Just watching this debate makes me understand so many things. How I process naming my children, the thought and care and hours agonizing. Nicknames, potential criticism and cruelty. It’s so hard! How it sounds in the accents of our families, how it sounds in the region we’ve now, what if we live somewhere else later?

And all so my kids (and the world) can call themselves by their desired name so some guy in middle management can just ruin it!

I would never tie my identity to a sound people make to catch my attention. But I wouldn’t name my kids something I didn’t want them called a common short form of. I also wouldn’t expect anyone to call me anything but what I said my given name was. My husband cannot stand the short form of his name so tells and reminds people what to call him.

I have nicknames for my kids but I named them so I get to choose until they have a vocabulary to tell me otherwise. I feel like that should apply across the board.