Natalie, Melisa, and Allison became, inside the family, Nat, Missy and Ally.

And, of course, all three of us insist on being called by our full names.

With my kiddo, we discussed nicknames, but we’re trying to avoid or obtain. We named our son Griffin – and aside from making faces when someone calls him “Griff,” call him by his full name. Mostly, we call him “Buddy.”

I go by a name that has nothing to do with the name my parents gave me when I was born. I was never comfortable with my given name and always felt like people were talking to or about someone else. In my case, I was the first daughter and I had a pretty, feminine, oldest daughter name, but I wasn’t that sort of a girl. I often get odd looks from professors, doctors and employers for the discrepancy between my given name and the one by which I go. I get many awkward questions and in the end I really wish there had been some way to shorten or personalize my given name rather than going by another name entirely. There is also the trouble of being disrespectful to my parents who, a quarter century ago thought long and hard about what to name their baby girl.

So, when we considered names for our triplets and any future children, we considered the nicknames. Tobias Raffaele could be Tobias, Toby, Tory, Raffe or T.R. amongst friends but still have a proper name to put on his wedding invitations, while Claudia Emlyn could be Claudia, Emlyn, Emme, Lynn, Cloudy or Cece but her diploma would have a proper, more professional name on it.

I think it’s good to provide options, if only because we never really know who our kids will to turn out to be.

I am Jessica and went by Jessie as a child. At some point I dropped it and now only my husband or old friends / family know me as Jessie. I go by Jess for a lot of people. My brother called me Sooka (Jessooka) and that stuck.

I have Parker (a girl) She has already been called “Parkie” and “PeeGee” (after her initials P & G) by her friends and teachers. Gotta admit, I am not thrilled with Parkie. We call her P-Liddy on occasion (Parker Lindsay).

My one year old is Paige. She has been regularly called “Paigie” and “GiGi.”

My grandmother was raised in a southern household that gave all the children pet names and they were never called by their “Christian” names. The three sisters were called: Wee, Tad & Sis.

In my opinion, names that can be shortened are just names that can be shortened, not nicknames. That is why I do not favor them, and intentionally named my children names that cannot be shortened (Summer and Eli.)

However, I do know people who were named typically shortened names such as James and Thomas, who have successfully kept the full version of their names in tact. It took a lot of diligence by their parents to make sure no one was calling James “Jimmy” and Thomas “Tommy”, but their hard work paid off and their children have always only been known by their full names. Kudos to them.

My 10-month-old daughter Elizabeth goes by Liz…..or Lizard. I think I call her Lizard more often than I call her Liz! I’ve caught myself singing the “Lizard is a Grumpy Butt” song a few times in Target and getting some strange looks.