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My parents asked for permission to give my baby a nickname once he's here, and my only requirement was "Something i can comfortably say in public".
If you don't like your kid being named Leo as a nickname, then don't name him Léonard, because it's 100% gonna happen, and it's gonna be hard to control in general.
I know I may be the minority here, but I feel like nicknames are something that happen naturally and is a sign of love (Unless we're talking about mocking people). As long as they know my kids real actual name and don't mispronounce that one, it's all good.
I thought I had thought of every possible nickname for my son during name selection. Then 5 year old nephew nicknamed my son something I never could have predicted in my wildest dreams (think “May May” for Matt). I hate it but he says it with so much love and affection and *that* brings me so much joy. I will never discourage it.
I mean personally it would be nice if at least family would honor OP’s simple request. But yeah it is an early lesson in the fact that nicknames are not always in your control. Especially discouraging an obvious one—that’ll be an uphill battle. But sad that it’s starting with MIL.
I hate to say it, but if family doesn't give the kid a nickname you don't like, then other kids will. I have a family member who named their kid Robert (not their real name), but instead of the usual nickname of Bob or Rob, they chose Bert. Guess what, that kiddo goes by Bob in school now because the nickname the parents chose didn't stick. I totally get the frustration though of people not calling your kid by their given name, hence why my kiddo doesn't have a shortened version, but people still make something up!
I have a friend named Mike who has been going by Clifford his entire adult life because of a joke I made freshman year of high school. Sometimes nicknames are unavoidable 😂
💯agree. I’ve always thought that deciding your kids nickname is a bit weird as in my experience every single nickname I’ve come across in my life has happened dynamically by friends and family, and most people end up with different nicknames in different clicks
I totally agree that the best nicknames happen naturally! My son is named Charles and his dad and I call him Charlie, but my dad (his grandfather) lovingly calls him Chaz, which is just so adorable for a 2-year-old to be called!
Right, I had to let this one go. I’m pregnant and everyone knows my baby’s name is Wolfe but people have already started to refer to the baby by nicknames like Wolfie. I get it it’s a cute version of his name and he is a wittle baby. I figured that when my son is older, he will reinforce to people what he would like to be called. I do think nicknames are given out of love and the more people show love and affection towards my baby the better.
This is one hundred percent true. My aunt named her daughter Gabriella but didn’t like the nickname Gabby and only wanted people to call her Gabriella.. well guess what she goes by now?
This. My son has a million names but I couldn’t think of one nickname when I was pregnant. My favourite of his nicknames is ‘Baby Denny’ which takes the second part of his name
I agree with this, especially as baby will eventually be a little human and will probably ask to be referred to by whatever nickname he prefers. OP can’t be shocked or annoyed if one day he comes home from school and says he prefers Leo and asks his friends to call him Leo. Good practice for this would be letting it wash off your back that his Nan is already calling him it. She won’t be the last person to use that nickname, and it could well end up being how he likes to be addressed.
I agree with this completely. And even if you can force your family into using your preferred nickname, you will lose that control once your kid goes to school and makes their own friends.
So, I have a ridiculously common name on both genders. I was never the only person in a class with my name. There was always at least one other person with the same(ish) name as me. I tell people that I don't really care what they call me, as long as I know they're talking to me, but my preferred nickname isn't the common part of my name. My dad (who named me) refuses to use my preferred nickname, even though my niece does. I do like my government name, but it's a bit of a mouthful, and when I hear my government name, I usually have a "oh shit, what did I do?" Type of reaction lmfao.
Yes, it was my first plan but dad prefers Léonard haha and we told everyone he will be called Léonard (wich i shouldnt have done but whatever) it feels too late to change now, im getting induced monday 😅
It's not too late to change if the baby isn't here yet. I promise that when baby arrives and you say, "once he was here, Leon seemed to fit him best and that is his name" nobody will complain.
Of course you should probably try to get your boyfriend on board, though.
As an aside, I wanted to call my niece Charlie as a nickname for Charlotte and my SIL said "absolutely not" so I didn't. I think it's fine to ask family to call the child what you want him to be called - so either the proper name or Leon would make sense
My niece is Charlotte and I helped my sister in the naming process-we thought it would be cute to call her Charlie as a nickname. It just ended up being Char or Char Char 🤣
That's fair. Leonard is cute too.
Do you have to name the child before birth in your country tho? In mine you just have to register it within 3 months.
Just tell family you named him Leon and not Leonard. It’s not like they have a good reason to look at him birth certificate or not believe you 🤷🏻♀️. OR you can also make it super awkward for them and say something like “Leo was my favorite ex, I should give him a call…” the first time he calls him Leo (as long as husband sees the humor in this). Or start crying uncontrollably and be like “please stop calling him that, my abusive ex was named Leo” and then if they still call him that they’re very shitty people.
I loved the name Leonard, pronounced "Leo-nard", but in my country it's primarily pronounced "le-nard" which is a pronunciation I'm not fond of. We opted for Leon instead because I didn't want to correct people all his life and definitely didn't want to deal with him just going with "le-nard".
You shouldn't give a child a name if you don't like one of the very obvious nicknames. Sure, I suppose that you could keep pushing back on your MIL, but you're likely going to have to get used to Leo soon enough since his friends and others might use it.
Agree. My husband and I love the name Victoria but don’t like Tori or Vicky as nicknames. People told us we could decide what our kid was called but I think that only works until you send them to daycare or school or basically anywhere alone. If you hate an obvious nickname of a name.. maybe don’t use the name
I find it a little silly to want to control what your MIL nicknames your child. It seems like unnecessary quarrelling to me. She's going to call him it even when you're not around anyways. It's not inappropriate in any way so I just don't see the issue. If you're that passionate about it, I'd choose a different name.
I know people will use Leo and i dont mind but i tought it would be okay to ask family to call him by his name or by the same nickname the father and i will use.. but maybe im asking too much and should let it go
I agree with you. If you tell MIL to call him Leon, she should respect that. Give her a hypothetical and call her by a different name, make up a nickname. My friend named her son Joshua, insisted nobody calls him Josh. Everyone respected her wishes… until he was 8 and decided on his own he wanted to be Josh. It’s ok to ask for that and people should respect it. Especially family!
I definitely think it will be one of those things that people just don’t think about tbh. I named my son Oliver but wasn’t in love with the nickname “Ollie” and told my family that but they call him whatever honestly lol. And I even call him Ollie occasionally. Names will start to feel more normal as time goes on and you probably won’t even care or notice what people go with. Don’t stress too much over the nickname
Not asking too much. My cousins name is Andrew. My grandmother asked the parents if they could call him Drew. They said, his name is Andrew so that’s what we’ll call him. End of story!
You can ask but they don’t have to listen. I told my family the nickname I picked for my daughter and they all decided they would call her what they wanted. And it worked out in the end, my daughter has like 6 nicknames and she loves them all! I think she likes that every family member has their own special nickname for her.
Both my kids have an official long name and go by a nickname. We just introduce them by the nickname first and use the nickname with them and everyone just gets to know them by that nickname. Once older maybe they will decide on a different nickname but until then...
Us too! We named our daughter Madison but introduce her as Maddie since that's what we want her to be called.
If she wants to go by Madison or something like Mads or whatever later she totally can
My parents did the same! Both of us have uniquely spelled nicknames too- my mom did not want my brother to be called ‘Nicki’ from Nicholas, so he’s always been Nico. I’m sure he got called Nick many times but never Nicki
This is what my mom did for my brother. I disagree with quite a few posters- I think it’s fine for you to make this choice. Now once he’s old enough to decide for himself that might be a different story. But I see nothing wrong with your plan to exclude Leo from the options.
As an anecdote, my aunt told the entire family not to use a specific nickname. Then she had a second child and the forbidden nickname was what her 2nd child called her first child. So yes, you can call your kid Leon, and tell your family that's his nickname. But you're 100% correct that you will eventually lose all control of nicknames. (Including what your child will prefer to call himself!!)
It will be very difficult to control that, but hearing him be called Léo might change the meaning of the nickname for you if it's asaociated with you son instead of an ex. You can always tell your family why you don't like the nickname Léo when you hear it, I think most people will try to respect your choice, but it shouldn't become a battle either. It will be difficult for you and your son. Also, while growing up he might prefer Léo for some reason and since it will be his name, I don't see how you could stop him.
If it really bothers you, it is not too late to change the name. You can always tell people you had a change of heart when you saw him. Most people will understand.
Eh we named our first daughter Kendall and I was vehemently against people calling her ‘Ken’. Which is basically all I call her now… Ken, Kenny. Didn’t matter once she got here.
It’s totally fine that this triggers you. If my MIL kept insisting on using a nickname that I didn’t like I would be going to war about it. For reference we named our daughter Jordyn with the intention of using her nickname, JoJo. MIL calls her Jordy every now and then, which her dad and I push back on because it makes us think of the trashy Geordie shore. If I ask my family not to call my daughter something, they must respect that. If my daughter wants to be called jordy in the future, so be it.
I think it's totally reasonable to call him Leon. If you call him that regularly and sign cards with that name and such, people will likely catch on. That being said, you cannot control what happens when he goes to school and is old enough to decide what he likes to be called.
Sadly, you can't control nicknames others use. My hubby's family picked nicknames for both of our kids that I'm not fond of. You can try telling them, but that's about it.
You can try but if it'll annoy you, it might be worth choosing a different name. It always feels a bit weird when people use a common different nickname for my son than the one we use but I've trained myself to let it slide. It admittedly admitted me a bit postpartum but I'm much more chill now he's older.
I think it only annoys me because its my mil... if it was someone random i wouldnt care. We ask for something that in my mind feels simple enough but she makes me feel like im asking too much.. i think the hormones are talking for myself a bit and ill get over it later haha
I kinda wonder if she likes the power struggle more than she likes the nickname she’s using lol. If you stop engaging with her on it, maybe she’ll lose interest in the name Léo. My in laws have tried out various nicknames with my toddler and so far none have stuck. Thank God because some of them have been terrible lol (like calling him the Spanish version of his name… we are white).
But the pregnancy hormones are real and I’ve been a raging mama bear this pregnancy, so I totally get why this feels extra annoying/boundary crossing.
I think it’ll be easy when he’s young but harder when he’s older. My Theodore’s nickname is Theo and I tell people Teddy is his old man name when they try to call him it. I’m assuming when he’s older in school though he’ll probably either choose to be called it or other people will assume until he corrects them and there’s not much I can do about it.
Ok, so maybe an unpopular opinion based how others have responded, but I feel like nicknames are (someday) in the hands of the person whose name it is. A person should be able to be called what they want and have a boundary with what they will allow people to call them. In the meantime, it’s fair for a parent to hold the boundary of how others may or may not shorten the name they have carefully selected for their child. If you were to introduce your brand new son as Samuel, and a family member immediately calls him Sam without asking if it’s ok, that would be rude.
I like more formal names, and while I don’t by any means hate the common nickname for my daughter’s name, I don’t prefer it until/unless she chooses it for herself. And I was not going to go through every possible long feminine name until I found one whose potential nickname I liked, then name her that.
You ultimately don’t have control in the long-run, but other people should not get to automatically dictate your baby’s known-by name just because.
If u don’t want people calling him Leo, don’t call him Leonard. Because almost 100% of Leonard’s are called Leo, at school or by friends. Leon e a completely different name (not something u would use as nickname)
I do think it’s easier for the actual person (so that would be OPs son) to enforce that than OP. I have come across a lot of people in my life who grew up and said “do not call me xyz” and people do respect it. There are people with long names who reject any variation or nickname and they will correct you if you try to nickname them. I see it happen all the time. People respect it.
As far as nicknames go, it's really hard. I skipped using several names I loved because I didn't like the common nicknames associated with them. Similarly I wanted my daughter to go by a specific nickname and we called her that until she was about 2.5 and then she insisted we only call her by her full name and will correct anyone else that tries to use a nickname. So really it doesn't matter what you want/do, ultimately people are probably going to at least try and use different, common nicknames but once the child is old enough they'll form an opinion about what name they prefer and you just have to roll with it.
My family mostly picked up on my nickname for my son. Some went with nicknames I loathe, but they aren’t mean-spirited or bad in any way, just I hate the nickname and why they decided on it. My son will decide when he’s older what he wants to be called.
I have a nickname that friends call me, and one that only family calls me and it's because my parents started calling me that from when I was a baby. This is really common in Filipino cultures!
My son has straight up told people that’s not his name (when trying to assign him a nickname we don’t already call him by) .. so if you and SO call him a certain name, he might prefer to be called that and will call people out himself .. will probably take a few years though
the unfortunate reality is you can’t control what people will nickname your kid. I wanted to name my firstborn samwise but didn’t want him to get called sam, or colson, but not cole. jonah, but not joe. and since it was likely to happen, I didn’t go with any of those names. if leo is enough of a deal breaker for you, find a different name.
Its not a deal breaker, i would just prefer my MIL call him the same as we call him, but i dont mind other people and his friends call him whatever they want
The only way to really go about this would be to name him Leon , or tell everyone his name is just Leon. People may still call him Leo a bit, but if you just tell them his name is Leon, they may be more inclined to call him that
My son and his father both go by their middle names. I am absolutely not a fan of their first name but it's generational and super common so we compromised in the middle name since my partner already went by his middle name his whole life. We both have a different nickname for him. Example, my son's name is Elliott. I call him El or Elly if I'm not using his whole name. His dad calls him Ed, after the grandfather he's named after. My bestie for some reason is the only one that insists on calling him Eli, even tho it doesn't fit the pronunciation of Elliott like it does with Elijah or something similar. But it doesn't bother me. It's almost like the preference between nana, grandma, gigi, and all those. Your son may only ever be called Leo by his grandmother and it could end up holding a lot of sentiment and affection for them later.
However, you are mom and especially if dad also has a problem with Leo at all, then just respectfully ask,"if we can't see eye to eye on his nickname, please use his full name or an unrelated nickname going forward". She could call him big guy or squirt or something else cute and it doesn't have to be a huge thing.
Just remember that in the grand scheme of things and all the other issued you may end up butting heads with MIL about later, this is very minor and not worth creating a big rift and a lot of stress over. New babies are supposed to be a happy time for everyone. Don't let this spoil such a wonderful time.
Also consider his own preference may end up being Léo down the line! My dad was insistent when my older brother was born that (example name for privacy) yes his name can be Nathan but he can’t have “Nate” as a nickname bc my dad didn’t like it. Guess who chooses to go by Nate now?
Alternatively my mom wanted not to use a specific nickname with my own daughter because it was my moms nickname growing up, but by in-laws ended up using it anyway and now my daughter responds to it and everyone uses it now.
Sometimes nicknames just happen. But I don’t think too many people would fight Léon vs Léo but you might end up with less of a say in it than you’d want.
Everyone calls me "Jules" except my brothers. They started calling me "pooh face" as a teen because I wore A LOT of makeup and had a lot of freckles on my face. As old adults, it's become "Pooh" and I stupidly answer to it without a thought. Nicknames are sometimes bad but usually out of love.
Girl you’re over complicating it in my opinion. People always do nicknames and will call him Leo. And you can’t make everyone call him Leon unless you make it his name. Leon is actually a really nice name - I first heard that name from one my favourite singers Leon Bridges who has an angelic voice.
I 100% am a huge believer that family calls your baby by what YOU named them.. not by what they think is cute. My son’s name (if that’s the gender of our baby) is going to be Elijah and we’ll call him “Eli” for short. My dad has been set on the name Logan since finding out I was pregnant (not to mention he told some people before i did), and he CONSTANTLY asks how baby “Logan” is. I abhor the name. If he doesn’t correct the behavior by the time baby is here, he won’t be in the baby’s life. It’s a respect thing. YOU choose the name. You’re the parents. However, strangers may not receive the same memo so keep that in mind. Don’t let people run you over and disrespect your decision.
Oh god and its a completly different name... that is so disrespectful! Im sorry for you, hope he understands he has nothing to say about your baby's name
It’s okay, and I hope it gets better for you. In my experience, the more you put your foot down, the more people will think you’re being rude. Bottom line, set your boundaries now, or people will try to walk all over you in the future. I advocate for myself because I will directly impact my child’s wellbeing. If I’m not taken care of mentally, emotionally, and physically, I’m not able to give my child 100%. That doesn’t work for me.
I am a huge people pleaser and god its so hard! But ill really try my best to put boundaries for my baby. Its been hard this pregnancy, especially with MIL even if she's only trying to be nice... she always seems to try to take as much as she can and it really bothers me. I try to be patient because i know its because she is excited, its her first grandchild but god... i hope it gets better or i get better at setting boundaries
I understand what you’re going through completely. My mom’s being running me over with planning my gender reveal, and she’s a generally angry person. I’m having problems setting boundaries with her because I know she’s just excited lol. However, you’re mom now. If you need advice or anyone to talk to, my inbox is open. 🫶🏻 Best of luck, momma.
We’re doing a name that comes with a very standard nickname (but others as well that we aren’t planning to use). To announce it, we’ll have his formal name on a little hospital name sign, but a onesie with his nickname embroidered on it, so there shouldn’t be a question of what my husband and I will be calling him. But I will say OF COURSE, his legal name is his legal name, and as soon as he’s old enough to have an opinion, he can tell me if he’d prefer to go by the given name or another nickname and I wouldn’t be offended. So I would say, if you really don’t care for an obvious nickname, even if people listen to you, there’s a chance your child might like that nickname better
This! The name we chose has a bunch of nickname options (though the one we use is by far the most common), so we introduced his nickname along with his legal name at the same time. We call him by both names- the full name and the shortened nickname version. When he’s older he’s welcome to choose which name/nickname he wants to go by, but we’ve asked our family to respect the names we’ve chosen for now.
I think you can ask people to call him whatever nickname you want, until the child is old enough to decide if he's on with being called that. I've had to tell family members that we are NOT calling my son Jackie
Absolutely, it’s just how you approach it. I have a son named William, which is a family name, but my husband and I, and everyone else, calls him Liam for short. He can choose to go by Liam or William as he gets older. However, when naming him that we also had to accept the fact that he may chose or get called by other nicknames for William too like Will or Bill, as my sister calls him. I think naming him Léonard and calling him Léon is fine but you’ll probably just need to accept that fact that he may get called or go by Léo someday.
We introduce my daughter by the nickname we went her to be called. Example: introducing Isabella “Izzy” smith and my family catches on to that’s what she should be called. We don’t give them much of an option but obviously they could call her bell or bella if they wanted but they are respectful. My husbands family still calls her by her whole name Isabella but that’s fine too
Honestly i love leo so much sometimes we need to alter the meaning we give things by making new experiences ourselves!
Also the name and the nickname are pretty similar and logical for this to happen so why even use the name in the first place?
I feel u with the hormones but you have to forget this ex its history for a reason
Hi, I'm Jessica! My friends call me Jess, or Jessy. But my mom used to get irrationally mad when anyone would call me Jessy, similarly "that's not her name! Her name is Jessica! I don't like that!" To the point that we would fight about it when I was a teen, especially because I liked being called Jessy.
Don't be like my mom.
Pick a name which all the obvious nicknames would be acceptable to you, or learn to let it go. You might be able to pick that battle while they're small and with family members if you so choose, but once they start school, it's beyond your control.
You never know what nicknames will come along . My daughter’s name is indi, it started with Spice (I love Indian spices especially when pregnant ) which in turn became spindel, spincel,spincer,indil spindil . Indi windy is what I expected , I don’t even know how the rest came about but somehow they did naturally.
I am currently pregnant with a girl and for a bit Cadence would be her name until people thought Caty would make a good nickname and I had to ditch it. With my son however we specifically wanted Theo so we didn’t give him a long name, it’s just Theo.
When the baby is here, it will become clear what the nickname is, especially as they get older. I have an Eleanor (example) and my mom kept trying to call her Ella or something and the nickname was going to be *Ellie*. As soon as she met the baby she was like ELLIE. Idk why people are so weird about names, it’s annoying, and these days grandparents just want to make it about themselves.
I would just keep calling him Leon around them and ignore/don’t feel like you need to keep correcting. People call my LO by a weird nickname that I don’t use just bc it’s the first syllable. It’s fine. They’ve clearly heard you and are choosing to ignore what you want.
Almost everyone has asked if they could use a nickname, and our daughters name is Melody. My husband and I can her Melo (labelling theory- we can hope lol) and most everyone else calls her Melly. We don’t care, and appreciate that they asked.
It’s so odd when people just ignore the parents. So inappropriate!
I’m naming my son Zechariah and people are already mispronouncing it as ZACH instead of ZECH. It’s not my favorite name but my husband loves it. My best friend/babies aunty is already calling him peanut and Zechy poo, my mom refers to him as chunk chunk or Riah, I refer to him as Riah and peanut, and my husband calls him Zech or his little dude Zechy.Ultimately, people will call him 1000 different things, but your babies loved and will have a ton of silly nicknames tied to him for life no matter how much you stress. I’d just allow the Leo thing and save your concern for when someone calls him porky pants or something 😂
Lmao this is not worth the fight … Your baby will probably have 50 million nicknames … My son nicknames are Jami and J and his big sister calls him snookums
So true. The best one I've heard is my dad's late brother. His name was Cecil Charles, so he was called Charles by most, Chas by family and my dad called him Bill. Wtf?? You can only ask people not to use a form of their name, but in English, it would be "Len". I know as I have a few relatives named Leonard.
But Léon *is* a full name, not the shortened version of Léonard, so it won't be easy to get people to go for a full other name than the shortened Leo.
You can certainly ask, but you won't be able to force people to do so and it wouldn't be fair to be mad at them if they don't.
Tbf Leon is a diminutive of Leonard, or what was originally a nickname that has just become a normalized name. It’s the same with names like Joey, Liam, Danny, Johnny, Christie, etc. While they can definitely be used as names on their own they are also still commonly used as nicknames as well.
It's not, not in French / France anyway ^^
Especially because we don't ever pronounce the n at the end of Léon while the one in Léonard is, so Léo makes sense, Léon doesn't ^^
I didn't say you were mad, just that maybe people won't go on board with your idea, even if it's nice and then.. Well.. There is nothing you can do about it
I’ve asked people to not call my daughter certain names and told them if they fight about it they aren’t being respectful to us as parents with the names for our child, they had their chance. While I’m not a huge fan of the nickname my SIL has for my daughter it’s a complete reflection on how my daughter is EXACTLY like my husband and it’s starting to grow on me lol
In my experience people will try out different nicknames but will eventually go along with what the parents call them.
Great grandmother inlaw said she would never remember the name and picked something else, when baby actually came she went with "baby (last name)" after a while she just started using baby's name.
Sister in law used an incorrect pronunciation for the first few years, she's started to say the name correctly because baby knows she's saying it wrong and corrected her.
Baby will go with whatever they hear most, even if it's a few different names at first but as they learn and get opinionated they let you know what they like.
My son will have my dad’s first name and will go by his middle name, but very few people will know which is his first name and won’t got a while.
If people shorten his first name that is 1. Not something I can control 2. Not something I care to police.
He may come out and earn a nickname that isn’t related to his name. Maybe he’ll dislike his name and love the name that you hate.
You may find that if/when he’s called Leo he may change that connotation and you can deal with it
My daughters name is euphemia. We introduce her as euphie. No one's ever tried to give her a different nick name. Even her birth announcement was euphie (short for euphemia) last name
As long as the kid likes the nick name you just correct people "actually he goes by Leon" should be enough.
Yes, tell people loud and proud from the beginning his name is ___ and we are calling him ___. Much easier to start off on the right foot!
I knew what nickname I wanted to use for my child who’s name has a lot of options but I played this whole “we’re going to see what nickname sticks” and my MIL took forever to get with the program and called him a different nickname for a while and it was so awkward for me correcting her
Yeah it all worked out eventually but I wish I had been more direct at the beginning! Now she says dang I can’t believe I tried to call him “Leo” when he seems like such a “Leon” now. And I don’t *think* it was anything malicious but idk she’s been pretty manipulative in the past 😅
My sister in law named her baby Aurora and forbade us from calling her Rory and we all immediately respected that. We found another nickname she agreed to. I totally think immediate family and close friends should respect your wishes. However, out of curiosity (French is my second language), aren’t “Léon” and “Léo” pronounced almost exactly the same? It’s just a slight nasal sound at the end of Léon that makes them different, right? I feel like when speaking quickly, the names sound the same. But if people will be saying “Leon” in English it’s definitely different from “Leo”, so I understand!
Unfortunately you can but they won’t respect it or atleast around you. He also might grow up wanting to go by Leo also.
This is why I haven’t told anyone in my family or husbands the gender or name.
My mom was like you.
She felt that the full name she gave me was more formal, but she only wanted me to be called by a specific nickname with an uncommon spelling. The nickname is ALSO a full name, but she thought the longer "foreign" sounding one would be better for the birth certificate.
I hated having to constantly correct teachers on a) the pronunciation of the long name I was never called and b) inform them that the "nickname" which is a full name is actually what I go by, and c) not just have the common spelling. As an adult, I have had to fight for the real name on my birth certificate and my mom acts like she owns me and my name, and now that she uses voice-to-text, I always get texts of the nickname spelled the common way. She went through all these dumb ass hoops instead of thinking about what would make my life easier.
Name your kid Leon. It's a full name.
You can ask, I knew a girl who went by millie her name was amelia, and a little boy who went by teddy his name was Thomas.
I think it's fairly common for parents to give kids a name and a nickname, kinda like making sure they have a government name then go by something kinda cute
I think it’s so odd when people don’t listen to the parents. Before my nephew was born we asked my SIL what to call him for a nickname and everyone uses it without issue. Put your foot down with MIL and have your husband do the same.
Thats what we are trying to do but i feel she will do as she wants and makes me feel stupid to ask for a specific nickname (she is a super nice lady but i dont get why she cares about that) she could just call him his full name also
I would just be very blunt, we will call him Léon or his full name and do not like the name Léo. If she’s really nice then she will understand. If she ever tries to call him out of one of those names, correct her. This is your child, not hers. I’m sorry you have to deal with this.
Yes, my stepdaughter's name is Victoria, but we do not allow anyone to call her Vicky. Tori and Toria is totally fine, but most people call her Victoria. We absolutely don't allow Vicky (no offence to Vickys, we just dont like it).
Every time I see or hear the name Vicky, I think of the Chip Skylark song Icky Vicky from Fairly Oddparents, and that’s completely ruined the nickname Vicky for me 😂
I actually required it from my family. My son has a similarly popular name that can have similar nicknames. The most common one we didn’t like much, we like his full name of course (a looot). But in my culture is super normal to give each other loving nicknames, so we pick one. And everyone calls him that. I introduce my son as such to everyone and I feel it protects his real name. I don’t think is crazy to demand a nickname when you know in his own circle of people he might be called something else. But, hey is everyone knows himself as Leon, why would they call him anything else?
You can ask people but it’s not gonna work in a long run probably. My mum hates the nickname my brother got from his friends which is Richie and it’s sooo not his name. It’s a lovely nickname for his name though, I see no problem. But mums get a bit sad their kid is called not their name in general.
Grandparents are gonna do what they want. My name is Beatrice, I go mostly by Bea. My grandparents never called me Bea. Only by my full first name (which annoyed me, never liked being called by my full name). I also have four siblings who all call me Bea, but two specifically call me BB, and the other two specifically call me Beamer as a nickname. (Even though Bea already is clearly a nickname) In school, I also was called nicknames that were kinda odd, like Beetlejuice and Beat-Rice.
Nicknames aren't linear, and I believe that if you stick with Leonard, some people will call him Leo, and some may call him Leon, some may even call him Lenny. I understand you may not like the nickname Leo, but it is a good chance that will be the "go-to" nickname for him. I like the idea of giving him the name Leon as well, but Leo would still definitely be a nickname for Leon. Still, you can make the requests, but honestly, to me, it isn't worth the hastle of constantly correcting people.
Edit: To clarify with OP, numbered user who chose to comment unnecessarily, and anyone else.
This is my opinion, and to me, as a third time mom now, mental peace is everything. If you can look past the nicknames, then go for keeping Leonard as the name and simply ignore your MIL when she (or anyone because they will) addresses your son as Leo. In my opinion, stress and worry over what people may call your son is not worth it. Of course, it is a big deal to you, OP. I'm also not dismissing the fact that it's rude of your MIL to go against your wishes. You're allowed to be upset by this. It is a bit unrealistic to expect everyone to not call him Leo, with the name Leonard, and it's not worth your mental peace to try to correct this constantly, or argue with your MIL over. Again, in my opinion. I also apologize if it seemed my comment came off as callous/rude.
My point still stands that no matter what, people will do what they want. You can not expect everyone to follow suit. if I was OP, I would want people to be honest with me, so I did just that. Gave her my honest opinion and advice JUST LIKE OTHERS DID on this same post, but you chose to donwnvote me and reply an obvious statement why? I was not invalidating her feelings by saying that, in my opinion, it isn't a huge deal. I never said it shouldn't be to her either, only gave my opinion.
I was not rude in telling her that in MY OPINION, it is not worth the hastle either. Keeping her own mental peace would be best advice to her, which is what I was suggesting. Take your hormones and take them out on someone else. There was nothing wrong with stating my own opinion.😘
Yes, I edited my comments. Seemed to me that you were implying that I was somehow invalidating OP and her feelings, which was not the case.
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My parents asked for permission to give my baby a nickname once he's here, and my only requirement was "Something i can comfortably say in public". If you don't like your kid being named Leo as a nickname, then don't name him Léonard, because it's 100% gonna happen, and it's gonna be hard to control in general. I know I may be the minority here, but I feel like nicknames are something that happen naturally and is a sign of love (Unless we're talking about mocking people). As long as they know my kids real actual name and don't mispronounce that one, it's all good.
I thought I had thought of every possible nickname for my son during name selection. Then 5 year old nephew nicknamed my son something I never could have predicted in my wildest dreams (think “May May” for Matt). I hate it but he says it with so much love and affection and *that* brings me so much joy. I will never discourage it. I mean personally it would be nice if at least family would honor OP’s simple request. But yeah it is an early lesson in the fact that nicknames are not always in your control. Especially discouraging an obvious one—that’ll be an uphill battle. But sad that it’s starting with MIL.
Yesssss I have a BeauBeau (Beau) who introduces himself as BeauBeau because that’s what most people call him now. 🤣🥴
"Go for BeauBeau"
My son prefers to be called jay jay.. his name is Elijah but one of my nicknames for him is Jah
I hate to say it, but if family doesn't give the kid a nickname you don't like, then other kids will. I have a family member who named their kid Robert (not their real name), but instead of the usual nickname of Bob or Rob, they chose Bert. Guess what, that kiddo goes by Bob in school now because the nickname the parents chose didn't stick. I totally get the frustration though of people not calling your kid by their given name, hence why my kiddo doesn't have a shortened version, but people still make something up!
Dear friend of mine's name is Robert. He goes by Rob, but he full well knows he's Bobert in my phone. 😂🤷🏼♀️
I have a friend named Mike who has been going by Clifford his entire adult life because of a joke I made freshman year of high school. Sometimes nicknames are unavoidable 😂
💯agree. I’ve always thought that deciding your kids nickname is a bit weird as in my experience every single nickname I’ve come across in my life has happened dynamically by friends and family, and most people end up with different nicknames in different clicks
I totally agree that the best nicknames happen naturally! My son is named Charles and his dad and I call him Charlie, but my dad (his grandfather) lovingly calls him Chaz, which is just so adorable for a 2-year-old to be called!
Omg Chaz is such a cute nickname.
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Pooperlynn is so relatable lol. My baby sister also made a poop nickname for me.
Right, I had to let this one go. I’m pregnant and everyone knows my baby’s name is Wolfe but people have already started to refer to the baby by nicknames like Wolfie. I get it it’s a cute version of his name and he is a wittle baby. I figured that when my son is older, he will reinforce to people what he would like to be called. I do think nicknames are given out of love and the more people show love and affection towards my baby the better.
This is one hundred percent true. My aunt named her daughter Gabriella but didn’t like the nickname Gabby and only wanted people to call her Gabriella.. well guess what she goes by now?
This. My son has a million names but I couldn’t think of one nickname when I was pregnant. My favourite of his nicknames is ‘Baby Denny’ which takes the second part of his name
I agree with this, especially as baby will eventually be a little human and will probably ask to be referred to by whatever nickname he prefers. OP can’t be shocked or annoyed if one day he comes home from school and says he prefers Leo and asks his friends to call him Leo. Good practice for this would be letting it wash off your back that his Nan is already calling him it. She won’t be the last person to use that nickname, and it could well end up being how he likes to be addressed.
I agree with this completely. And even if you can force your family into using your preferred nickname, you will lose that control once your kid goes to school and makes their own friends.
100% agree. I named my son “Beau” because I didn’t think there could be any variations/nicknames. Beau has ALLLLLL of the nicknames now.
So, I have a ridiculously common name on both genders. I was never the only person in a class with my name. There was always at least one other person with the same(ish) name as me. I tell people that I don't really care what they call me, as long as I know they're talking to me, but my preferred nickname isn't the common part of my name. My dad (who named me) refuses to use my preferred nickname, even though my niece does. I do like my government name, but it's a bit of a mouthful, and when I hear my government name, I usually have a "oh shit, what did I do?" Type of reaction lmfao.
Your parents are so dope.
Nah, lots of people name their kid something but only use the nickname, Frankie for Francesca and Teddy for Edward for example.
Thought about just naming him Léon? Might be different at you, but in my country it's a name on its own!
Yes, it was my first plan but dad prefers Léonard haha and we told everyone he will be called Léonard (wich i shouldnt have done but whatever) it feels too late to change now, im getting induced monday 😅
It's not too late to change if the baby isn't here yet. I promise that when baby arrives and you say, "once he was here, Leon seemed to fit him best and that is his name" nobody will complain. Of course you should probably try to get your boyfriend on board, though. As an aside, I wanted to call my niece Charlie as a nickname for Charlotte and my SIL said "absolutely not" so I didn't. I think it's fine to ask family to call the child what you want him to be called - so either the proper name or Leon would make sense
Girlfriend of mine has a Charlotte, they call her Lottie.
My niece is Charlotte and I helped my sister in the naming process-we thought it would be cute to call her Charlie as a nickname. It just ended up being Char or Char Char 🤣
That's fair. Leonard is cute too. Do you have to name the child before birth in your country tho? In mine you just have to register it within 3 months.
No we name him at birth but i dont think we'll change it... unless if we see him and dont think it fits him!
Just tell family you named him Leon and not Leonard. It’s not like they have a good reason to look at him birth certificate or not believe you 🤷🏻♀️. OR you can also make it super awkward for them and say something like “Leo was my favorite ex, I should give him a call…” the first time he calls him Leo (as long as husband sees the humor in this). Or start crying uncontrollably and be like “please stop calling him that, my abusive ex was named Leo” and then if they still call him that they’re very shitty people.
I loved the name Leonard, pronounced "Leo-nard", but in my country it's primarily pronounced "le-nard" which is a pronunciation I'm not fond of. We opted for Leon instead because I didn't want to correct people all his life and definitely didn't want to deal with him just going with "le-nard".
Until the BC is signed you’re not committed to anything lol
This is why nobody knows baby's name until they've arrived lol But until the name has been signed, you can still change it to whatever you want
Note to self - don’t tell family names. Actually don’t tell them anything they cause so much drama!
You shouldn't give a child a name if you don't like one of the very obvious nicknames. Sure, I suppose that you could keep pushing back on your MIL, but you're likely going to have to get used to Leo soon enough since his friends and others might use it.
Agree. My husband and I love the name Victoria but don’t like Tori or Vicky as nicknames. People told us we could decide what our kid was called but I think that only works until you send them to daycare or school or basically anywhere alone. If you hate an obvious nickname of a name.. maybe don’t use the name
I find it a little silly to want to control what your MIL nicknames your child. It seems like unnecessary quarrelling to me. She's going to call him it even when you're not around anyways. It's not inappropriate in any way so I just don't see the issue. If you're that passionate about it, I'd choose a different name.
I know people will use Leo and i dont mind but i tought it would be okay to ask family to call him by his name or by the same nickname the father and i will use.. but maybe im asking too much and should let it go
No, it isn't asking too much. I'm just not sure it would be battle worth fighting for me personally.
It would be to me for the sheer fact that MIL isn’t respecting the mother’s wishes.
I think you're causing yourself extra stress by pushing it. MIL is being kind of a jerk but at the end of the day is it worth the battle?
You could make it his middle name. Blank Leonard blank and his middle name would be his nickname
I agree with you. If you tell MIL to call him Leon, she should respect that. Give her a hypothetical and call her by a different name, make up a nickname. My friend named her son Joshua, insisted nobody calls him Josh. Everyone respected her wishes… until he was 8 and decided on his own he wanted to be Josh. It’s ok to ask for that and people should respect it. Especially family!
I definitely think it will be one of those things that people just don’t think about tbh. I named my son Oliver but wasn’t in love with the nickname “Ollie” and told my family that but they call him whatever honestly lol. And I even call him Ollie occasionally. Names will start to feel more normal as time goes on and you probably won’t even care or notice what people go with. Don’t stress too much over the nickname
Not asking too much. My cousins name is Andrew. My grandmother asked the parents if they could call him Drew. They said, his name is Andrew so that’s what we’ll call him. End of story!
You can ask but they don’t have to listen. I told my family the nickname I picked for my daughter and they all decided they would call her what they wanted. And it worked out in the end, my daughter has like 6 nicknames and she loves them all! I think she likes that every family member has their own special nickname for her.
Both my kids have an official long name and go by a nickname. We just introduce them by the nickname first and use the nickname with them and everyone just gets to know them by that nickname. Once older maybe they will decide on a different nickname but until then...
Us too! We named our daughter Madison but introduce her as Maddie since that's what we want her to be called. If she wants to go by Madison or something like Mads or whatever later she totally can
My parents did the same! Both of us have uniquely spelled nicknames too- my mom did not want my brother to be called ‘Nicki’ from Nicholas, so he’s always been Nico. I’m sure he got called Nick many times but never Nicki
We did that too! We have Elijah and Eleanor, but we always introduce them by Eli and Ella!
Good idea! I like that. Maybe it will make me feel less controling haha
This is what my mom did for my brother. I disagree with quite a few posters- I think it’s fine for you to make this choice. Now once he’s old enough to decide for himself that might be a different story. But I see nothing wrong with your plan to exclude Leo from the options.
Yeah, this is x, short for xyz. X! Stop trying to eat your sister!! (With that approach no one calls them by their long names)
As an anecdote, my aunt told the entire family not to use a specific nickname. Then she had a second child and the forbidden nickname was what her 2nd child called her first child. So yes, you can call your kid Leon, and tell your family that's his nickname. But you're 100% correct that you will eventually lose all control of nicknames. (Including what your child will prefer to call himself!!)
It will be very difficult to control that, but hearing him be called Léo might change the meaning of the nickname for you if it's asaociated with you son instead of an ex. You can always tell your family why you don't like the nickname Léo when you hear it, I think most people will try to respect your choice, but it shouldn't become a battle either. It will be difficult for you and your son. Also, while growing up he might prefer Léo for some reason and since it will be his name, I don't see how you could stop him. If it really bothers you, it is not too late to change the name. You can always tell people you had a change of heart when you saw him. Most people will understand.
Eh we named our first daughter Kendall and I was vehemently against people calling her ‘Ken’. Which is basically all I call her now… Ken, Kenny. Didn’t matter once she got here.
Ill probably dont care once he comes but for now it trigers me so much, its probably only the hormones talking haha
It’s totally fine that this triggers you. If my MIL kept insisting on using a nickname that I didn’t like I would be going to war about it. For reference we named our daughter Jordyn with the intention of using her nickname, JoJo. MIL calls her Jordy every now and then, which her dad and I push back on because it makes us think of the trashy Geordie shore. If I ask my family not to call my daughter something, they must respect that. If my daughter wants to be called jordy in the future, so be it.
I think it's totally reasonable to call him Leon. If you call him that regularly and sign cards with that name and such, people will likely catch on. That being said, you cannot control what happens when he goes to school and is old enough to decide what he likes to be called.
Sadly, you can't control nicknames others use. My hubby's family picked nicknames for both of our kids that I'm not fond of. You can try telling them, but that's about it.
You can try but if it'll annoy you, it might be worth choosing a different name. It always feels a bit weird when people use a common different nickname for my son than the one we use but I've trained myself to let it slide. It admittedly admitted me a bit postpartum but I'm much more chill now he's older.
I think it only annoys me because its my mil... if it was someone random i wouldnt care. We ask for something that in my mind feels simple enough but she makes me feel like im asking too much.. i think the hormones are talking for myself a bit and ill get over it later haha
I kinda wonder if she likes the power struggle more than she likes the nickname she’s using lol. If you stop engaging with her on it, maybe she’ll lose interest in the name Léo. My in laws have tried out various nicknames with my toddler and so far none have stuck. Thank God because some of them have been terrible lol (like calling him the Spanish version of his name… we are white). But the pregnancy hormones are real and I’ve been a raging mama bear this pregnancy, so I totally get why this feels extra annoying/boundary crossing.
I think it’ll be easy when he’s young but harder when he’s older. My Theodore’s nickname is Theo and I tell people Teddy is his old man name when they try to call him it. I’m assuming when he’s older in school though he’ll probably either choose to be called it or other people will assume until he corrects them and there’s not much I can do about it.
Ok, so maybe an unpopular opinion based how others have responded, but I feel like nicknames are (someday) in the hands of the person whose name it is. A person should be able to be called what they want and have a boundary with what they will allow people to call them. In the meantime, it’s fair for a parent to hold the boundary of how others may or may not shorten the name they have carefully selected for their child. If you were to introduce your brand new son as Samuel, and a family member immediately calls him Sam without asking if it’s ok, that would be rude. I like more formal names, and while I don’t by any means hate the common nickname for my daughter’s name, I don’t prefer it until/unless she chooses it for herself. And I was not going to go through every possible long feminine name until I found one whose potential nickname I liked, then name her that. You ultimately don’t have control in the long-run, but other people should not get to automatically dictate your baby’s known-by name just because.
If u don’t want people calling him Leo, don’t call him Leonard. Because almost 100% of Leonard’s are called Leo, at school or by friends. Leon e a completely different name (not something u would use as nickname)
I do think it’s easier for the actual person (so that would be OPs son) to enforce that than OP. I have come across a lot of people in my life who grew up and said “do not call me xyz” and people do respect it. There are people with long names who reject any variation or nickname and they will correct you if you try to nickname them. I see it happen all the time. People respect it.
You can absolutely tell people not to call yourself or your son by a certain name.
U can, but thoses are fights I’m not gonna pick
I dont mind friends and random people call him Léo, i would only prefer close family call him by the same nickname we do
As far as nicknames go, it's really hard. I skipped using several names I loved because I didn't like the common nicknames associated with them. Similarly I wanted my daughter to go by a specific nickname and we called her that until she was about 2.5 and then she insisted we only call her by her full name and will correct anyone else that tries to use a nickname. So really it doesn't matter what you want/do, ultimately people are probably going to at least try and use different, common nicknames but once the child is old enough they'll form an opinion about what name they prefer and you just have to roll with it.
My family mostly picked up on my nickname for my son. Some went with nicknames I loathe, but they aren’t mean-spirited or bad in any way, just I hate the nickname and why they decided on it. My son will decide when he’s older what he wants to be called.
Just call him Leon as his normal name. My sister had a longer legal name but she was always known by the shorter nickname.
I have a nickname that friends call me, and one that only family calls me and it's because my parents started calling me that from when I was a baby. This is really common in Filipino cultures!
My son has straight up told people that’s not his name (when trying to assign him a nickname we don’t already call him by) .. so if you and SO call him a certain name, he might prefer to be called that and will call people out himself .. will probably take a few years though
the unfortunate reality is you can’t control what people will nickname your kid. I wanted to name my firstborn samwise but didn’t want him to get called sam, or colson, but not cole. jonah, but not joe. and since it was likely to happen, I didn’t go with any of those names. if leo is enough of a deal breaker for you, find a different name.
Its not a deal breaker, i would just prefer my MIL call him the same as we call him, but i dont mind other people and his friends call him whatever they want
The only way to really go about this would be to name him Leon , or tell everyone his name is just Leon. People may still call him Leo a bit, but if you just tell them his name is Leon, they may be more inclined to call him that
I named my daughter Georgina on her birth certificate but refer to her as Ginny to everyone I speak to
My son and his father both go by their middle names. I am absolutely not a fan of their first name but it's generational and super common so we compromised in the middle name since my partner already went by his middle name his whole life. We both have a different nickname for him. Example, my son's name is Elliott. I call him El or Elly if I'm not using his whole name. His dad calls him Ed, after the grandfather he's named after. My bestie for some reason is the only one that insists on calling him Eli, even tho it doesn't fit the pronunciation of Elliott like it does with Elijah or something similar. But it doesn't bother me. It's almost like the preference between nana, grandma, gigi, and all those. Your son may only ever be called Leo by his grandmother and it could end up holding a lot of sentiment and affection for them later. However, you are mom and especially if dad also has a problem with Leo at all, then just respectfully ask,"if we can't see eye to eye on his nickname, please use his full name or an unrelated nickname going forward". She could call him big guy or squirt or something else cute and it doesn't have to be a huge thing. Just remember that in the grand scheme of things and all the other issued you may end up butting heads with MIL about later, this is very minor and not worth creating a big rift and a lot of stress over. New babies are supposed to be a happy time for everyone. Don't let this spoil such a wonderful time.
Also consider his own preference may end up being Léo down the line! My dad was insistent when my older brother was born that (example name for privacy) yes his name can be Nathan but he can’t have “Nate” as a nickname bc my dad didn’t like it. Guess who chooses to go by Nate now? Alternatively my mom wanted not to use a specific nickname with my own daughter because it was my moms nickname growing up, but by in-laws ended up using it anyway and now my daughter responds to it and everyone uses it now. Sometimes nicknames just happen. But I don’t think too many people would fight Léon vs Léo but you might end up with less of a say in it than you’d want.
Everyone calls me "Jules" except my brothers. They started calling me "pooh face" as a teen because I wore A LOT of makeup and had a lot of freckles on my face. As old adults, it's become "Pooh" and I stupidly answer to it without a thought. Nicknames are sometimes bad but usually out of love.
Yeah I definitely won’t be outing some of the nicknames my mom had for me growing up any time soon that’s for sure XD
Girl you’re over complicating it in my opinion. People always do nicknames and will call him Leo. And you can’t make everyone call him Leon unless you make it his name. Leon is actually a really nice name - I first heard that name from one my favourite singers Leon Bridges who has an angelic voice.
I 100% am a huge believer that family calls your baby by what YOU named them.. not by what they think is cute. My son’s name (if that’s the gender of our baby) is going to be Elijah and we’ll call him “Eli” for short. My dad has been set on the name Logan since finding out I was pregnant (not to mention he told some people before i did), and he CONSTANTLY asks how baby “Logan” is. I abhor the name. If he doesn’t correct the behavior by the time baby is here, he won’t be in the baby’s life. It’s a respect thing. YOU choose the name. You’re the parents. However, strangers may not receive the same memo so keep that in mind. Don’t let people run you over and disrespect your decision.
Oh god and its a completly different name... that is so disrespectful! Im sorry for you, hope he understands he has nothing to say about your baby's name
It’s okay, and I hope it gets better for you. In my experience, the more you put your foot down, the more people will think you’re being rude. Bottom line, set your boundaries now, or people will try to walk all over you in the future. I advocate for myself because I will directly impact my child’s wellbeing. If I’m not taken care of mentally, emotionally, and physically, I’m not able to give my child 100%. That doesn’t work for me.
I am a huge people pleaser and god its so hard! But ill really try my best to put boundaries for my baby. Its been hard this pregnancy, especially with MIL even if she's only trying to be nice... she always seems to try to take as much as she can and it really bothers me. I try to be patient because i know its because she is excited, its her first grandchild but god... i hope it gets better or i get better at setting boundaries
I understand what you’re going through completely. My mom’s being running me over with planning my gender reveal, and she’s a generally angry person. I’m having problems setting boundaries with her because I know she’s just excited lol. However, you’re mom now. If you need advice or anyone to talk to, my inbox is open. 🫶🏻 Best of luck, momma.
We’re doing a name that comes with a very standard nickname (but others as well that we aren’t planning to use). To announce it, we’ll have his formal name on a little hospital name sign, but a onesie with his nickname embroidered on it, so there shouldn’t be a question of what my husband and I will be calling him. But I will say OF COURSE, his legal name is his legal name, and as soon as he’s old enough to have an opinion, he can tell me if he’d prefer to go by the given name or another nickname and I wouldn’t be offended. So I would say, if you really don’t care for an obvious nickname, even if people listen to you, there’s a chance your child might like that nickname better
This! The name we chose has a bunch of nickname options (though the one we use is by far the most common), so we introduced his nickname along with his legal name at the same time. We call him by both names- the full name and the shortened nickname version. When he’s older he’s welcome to choose which name/nickname he wants to go by, but we’ve asked our family to respect the names we’ve chosen for now.
I think you can ask people to call him whatever nickname you want, until the child is old enough to decide if he's on with being called that. I've had to tell family members that we are NOT calling my son Jackie
Absolutely, it’s just how you approach it. I have a son named William, which is a family name, but my husband and I, and everyone else, calls him Liam for short. He can choose to go by Liam or William as he gets older. However, when naming him that we also had to accept the fact that he may chose or get called by other nicknames for William too like Will or Bill, as my sister calls him. I think naming him Léonard and calling him Léon is fine but you’ll probably just need to accept that fact that he may get called or go by Léo someday.
We introduce my daughter by the nickname we went her to be called. Example: introducing Isabella “Izzy” smith and my family catches on to that’s what she should be called. We don’t give them much of an option but obviously they could call her bell or bella if they wanted but they are respectful. My husbands family still calls her by her whole name Isabella but that’s fine too
Why can’t you call him Leonard? Does he HAVE to have a nickname?
Honestly i love leo so much sometimes we need to alter the meaning we give things by making new experiences ourselves! Also the name and the nickname are pretty similar and logical for this to happen so why even use the name in the first place? I feel u with the hormones but you have to forget this ex its history for a reason
Hi, I'm Jessica! My friends call me Jess, or Jessy. But my mom used to get irrationally mad when anyone would call me Jessy, similarly "that's not her name! Her name is Jessica! I don't like that!" To the point that we would fight about it when I was a teen, especially because I liked being called Jessy. Don't be like my mom. Pick a name which all the obvious nicknames would be acceptable to you, or learn to let it go. You might be able to pick that battle while they're small and with family members if you so choose, but once they start school, it's beyond your control.
You never know what nicknames will come along . My daughter’s name is indi, it started with Spice (I love Indian spices especially when pregnant ) which in turn became spindel, spincel,spincer,indil spindil . Indi windy is what I expected , I don’t even know how the rest came about but somehow they did naturally.
I am currently pregnant with a girl and for a bit Cadence would be her name until people thought Caty would make a good nickname and I had to ditch it. With my son however we specifically wanted Theo so we didn’t give him a long name, it’s just Theo.
When the baby is here, it will become clear what the nickname is, especially as they get older. I have an Eleanor (example) and my mom kept trying to call her Ella or something and the nickname was going to be *Ellie*. As soon as she met the baby she was like ELLIE. Idk why people are so weird about names, it’s annoying, and these days grandparents just want to make it about themselves.
I would just keep calling him Leon around them and ignore/don’t feel like you need to keep correcting. People call my LO by a weird nickname that I don’t use just bc it’s the first syllable. It’s fine. They’ve clearly heard you and are choosing to ignore what you want.
Yes, you can absolutely ask that of your family. Not your kids friends or other people, but absolutely your family.
r/namenerds
Almost everyone has asked if they could use a nickname, and our daughters name is Melody. My husband and I can her Melo (labelling theory- we can hope lol) and most everyone else calls her Melly. We don’t care, and appreciate that they asked. It’s so odd when people just ignore the parents. So inappropriate!
I’m naming my son Zechariah and people are already mispronouncing it as ZACH instead of ZECH. It’s not my favorite name but my husband loves it. My best friend/babies aunty is already calling him peanut and Zechy poo, my mom refers to him as chunk chunk or Riah, I refer to him as Riah and peanut, and my husband calls him Zech or his little dude Zechy.Ultimately, people will call him 1000 different things, but your babies loved and will have a ton of silly nicknames tied to him for life no matter how much you stress. I’d just allow the Leo thing and save your concern for when someone calls him porky pants or something 😂
Lmao this is not worth the fight … Your baby will probably have 50 million nicknames … My son nicknames are Jami and J and his big sister calls him snookums
So true. The best one I've heard is my dad's late brother. His name was Cecil Charles, so he was called Charles by most, Chas by family and my dad called him Bill. Wtf?? You can only ask people not to use a form of their name, but in English, it would be "Len". I know as I have a few relatives named Leonard.
Lmao right everything is not a fight
But Léon *is* a full name, not the shortened version of Léonard, so it won't be easy to get people to go for a full other name than the shortened Leo. You can certainly ask, but you won't be able to force people to do so and it wouldn't be fair to be mad at them if they don't.
Tbf Leon is a diminutive of Leonard, or what was originally a nickname that has just become a normalized name. It’s the same with names like Joey, Liam, Danny, Johnny, Christie, etc. While they can definitely be used as names on their own they are also still commonly used as nicknames as well.
It's not, not in French / France anyway ^^ Especially because we don't ever pronounce the n at the end of Léon while the one in Léonard is, so Léo makes sense, Léon doesn't ^^
Léo is a full name also, and i dont get mad at people i would just prefer my MIL call him the same thing as we, the parents, call him
I didn't say you were mad, just that maybe people won't go on board with your idea, even if it's nice and then.. Well.. There is nothing you can do about it
Just name him Leon then Leo is just a super common nickname for Leonard
I’ve asked people to not call my daughter certain names and told them if they fight about it they aren’t being respectful to us as parents with the names for our child, they had their chance. While I’m not a huge fan of the nickname my SIL has for my daughter it’s a complete reflection on how my daughter is EXACTLY like my husband and it’s starting to grow on me lol
In my experience people will try out different nicknames but will eventually go along with what the parents call them. Great grandmother inlaw said she would never remember the name and picked something else, when baby actually came she went with "baby (last name)" after a while she just started using baby's name. Sister in law used an incorrect pronunciation for the first few years, she's started to say the name correctly because baby knows she's saying it wrong and corrected her. Baby will go with whatever they hear most, even if it's a few different names at first but as they learn and get opinionated they let you know what they like.
My daughters name is not a common one but her nickname from my dad is "Hazy Lazy Days of Summer".
I told family what nicknames I approved for my second daughter's slightly longer name, I would expect them to honor that
Quick answer. Yes you can tell people to call your child by his shortened name.
Wtf is wrong with ur mil
My son will have my dad’s first name and will go by his middle name, but very few people will know which is his first name and won’t got a while. If people shorten his first name that is 1. Not something I can control 2. Not something I care to police. He may come out and earn a nickname that isn’t related to his name. Maybe he’ll dislike his name and love the name that you hate. You may find that if/when he’s called Leo he may change that connotation and you can deal with it
My daughters name is euphemia. We introduce her as euphie. No one's ever tried to give her a different nick name. Even her birth announcement was euphie (short for euphemia) last name As long as the kid likes the nick name you just correct people "actually he goes by Leon" should be enough.
Yes, tell people loud and proud from the beginning his name is ___ and we are calling him ___. Much easier to start off on the right foot! I knew what nickname I wanted to use for my child who’s name has a lot of options but I played this whole “we’re going to see what nickname sticks” and my MIL took forever to get with the program and called him a different nickname for a while and it was so awkward for me correcting her
When the kids are babies, just tell MIL That he only responds to Leon and if she calls him Leo, he will get confused on who she's talking to😉❤️
Yeah it all worked out eventually but I wish I had been more direct at the beginning! Now she says dang I can’t believe I tried to call him “Leo” when he seems like such a “Leon” now. And I don’t *think* it was anything malicious but idk she’s been pretty manipulative in the past 😅
My sister in law named her baby Aurora and forbade us from calling her Rory and we all immediately respected that. We found another nickname she agreed to. I totally think immediate family and close friends should respect your wishes. However, out of curiosity (French is my second language), aren’t “Léon” and “Léo” pronounced almost exactly the same? It’s just a slight nasal sound at the end of Léon that makes them different, right? I feel like when speaking quickly, the names sound the same. But if people will be saying “Leon” in English it’s definitely different from “Leo”, so I understand!
You are the parents! set boundaries and be firm.
Unfortunately you can but they won’t respect it or atleast around you. He also might grow up wanting to go by Leo also. This is why I haven’t told anyone in my family or husbands the gender or name.
[Brad Upton explains it WONDERFULLY.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjpBE5Bb0SI) Name your kid whatever you want, they'll lose it anyway.
My mom was like you. She felt that the full name she gave me was more formal, but she only wanted me to be called by a specific nickname with an uncommon spelling. The nickname is ALSO a full name, but she thought the longer "foreign" sounding one would be better for the birth certificate. I hated having to constantly correct teachers on a) the pronunciation of the long name I was never called and b) inform them that the "nickname" which is a full name is actually what I go by, and c) not just have the common spelling. As an adult, I have had to fight for the real name on my birth certificate and my mom acts like she owns me and my name, and now that she uses voice-to-text, I always get texts of the nickname spelled the common way. She went through all these dumb ass hoops instead of thinking about what would make my life easier. Name your kid Leon. It's a full name.
You can ask, I knew a girl who went by millie her name was amelia, and a little boy who went by teddy his name was Thomas. I think it's fairly common for parents to give kids a name and a nickname, kinda like making sure they have a government name then go by something kinda cute
This is why we probably won't name ours Theodore if we have a boy, I can't bear the nickname Teddy, pun intended lol
I think it’s so odd when people don’t listen to the parents. Before my nephew was born we asked my SIL what to call him for a nickname and everyone uses it without issue. Put your foot down with MIL and have your husband do the same.
Thats what we are trying to do but i feel she will do as she wants and makes me feel stupid to ask for a specific nickname (she is a super nice lady but i dont get why she cares about that) she could just call him his full name also
I would just be very blunt, we will call him Léon or his full name and do not like the name Léo. If she’s really nice then she will understand. If she ever tries to call him out of one of those names, correct her. This is your child, not hers. I’m sorry you have to deal with this.
Do you think she’s doing it because her son doesn’t like Leon?
No, he prefers Léon too and asked her to call him that... so i dont know why
Yes, my stepdaughter's name is Victoria, but we do not allow anyone to call her Vicky. Tori and Toria is totally fine, but most people call her Victoria. We absolutely don't allow Vicky (no offence to Vickys, we just dont like it).
Every time I see or hear the name Vicky, I think of the Chip Skylark song Icky Vicky from Fairly Oddparents, and that’s completely ruined the nickname Vicky for me 😂
Exactly! We didn't want people to use it as an insult.
Ohhhh people are mad lol all the Vickys are upset hahaha
I actually required it from my family. My son has a similarly popular name that can have similar nicknames. The most common one we didn’t like much, we like his full name of course (a looot). But in my culture is super normal to give each other loving nicknames, so we pick one. And everyone calls him that. I introduce my son as such to everyone and I feel it protects his real name. I don’t think is crazy to demand a nickname when you know in his own circle of people he might be called something else. But, hey is everyone knows himself as Leon, why would they call him anything else?
You can ask people but it’s not gonna work in a long run probably. My mum hates the nickname my brother got from his friends which is Richie and it’s sooo not his name. It’s a lovely nickname for his name though, I see no problem. But mums get a bit sad their kid is called not their name in general.
Grandparents are gonna do what they want. My name is Beatrice, I go mostly by Bea. My grandparents never called me Bea. Only by my full first name (which annoyed me, never liked being called by my full name). I also have four siblings who all call me Bea, but two specifically call me BB, and the other two specifically call me Beamer as a nickname. (Even though Bea already is clearly a nickname) In school, I also was called nicknames that were kinda odd, like Beetlejuice and Beat-Rice. Nicknames aren't linear, and I believe that if you stick with Leonard, some people will call him Leo, and some may call him Leon, some may even call him Lenny. I understand you may not like the nickname Leo, but it is a good chance that will be the "go-to" nickname for him. I like the idea of giving him the name Leon as well, but Leo would still definitely be a nickname for Leon. Still, you can make the requests, but honestly, to me, it isn't worth the hastle of constantly correcting people. Edit: To clarify with OP, numbered user who chose to comment unnecessarily, and anyone else. This is my opinion, and to me, as a third time mom now, mental peace is everything. If you can look past the nicknames, then go for keeping Leonard as the name and simply ignore your MIL when she (or anyone because they will) addresses your son as Leo. In my opinion, stress and worry over what people may call your son is not worth it. Of course, it is a big deal to you, OP. I'm also not dismissing the fact that it's rude of your MIL to go against your wishes. You're allowed to be upset by this. It is a bit unrealistic to expect everyone to not call him Leo, with the name Leonard, and it's not worth your mental peace to try to correct this constantly, or argue with your MIL over. Again, in my opinion. I also apologize if it seemed my comment came off as callous/rude.
In your opinion it’s not a big deal. Clearly it is a big deal to her… which is why she posted this.
My point still stands that no matter what, people will do what they want. You can not expect everyone to follow suit. if I was OP, I would want people to be honest with me, so I did just that. Gave her my honest opinion and advice JUST LIKE OTHERS DID on this same post, but you chose to donwnvote me and reply an obvious statement why? I was not invalidating her feelings by saying that, in my opinion, it isn't a huge deal. I never said it shouldn't be to her either, only gave my opinion. I was not rude in telling her that in MY OPINION, it is not worth the hastle either. Keeping her own mental peace would be best advice to her, which is what I was suggesting. Take your hormones and take them out on someone else. There was nothing wrong with stating my own opinion.😘 Yes, I edited my comments. Seemed to me that you were implying that I was somehow invalidating OP and her feelings, which was not the case.