It depends on the nn. Some of them just don't seem substantial on their own so I think they need the full formal name to back them up. Imo, some examples of this are:
Katie,
Jenny,
Annie,
Minnie,
Allie, etc.
Some nns I think have been used so much over the years that they don't really need the formal name anymore to back them up. Imo, some examples of this are:
Jack,
Kate,
Lucy,
Nora,
Ella, etc.
Some of my favorite names that I'd use a nn for are:
Amarantha "
Ama"
Lucy - but I would probably name her
Lucienne "
Lucie" or
Lucia in which case I don't even think I'd call her
Lucy but maybe
LuceNadezhda "
Nadya"
Andromeda "
Andy"
Rosalind "
Lindy" - I honestly don't know why, I just think a nice, endearing nn to be used really only by family members. Other nns I'd consider for
Rosalind would be
Rosa (my great-grandmother's given name) or
Rosie.
Wilhelmina "
Minnie" or "
Willa" - this one is randomly starting to grow on me a lot lately
This message was edited 2/20/2010, 10:51 PM