So that "he will have a formal name to fall back upon". I'm sure that many parents actually think that
Jack is a nn for
Jackson. B/c "how do you get
Jack out of
John", they say. Don't people know any history? Have they not heard of president
John F.
Kennedy, aka
Jack?
Seems to me that many people have very rigid rules of what a nn is. It *must* be a short form of the formal name (like
Sam for
Samuel or
Samantha).
"But it’s all right now.
I learned my lesson well.
You see you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself."
Rick Nelson,
Garden Party
"It does not become me to make myself smaller than I am." (
Edith Södergran 1891-1923)