Talk to me about (permanent) nicknames.....

 So for this baby, I want to use William after my dad. My DH never really loved the name, but LOVES the name Liam, which had also been on our list at some point, so we decided to use Liam as a NN but have William still be his full name. Liam is something we both agree on, plus I do think it sounds like more of a "fit" with my other kids' names. 

But, nicknames are something we've never done before. Ds1 is Noah -- no Nn there. Ds2 is Lucas but we didn't really want him to go by Luke so we don't plan on ever using that at this point. 

But for Liam, since that is what he'll go by.....I get confused. Will I get things personalized with "Liam"? Will I put Liam on school forms etc, or would I put down William? Will people forget his real name is William? Is it dumb to use a nickname if you never plan on using the full name? It's just that the full name  has a meaning to it......

Go ahead, call me crazy for even worrying about this...just having a freak out sort of day!  I just wanted to hear from others whose kids have permanent nicknames and how it works! TIA! 

Oh, but for my "face friends" -- his name is still a secret!

Georgia~peach:

But for Liam, since that is what he'll go by.....I get confused. Will I get things personalized with "Liam"? Will I put Liam on school forms etc, or would I put down William? Will people forget his real name is William? Is it dumb to use a nickname if you never plan on using the full name? It's just that the full name  has a meaning to it......

Well, my DH's name is Christopher and he goes exclusively by Chris (except for his grandparents!) For school forms and anything official, yes,  you'll need to spell out William. For putting his name on a lunch box or duffel bag, Liam would be fine. Anything monogrammed, would be with the 'W' for William. Lots of people will forget his real name is William because Liam is also used as a stand-alone name these days. And, no, I don't think it's dumb to use a nickname. Who knows, maybe you'll want to call him William when you're really mad at him  or maybe he'll be a CEO one day and want to be referred to as William X, Chairman of the Board. It gives him an option, kwim? Oh and FWIW, your younger son will probably be called Luke once he gets in school anyway. Kids love to shorten names and create nicknames, kwim? I love the name Liam but it doesn't work w/our last name. It's one of my all time favorites though!

I agree with the PP.  DS has a long name that we use, I don't like the nn associated with it.  I find myself correcting others in my head when the call him the nn.  I figure he is getting older and if it bothers him, he is the type that will say something.

DS2 goes by his middle name, but everything, school, doctors office, anything official, we have to put his first name.  I find most places have a blank for nickname so that they know what the child usually goes by.  I've never had anything with just his initial, but if I monogram something with his name, we always put what we call him, his middle name.  Most people when we remind them for whatever reason that his first name is something else had forgotten.

And then DS3 goes by a shortened version of his first name.  He's only 1, so that hasn't been an issue, but everything will officially have his full first name on it.

As you can see we couldn't make up our mind on our childrens' names, but nobody is the same.

This baby will go by a nn that originally was going to start with a different letter than her actual name so we decided to change it.  I didn't want to monogram things with an A when what we plan to call her actually starts with a C (the second letter of the name).  Of course that wouldn't work with William but I really don't think it will be a problem and Liam is a great nn :)

I think its fine William is special because of your dad and Liam is a cute name. 

Love, love, love the name Liam.  That would have been a contender for my DS3 except that my husband's stepsister's last name is also "Johnson" and it would have been weird to have 2 Liam Johnsons in our family (she has a Liam).  So there went that.

Anywho...

I have a girlfriend who was in the exact same situation you are in.  Her husband is a William and he goes by Bill.  She absolutely hates "Bill" and wanted "Will."  He wanted "Liam" and he won (since their first set of twins was G-G and then they had ANOTHER set which was G-B...  the dad should get to name the little guy, right? )  So he is William but goes by Liam.  So I guess on all the "official" stuff it's William but they refer to him as Liam.  Their girl twin is Katherine but they call her "Kate."

G/L!   

I love both William and Liam so I think you get to use two great names in one. my 5th son is constantly called by his middle name and the others aren't.

My real name is Nicole but I've never gone by that.  The only people who call me that are doctors, my school teachers on the first day of school and... that's about it.  I always use Niki.  On our wedding announcements, the inside had my full name but there was a part that had just our first names and I put Niki there. 

I wouldn't worry about it.  You'll know what to put on things and it will most likely be Liam.  It will work, just like it does for me.

My husband is a William,JR. and I call him Bill.   His father will always be William to me!

My real name is Carissa, but I go by Cassie and have since the day I was born. No one, even family calls me anything but Cassie. I do use Carissa for business and official stuff...bank, bills, insurance, school, teaching credential, driver's licience, etc.

It's never been an issue for me. I actually like having my "formal" name.