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HelpUnless you can find an alternative nick name (m)
in reply to a message by queenv
When I named my daughter Fiona, I had no idea Fifi was related at all to Fiona. I thought Fifi was a dog’s name!
But shortly after my daughter was born, some obnoxious family members started calling her Fifi. I have developed some tactics for discouraging it, and now hardly anyone calls her Fifi. Here's what I did:
1. I didn't act all upset. I swear when people insist on an awful nickname, especially family, it is their underhanded way of telling you after the baby is born and it is too late, that they hate the name. We kept our name a secret until after the birth because we didn't want family opinions. Therefore, by acting upset, I was actually playing into these people agendas.
2. I looked up Fifi, and read somewhere it is a pet form of Josephine. Due to the flexible nature of nicknames, I can see how Fifi is appropriate for Fiona too. However, when my father-in-law called my daughter Fifi, I used this little bit of information to insinuate that Fifi for Fiona is "wrong." But I wasn't defensive in my tone. All I did was respond matter of factly, "I read somewhere that Fifi is actually a pet form of Josephine. Isn‘t that interesting."
3. I found an alternative nick name. While I much prefer Fiona in its full form, and actually picked it because I thought it didn't have a nick name - just goes to show you can't avoid nick names - I found an alternative nickname to gently suggest should someone start calling her Fifi again (hasn't happened recently).
Both my daughter's cousin who's 2, and a little girl in her daycare who's 3 have trouble saying FEE-ONA, and call her FONA. It's so adorable. While I prefer Fiona, if someone called her Fona I could live with it, only because it reminds me of the charming little mistakes of adorable toddlers.
The only thing I can't avoid is if, when my daughter is older, she decides SHE LIKES Fifi. Well then, there's not much I can do. But at least she can't blame me for pushing Fifi on her should she hate it like I do.
On a different note, I ruled out Gabrielle for my daughter, in part due to Gabby. I hate hate Gabby. However, the real reason I avoided Gabrielle was because of I sensed it was somewhat popular. But I knew my husband, who also likes Gabrielle, wouldn't buy, "It's too popular" as a valid reason to rule out a name. His response would have been "So?" But Gabby came in handy, since I suspected my husband would hate Gabby too. I told him we couldn't use Gabrielle because she would become Gabby, and he agreed. But if the nick name was my only problem with Gabrielle, I would have insisted on calling her Brie or Brielle.
I guess I've become a little manipulative in getting others to get on board with my name choices : )
But shortly after my daughter was born, some obnoxious family members started calling her Fifi. I have developed some tactics for discouraging it, and now hardly anyone calls her Fifi. Here's what I did:
1. I didn't act all upset. I swear when people insist on an awful nickname, especially family, it is their underhanded way of telling you after the baby is born and it is too late, that they hate the name. We kept our name a secret until after the birth because we didn't want family opinions. Therefore, by acting upset, I was actually playing into these people agendas.
2. I looked up Fifi, and read somewhere it is a pet form of Josephine. Due to the flexible nature of nicknames, I can see how Fifi is appropriate for Fiona too. However, when my father-in-law called my daughter Fifi, I used this little bit of information to insinuate that Fifi for Fiona is "wrong." But I wasn't defensive in my tone. All I did was respond matter of factly, "I read somewhere that Fifi is actually a pet form of Josephine. Isn‘t that interesting."
3. I found an alternative nick name. While I much prefer Fiona in its full form, and actually picked it because I thought it didn't have a nick name - just goes to show you can't avoid nick names - I found an alternative nickname to gently suggest should someone start calling her Fifi again (hasn't happened recently).
Both my daughter's cousin who's 2, and a little girl in her daycare who's 3 have trouble saying FEE-ONA, and call her FONA. It's so adorable. While I prefer Fiona, if someone called her Fona I could live with it, only because it reminds me of the charming little mistakes of adorable toddlers.
The only thing I can't avoid is if, when my daughter is older, she decides SHE LIKES Fifi. Well then, there's not much I can do. But at least she can't blame me for pushing Fifi on her should she hate it like I do.
On a different note, I ruled out Gabrielle for my daughter, in part due to Gabby. I hate hate Gabby. However, the real reason I avoided Gabrielle was because of I sensed it was somewhat popular. But I knew my husband, who also likes Gabrielle, wouldn't buy, "It's too popular" as a valid reason to rule out a name. His response would have been "So?" But Gabby came in handy, since I suspected my husband would hate Gabby too. I told him we couldn't use Gabrielle because she would become Gabby, and he agreed. But if the nick name was my only problem with Gabrielle, I would have insisted on calling her Brie or Brielle.
I guess I've become a little manipulative in getting others to get on board with my name choices : )
This message was edited 6/28/2008, 4:22 AM
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