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Help[Opinions] Re: Billy
in reply to a message by Belphoebe
Like William, love Will, hate Billy. (I also hate Willie FWIW).
Bill was the ubiquitous nickname for William for those Williams born in my generation. Every William was a Bill and most of them had been called Billy as a child. (I personally didn't know anyone who didn't switch from Billy to Bill upon reaching puberty, though I'm sure there were some.) Maybe that's why I can't stand it. My son's name is William nn Will. My sisters knew that my husband and I planned on naming a son, if we had one, William, and they told me that if I called him Billy they wouldn't be able to stand it.
As far as Billy working as nickname for Benjamin, I think people forget what "nickname" really means. I know it isn't used this way on the board, and I go along with that, but technically a nickname is a name used verbally which has no relation at all to the true name on the birth certificate. As in my father, named Joseph but called Bud. Or my SO, named Kenneth but called Buster. My stepbrother, named Harry but called Hutch. What we call nicknames are really diminutives.
So you can use any nickname you want! It doesn't have to "work".
No, I would never put a nickname or pet form or diminutive on a birth certificate.
Bill was the ubiquitous nickname for William for those Williams born in my generation. Every William was a Bill and most of them had been called Billy as a child. (I personally didn't know anyone who didn't switch from Billy to Bill upon reaching puberty, though I'm sure there were some.) Maybe that's why I can't stand it. My son's name is William nn Will. My sisters knew that my husband and I planned on naming a son, if we had one, William, and they told me that if I called him Billy they wouldn't be able to stand it.
As far as Billy working as nickname for Benjamin, I think people forget what "nickname" really means. I know it isn't used this way on the board, and I go along with that, but technically a nickname is a name used verbally which has no relation at all to the true name on the birth certificate. As in my father, named Joseph but called Bud. Or my SO, named Kenneth but called Buster. My stepbrother, named Harry but called Hutch. What we call nicknames are really diminutives.
So you can use any nickname you want! It doesn't have to "work".
No, I would never put a nickname or pet form or diminutive on a birth certificate.
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