View Message

For one, I'm not much of a nickname person. Although I do consider nicknames when thinking about names, I wouldn't name a child one thing and then intend to call her something else all the time. I just couldn't. I use nicknames only occasionally and only within the family, so I'd still have to introduce her as Rosalie (to use your first example) and say Rosalie all the time. I think it would be very unsatisfying for me over the long term. I'd rather put both Rose and Rosalie aside and find a different name.

---

For your second scenario, absolutely not. No way. I'd never put a name I hate on the birth certificate under any circumstances. I'd either use the nickname as the full name, or, if I'm not comfortable with that, I'd look for different names. I couldn't take the risk of, say, naming my daughter Arabella--yuck!--with the intention of calling her Ara only to have her tell me 10 years later that she wants to be called Arabella. I'd have no choice but to listen to her, and I'd be miserable about it.