How to keep people from abbreviating your child's name?

Question

We prefer to use my son's full name & not the abbreviation. (Ex. we prefer Stephen not Steve or Stevie) what is the best, most polite way to correct someone when they address my child using the abbreviation?

Answer 1

My 7yr old son's name is Steven and i absolutely hate the name Steve. I'm costantly correcting people. I usually rephrase the sentence people say. ex "Can Steve do____." and i'll say "Well, Steven can _____." I also label all his things and write notes using the name "Steven". Most people catch on once they realize that I never call my son a nickname. If they don't, I just simply say, "We prefer Steven instead of _____." It's not rude and people don't get offended. My son actually prefers to be called Steven over Steve and corrects people himself. I know though that he won't be Steven to everyone at school forever and in the future I'll have to deal with Steve or him being called by his last name. :\
Best wishes and good luck! =]

Answer 2

You've received a lot of great suggestions. Being polite is the best way to go to get what you want, so good call on that.

I hope you realize though that sweetness won't work with everybody, and you may have to accept a certain stubborn relative or two, or come up with a different tactic to get them to cooperate. I say this because I am GUILTY of abbreviating names myself. I HATE my niece's name... it's terrible. I can't call her by it - I use the shortened version. So for the bad relatives like me, (you probably have at least one), you will have a harder time.

:) Good luck!

Answer 3

Just tell people that you prefer Stephen, or you could just say his name after they say it incorrectly, like if someone says "how is Steve doing?" you could say "You mean Stephen. He's doing great.". It's polite and sooner or later people will get the idea. Also if your child is old enough you can teach him to correct people as well simply by him saying "My name is Stephen" or something like that when someone else calls him by a nick name. I use to watch a 7 year old named David and whenever someone tried to call him by a nick name he would just say "David! not Dave" or whatever they would call him.

Answer 4

If it's someone who he just sees occasionally, or will only be seeing once, I wouldn't even mention it.

If it's a regular person in his life, I would say "Actually, he prefers 'Stephen' these days" Or, "Actually, we prefer that he be called 'Stephen'"

If he's old enough to care, himself, though, I think he should be forming his own relationships with people and that may, whether you like it or not, include their own way of addressing each other, including nicknames. If he cares, he can say "I prefer to be called 'Stephen'" If he doesn't, then he can just let it go.

Answer 5

Just be straight and honest with them and tell them. "We prefer if you call him Stephen, not Steve." How old is your child

My mom did that with my aunt when she used a nick-name with me (when i was a baby) but now my entire family uses my nickname. Mom didn't want my aunt to use that nick name when i was a baby because she didn't want me to think the nick name was my full name)

I have a cousin named Steven (15) and a cousin named Samantha (12) I have never called Steven "Steve" as it doesn't really suit him at all. Yet I call my cousin Samantha "Sam" because it suits her - she is very much a tom-boy too.

Answer 6

When my son was young, we would just use his full name (which is Michael) and if people shortened it we would just say "we actually prefer Michael." Now he's old enough to correct them himself (he's 3), and he does on his own because he doesn't realize that Mike is short for Michael so he really thinks people are calling him by the wrong name (like calling him Steven instead of Michael) and he'll say "my name is Michael" and he'll draw out the 'Michael' a bit.

If it was just a casual stranger we don't really worry about it, but all of our friends and family know that he goes by Michael, not Mike or Mikey.

Answer 7

My dad's name is Stephen. His parents and family simply called him by his full name, no nicknames. So naturally when he went to school people tried to shorten it but he corrected them and said "My name is Stephen, not Steve."

He now goes by both out of convenience, but growing up my Grandma wouldn't hear of such a thing.

Answer 8

You can tell them to use Stephen but that does not mean they will all the time. My aunt wanted her son to be called Christopher and not Chris but eventually he was called Chris by everyone. I hate it when my mother calls my daughter Katiedid when her name is Katelyn but she does it anyway.
Good luck with the name!

Answer 9

Typically, people will follow your lead If some random person calls your son Steve. Is it really that big of a deal? Don't sweat the small stuff.

Answer 10

I made sure that when we told everyone our sons name that we used it the way we wanted it to be used. If someone shortened it or tried to use his initials I would quickly correct them and then they knew. I would simply say "we prefer to call him ____________." It is short and to the point and it's not rude.