Nothing changes.

[mamadeb]

This line was written in 1803: Sally, or rather Sarah (for what young lady of common gentility will reach the age of sixteen without altering her name as far as she can?)

I did that. :) (Was Debbi for most of high school.)

Comments

[kattahj.livejournal.com]

God, yes. *giggle* There's no end to the nicknames you can make from "Katarina".

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I event tried to be Debra for awhile, but apparently, I'm just a Debbie forever.

[cereta.livejournal.com]

I was "Becky" until 18, and wanted to ditch it for Rebecca in high school, only to be thwarted by too many people from my grade school.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I was thwarted by myself. I can use Debra online all I want, and put it on name badges, but introductions?

"Hi. I'm Debbie."

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Is that "Northanger Abbey"?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Yes! I'm reading it off Gutenberg at work.

Because I are bored.

[elance.livejournal.com]

I think I haven't altered my name -- other people have altered it for me throughout my life.

I like being called Elizabeth just fine. I deeply dislike any obvious variation on that (Liz, Beth, etc.) For most of my life my parents called me 'Lil'. (Short for my childhood nickname of 'Bilbo Baggins' because I loved The Hobbit.)

And now my friends (I don't actually have anyone I'd consider an RL friend who I don't know on LJ too) know me as 'E' while everyone else, coworkers, etc, call me Elizabeth.

'E' of course came from 'elance' rather than Elizabeth. :)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth is a beautiful name, but it does breed nicknames. Good thing about moving away to a new place is that no one knows you were ever called anything else.

It's why, after decades of being "Bunny", my mother chose to be "Bernice" when she started working.

[mari4212.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm the exception that proves the rule. I never wanted to go by a nick-name at that age. I only go by Mari online now because too many people found it annoying to type out my full name.

Of course, most nick-names for Margaret filled me with shuddering horror, especially the ones my classmates were fondest of.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I don't really want to ask. On the other hand, Margeret is definitely one of those names (although I do find it interesting how Ms mutated to Ps.)

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

Heh.

There's not really a good nickname to be made from "Laura". I know a few Lauras who go by Laurie, but that's about it. I never did have a widely-used nickname.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I think I was Debbie from the moment my folks settled on a name. And, other than the irritating spelling when I was a teen-ager (as if spelling my *last* name wasn't also a continual pain), the first real nickname I've had since is, well, "Mama."

[cyprinella]

I was "Sarha" for about three years spanning 13-16ish. I moved to a rural school district where there was already a "sara" and a "sarah" in my grade so I felt I needed to give people a reason to spell my name wrong.

If I had been smart, I would have started going by my middle name freshman year of college because I like it so much better.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Miss Manners did say that the time to choose name changes is at transition points such as moving or changing schools or jobs.

But that will never work so long as most people know you by your old name.

Now, I had up to seven other girls with my name all through school, so it's just something I'm used to.

There's a reason why "Debbie" is now a middle-aged lady name. *sigh*

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

Let's see...

Katie until age 10
Catherine from 10-12
Cathy from 12-13
Cat or Cath from 13-15
Catherine again thereafter, although I still answer to Cat or Cath...

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

What? Never Kitty? :)

Yeah, it must be fun having a name like that. I get...Debra. Debbie. Deb.

And have the same name as every other women my age. Or it seems like that.

Actually, my folks did that on purpose. We had a very unusual last name, so they balanced that by giving us popular first names. And now I have a very common last name, too.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

Never Kitty and never Kate. Or Cate, which is far cooler. I did get to be Caterina for my Italian grandparents, of course.

My parents deliberately chose a name that translates well into lots of foreign languages. I was one of twelve Catherine/Katherine/Kathryn/Cathryn (etc)s in my year at school which became somewhat wearing.

Of course, now I have a scottish surname that has about 8 common spellings too, the odds of anyone ever spelling my name correctly first time are appallingly low!

[bookworm1212.livejournal.com]

My name has been the same my whole life, with the occasional nickname thrown in by close friends/family.

My brother generally went by his English name until about age 20, but then told us all we can only call him by his Hebrew name.

He confided in me that his rationale was not that he was going all super-religious and rejecting his English name. Rather, in highschool his friends called him "Spanky" (of all things). When he went to study in Israel post-HS, it was with a lot of his old HS friends, so they called him "Spanky" there too. He decided enough was enough when his RABBIs started calling him Spanky, and he realized the only way to make it stop was by insisting that everyone call him by his Hebrew name.