okay so for background i’m 24 year old woman. my name is pretty a basic, typical early 2000s name. most people say i don’t look like it. anytime someone says my name it pretty much feels wrong. the thing is, how tf do you tell people in your life you want to be called something else? and giving yourself your own nickname seems a little egotistical? i’m very tired of my name but also feel stuck with it.
how weird is it to start going by a nickname?
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Hi, my name’s James but you can call me “Jim”!
Hi, I’m Annabelle but you can call me “Annie”!
The same works if people insist on calling you a nickname that you don’t like i.e. My name is Jonathon. I don’t answer to Jon, don’t call me that
Nah, I started going by a nickname when I was about your age. I got a new job and just said call me (insert nickname here).
Embrace the name friend I know what yo going through but worse , named after a singer but then moved states , now live in a city same as my name …man them old heads get a kick out of it at work lol
Start by telling people your new name-then remind people-for a while -then correct people(for a while) then it sticks-this worked for me
Not quite the same, but I’m trans and have legally changed my name. People change their name all the time for tons of reasons. Nothing wrong with it.
Some people are going to be cool with it. More than you think, probably. Some people will get it with time. Some people are going to push back harder than necessary. Most of the time, “hey, it’s actually ____ now” suffices. But when it’s clear they’re doing it on purpose, I simply do not answer to people calling me the wrong name.
I did an email newsletter to let everyone important know what I was going by. I think that gave people a little time to prepare and come to terms with things in the privacy of their own spaces.
It’s your life and you can live it how you want to.
I did the reverse when I was 22. I started going by my full name. Just about everyone was cool and I had just started a new job, so it was a smooth transition. My father was the one hold out. He was infuriated that I wanted to go by Elizabeth (an example) instead of Lizzie and was an absolute asshole about it.
For all the new people, if they tried to shorten my name, I’d just politely say, “Actually, it’s Elizabeth”. For friends, I’d say that I really prefer Elizabeth because Lizzie makes me sound like I’m 12.
I can’t begin to tell you how many coworkers I have that are in the middle name club. And our email naming convention is FirstName.MiddleInitial.Last name. So they all handle it by saying that they prefer to go by their middle name and have something in their email signature line like John “Andrew” Smith.
Now you mentioned that you want to use a nickname that isn’t really from your formal first name. I’d just say “You can call me CeCe”.
Up until I was 23 years old, everyone in my life knew me by my middle name, cooper. Nickname was coop. First name was Joel, and I had never gone by that, ever, even in elementary school. I got really tired of people saying “my dog’s name is cooper!” Every time I made introductions.
Anyways, I moved to a new city right as I turned 23. Started going by JC. Started out a little weird, but 3 years later, it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.
I have friend who’s thirty and still goes by ‘Jay’ instead of his name (Johnson).
just introduce yourself to people as the new name. When somebody introduces themselves, I think “OK this is what they are called,” not “Well, I better get their ID so I can make sure that’s actually their first name.” If you feel like sometime mentioning “oh fun fact, my legal first name is actually ___” but I don’t see why you’d need to tell them that if you don’t want.
Tbh its only weird if you give it to yourself. Like this kid in high school tried getting us to call him flash but everyone started calling him gash instead
My family called me by my middle name. It never felt right I corrected teachers and everyone until junior high. After that, I introduced myself by my first name and never corrected anyone again. It feels weird to see someone from my “old life” and be called by my middle name.
It feels daunting and overwhelming to change your name, but for me, it felt right. I’m sure you will feel the same after a while.