Yes.
I've looked after kids called
Katharine,
William,
Samuel,
Olivia,
Nicholas and
Madeline who ALWAYS went by their full name. And this is in Australia, where we are genetically wired to shorten things as much as possible. So if they can manage it.
The only time I think its unavoidable is if the kid themselves chooses to go by that nickname when they are older. Not much you can do about that. But otherwise, I'd just always correct people. It's your kids name. My stepsister's name is
Ceridwen, but she asks everyone to call her
Ceri. Now
Ceridwen is one of my favourite names, and I don't like
Ceri- find it very run of the mill blah. But I always make the effort to call her
Ceri, because no matter what I like, it's HER name. And I think it's quite rude to do otherwise.
I think the hardest ones to avoid are the ones where the nn is the first syllable- eg Samantha/Sam. It's almost automatic. But again, if
William can avoid
Will...
Carrie for
Caroline doens'tseem automatic to me at all.
Every
Genevieve I've known (all 3 of them, lol) has always gon by
Genevieve. There's also
Evie, but I agree...Genevieve is so pretty.
Seraphina...how about Sephy?
I think, in your case, if theres a nickname that you like/don;t mind, I'd install that early on and prempt the ones you hate. Otherwise, I'd just stick to my guns and stick to the full name. Eventually people will get it!
This message was edited 5/15/2011, 2:01 PM