the confusion I am feeling is in the concept of nicknames.
I think most posters here have are using the concept of "nickname" as "shortened form of the name that all your friends call you and that you go by and it takes the place of your full name and people get kind of surprised to learn what your full name is."
I am thinking of it as "a way to refer to people sometimes when you like them and are having fun saying their name in different ways."
In my experience, nicknames in the first example are basically totally dictated by the parents, and if they're changed later, it's an act of mild rebellion. I think in our culture, parents can totally say whether their kid goes by
Adelaide or
Addie. But wtf, I would sometimes call her
Addie for fun!
eta: The terminology I would have expected would be "go by" rather than "nickname."
This message was edited 7/29/2018, 10:39 AM