For names like
Antonia,
Elisabeth, etc. Basically any name that can have multiple nicknames I don't think you should get "stuck" with the nickname you don't want just because thats what other people say first. If your name was
Margaret and someone called you
Cheryl, of course you'd correct them. So if someone called you
Toni, and you prefer
Nia then I think it would make perfect sense to correct them on it.
My brothers are
Michael and
Stephen, NEVER
Mike &
Steve. Plenty of people have tried to call them
Mike and
Steve, but they politely (sometimes! haha) just correct them.
The biggest problem is, as a parent, when you pick out that PERFECT name for your child, and then when the child gets older they pick out their own nickname that you may not like. As I said my brothers go by their fullnames, it was something my mother insisted on and it stuck because my brothers prefer it that way. I'm the baby, 3rd child, only girl.
My mother's "no nickname" plan was broken with me however. She insisted on me always being called
Jocelyn, but my brothers started calling me
Joey and I was such a tomboy that it has stuck with me to this day. And I wouldn't have it any other way.The irony, of course is that
Jocelyn was originally a boys' name. So its not exactly a "Girly" name to begin with.
Wow, this was a long post, but basically my point is you can't really predict what your child is going to end up doing with the name you give them. But thats what gives us our own identities I suppose.
This message was edited 6/21/2006, 2:25 PM