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If you're planning to always call the child by the nn, and the nn is generally accepted as a name in itself, then it makes sense to use that as the full name. I'd probably agree about using Ann instead of Annis if you're always going to call her Ann. I really don't mind long names with nns, though, if you like the full name. I wouldn't see anything too strange about Cornelius nn Neil or Ebenezer nn Ben, or others you mentioned. The only ones I really don't like are Sapphira nn Sara and Annis nn Ann. Sara just isn't a nn I'd naturally think of for Sapphira, and it sounds contrived to me. I'm not sure what bothers me about Annis/Ann.

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However, if you're going to call the child something that is normally a nn or that wouldn't sound right as a formal name (too "nicknamey"), I'd use the full name and a nn. Out of your choices, for instance, I wouldn't use Emmie, Vannie, Ellie, Minnie, Kitty, Lyddie, Halie, Ben, Joe, Mac, Wally, Ace, Wes/West, or Zeb as full names because they either sound too silly for a formal name (I'd find it hard to take "The Honorable Ace Lastname" seriously) or are names I always think of as nns for other names (Joe could get awfully tired of explaning that that really is his full name!).

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ETA: Longer names with nns also give children more options about what they want to be called. Neil doesn't really offer many variations, but Cornelius does--he could come up with a number of nns for his full name.

This message was edited 6/14/2006, 1:57 PM