Nick Names

When I was pregnant with my last baby, we kind of assumed it was a boy. I don't know why... wishful thinking maybe. We already had a name picked out and started calling him by his name and telling the kids about their little brother. When we found out we were having a girl, we knew the battle of names would soon begin.

When deciding Emma's name, he wanted her to be named Ava. I didn't really like the name and I just put my foot down with the name Emma, however, I did let him choose her middle name...as long as I liked it. So in trying to decide what to name our newest addition, I had two names on my list. I shared my first choice with Jeremy and he hated it. He then very sincerely told me that he really wanted to name this one, since he basically had no say in Emma's name. I clinched my teeth and tried to smile, and asked him what he wanted to name her. He replied with "Olivia". I told him that I could tell it meant a lot to him, and that I would be willing to concede because I love him so much, yadda yadda yadda. In all reality, I was so excited because this was the second name on my list.

[Side Note: Whenever you get your way, always try to make it seem like it was their idea. They will feel like you really value their opinion, and as an added bonus, you can blame them if it turns out to be a bad idea.]

I digress. Back to the reason I even started this post. I've always had a pet-peeve when naming children. Specifically, when people name their kids something, knowing very well they are going to call him by a nick-name. For example, a parent will say, "We are going to name him Augustus, but we'll call him Gus". I think this should only apply when you are naming them after parent and need to create a nickname to avoid household confusion. Otherwise, just name the kid Gus.

When I chose the name Olivia, I intended to call her Olivia. Then after a few weeks, we would just shorten it to "Liv" or "Livi" in casual conversation. Then we got accustom to calling her that and then she started to respond to it.

Now here is my dilemma. I like the name Olivia much better, but at this point, she only responds to Livi. So do I just go with it or try to change it back? How much confusion will this cause?

For those of you that are intentionally using a nick-name (I forgive you), do they respond to their full names during school roll call or is there a place on forms to write a nick-name so everyone calls them the same thing? Also, how did you determine how to spell the nickname? I didn't even realize it until tonight (which is what prompted this whole thought process) that I spell it Livi and Jeremy spells it Livy. I don't think I've ever seen him write it down before until I found a letter he wrote. If we decide to keep calling her Livi, we need to teach her how to spell it and therefore need to agree on a spelling ourselves. Again, another reason to just stick with Olivia. See why it's my pet-peeve? It causes so much confusion. Please help.