Well, she did name him
Nathan and
not Nate, with the clear intention of only calling him by his full name so I sort of get where she's coming from... but how are other people to know that until she tells them? I mean, come on, she had to have expected it.
And really, I don't think it's right to go flying off the handle that way. What other people call him is personal between them and the child, not her.
My brothern
Cristian's nn is "Church" and at first that really pissed my mom off but she got over it. There's no way to stop it unless she tracks down every last person that knows him and tells him, "Hey, I'm his mommy and I don't like it when you call him that."
He's 19 in a few months. Little
Nathan is going to grow up and he'll want to choose what to be called. What if
he likes the nn
Nate? She can still call him
Nathan to her heart's content, but
Nathan, in the end, is going to be the only one allowing people to call him what they do.
And no, to answer your question in a few words,
Nate is not really that bad.
I had a friend named
Nate. It's nice, and it suited him better than
Nathan.