used for kids though. I know people with the legal names Jimmy and Billy, and I just can't get behind those because they seem like kid-only names that people grow out of. The person named Jimmy usually goes by Jim now that he's an adult, probably because Jimmy has juvenile vibes here. )
As parent of a Tess, I’m honor-bound to disagree with the ‘no nicknames as full names’ hill.
Tess somehow feels more like a full name (and one of my favourites)! It's so established, a bit like Sadie or Nancy - I don't think many people would argue you have to put Sarah or Anne on their birth certificates.
I didn’t know Sadie and Nancy were nicknames for Sarah and Anne!!
There should absolutely be legal restrictions on what parents should name their kids. People try to name them crazy stuff, and yeah, sometimes we might need to get the government involved.
I think there should be some legal restrictions for names for sure. Many countries go too extreme in a way that takes away creativity and new names, but on the flip side, I think countries like the US should have more regulations to prevent people from choosing a damaging name. I can understand allowing parents the creativity freedom, but at the same time, parents name a real human being that has their own identity and life, so the parents should not be able to choose any name. The child is the one who has to go through life with that name. Because that's my reasoning, I think the restrictions on what someone changes their name to should be really loose. A person picking their own name is a lot different than a parent picking the name of another human.
I'm only aware of 2 cases of US government intervention in child naming. The first was in New Jersey (I think). The parents chose Adolph Hitler for their son, but a judge ruled that this would be too much of a handicap for the child.
More recently, Elon Musk was told that he couldn't use numbers as part of a child's name. Insted of using 12, he was allowed to use xii, a nice Roman numeral option.