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Well in the Netherlands it's the custom to give your children the names you will actually end up calling them. So Elisabeth nn Elise is seen as somewhat strange, people probably end up asking you: "So why didn't you name her Elise if that's what you want to call her?"
to illustrate my point: The top 20 of Dutch names in the first half of 2006:

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boys:
Daan
Sem
Thomas
Milan
Lars
Tim
Thijs
Lucas
Jesse
Sven
Bram
Max
Ruben
Stijn
Luuk
Niels
Finn
Jan
Tom
Daniël

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girls:
Sanne
Sophie
Emma
Lisa
Anna
Lieke
Iris
Anne
Eva
Anouk
Fleur
Julia
Femke
Isa
Noa
Lotte
Maud
Britt
Roos
Marit

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All the names are very short, there's only one name over two syllables (Daniël), and you can count on most of them really use the name you see here, not a nn.

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Sometimes a longer name is used, but then not with a nn but what we call a roepnaam (a 'calling name', it means a name which you are called by, it's not a nickname, because that's bijnaam in Dutch). The longer name is known as a doopnaam, a 'baptism name'. This is only seen in Roman-Catholic families (so not at all in the Northern part of the country, only to the south an not even half the south at that) and this practise gets even less frequent than it used to be.

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My guess is that giving a child (what English speakers might see as) a nn as a full name is part of the whole down-to-earth attitude of the Dutch. Like the question before: Why give your child a name, just to call it something else?

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I think I'll give my children names I will call them by, not a full name with a nn. Sometimes I am temped towards doing so, this is because of the influence on this board :)

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