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GIRLY NAMES WITH TOMBOY NICKNAMES

spunky A Nameberry visitor commented recently that she loved ultra-feminine proper names with tomboyish nicknames. That’s a sentiment we echo.

If you’re torn between girls’ names with a conventionally female image and ones that sound more androgynous, these choices have it all. They give you (and your daughter) the choice between going totally girly and sidestepping conventional gender identity, at least when it comes to your name.

Some very feminine names with tomboyish nicknames are:

Alexandra – Alex

Allegra — Al

Antonia — Toni

Araminta or Arabella — Ari

Augusta — Gus

Aurora – Rory

Bernadette — Bernie

Camilla — Cam

Catherine — Cat

Charlotte – Charlie

Christiana — Chris

Clementine — Clem

Cordelia — Cory

Daniella – Dani

Francesca – Frankie

Frederica – Freddi

Georgia – Geo

Harriet – Harri

Henrietta — Hank

Isabella — Izzy

Jessamine – Jessie

Josephine or Joanna – Jo

Julia, Juliet or Juliana – Jules

Lavinia — Vinni

Leonora – Leo

Louisa – Lou

Martina – Marti

Matilda – Matti

Maxine – Max

Melania – Mel

Michaela/Mikayla – Micki or Mike

Natalie – Nat

Natasha — Sasha

Nicole – Nicki

Philippa – Flip

Rosemary – Romy

Samantha – Sam

Stephanie – Stevie

Theodora – Teddi

Veronica – Ronni

Victoria – Vic or Tori

Tags: boyish names for girls, boyish nicknames, feminine names, girly names, tomboy names, tomboy nicknames, ultra-feminine names

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 12:11 am and is filed under gender and names, girls' names, name and identity, nicknames, pet names . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

22 Responses to “GIRLY NAMES WITH TOMBOY NICKNAMES”

Velvet Cyberpunk Says:

June 12th, 2009 at 4:32 am

How could you forget Teresa- Teri? What’s with always ignoring Teresa??

belatrix Says:

June 12th, 2009 at 5:06 am

Word of warning on this trend: I’m a Julia who is admittedly not particularly girly. Unfortunately, this leads people to tend to call me “Jules”. I hate being called Jules. It lends itself to thoughts of British chauffeurs, likes Giles and Jeeves. I’d prefer to be called by my name but my personality just forces people’s minds to go with Jules for some reason. I hate it so much I started to go by Claire. A girl’s name with no nicknames! Take that, Jules!

pam Says:

June 12th, 2009 at 6:51 am

There were several older and more obvious girly names with tomboy nicknames I didn’t include, like Teresa/Teri and Geraldine/Gerri and Jessica/Jessie. With many of these lists, you just have to draw the line somewhere or they’d get too unwieldy.

Stella Says:

June 12th, 2009 at 8:00 am

I definitely enjoyed this list. Aurora has always been high on my list for its namesake value (my grandmother’s name) and for having a cute nickname like Rory. Aurora can be hard to pronounce sometimes, so a nickname would definitely crop up!

realpraise Says:

June 12th, 2009 at 10:06 am

Just plain Matt would work for Matilda, too! I love Clementine – Clem. Great list! Jack works for Jacqueline.

tikicatt Says:

June 12th, 2009 at 11:20 am

Cute list. I was a serious tomboy with a girly name with girly nicknames – Sara. With Sadie and Sally as the nick choices? No way! Lived thru it. My fav senior couple at church are Pat and Leslie. Leslie is the male. I giggle at all the people who don’t figure out the who is whom. You do see lots of seniors that both have the male names. Dick and Tommie, Billie and Bob – it cracks me up as a name lover!

marikm Says:

June 12th, 2009 at 11:35 am

Gus as a nickname for Augusta? Gus I strongly dislike for a guy or a girl. I appreciate tomboy nicknames, but not when they sound like your local gas station attendant. How about Augie? Much cuter!
I feel the same way about Hank… what about just plain Henri/y? Not that I particularly like that either…
I love Ari, Clem, Jules, and Charlie – and my very my favorite is Romy!
Oh, and for Alex, which is my sister’s nickname, Alexi is another option that keeps it masculine.

Samantha Says:

June 12th, 2009 at 12:52 pm

My parents adored this trend; they loved that we had feminine full names but masculine nicknames so we could go by them if we ever needed to. My sisters and I are Sam (Samantha), Jack (Jacqueline), and Alex (Alexandria)! Mattie for Matilda and Rory for Aurora are on my personal list.

Ashton Says:

June 12th, 2009 at 7:14 pm

What about Rett as a nickname for Henrietta?

Olivia Says:

June 12th, 2009 at 7:36 pm

While my name – Olivia – is completely overused and disgustingly popular these days, I sure thought it would make this list. It’s one of the frilliest names I can think of and “Ollie” is one of the most tomboyish names I can think of. Granted, I hate being called Ollie, but that’s irrelevant.

susan Says:

June 12th, 2009 at 11:47 pm

Love this blog! Faves are Alexandra/Alex, Aurora/Rory, Antonia/Toni, and Rosemary/Romy. Wish I’d seen this list when I was pregnant with my daughter.

Maddy Says:

June 13th, 2009 at 11:34 am

One of my favorites which isn’t up there is Jacqueline-Jack

Gigi Says:

June 14th, 2009 at 5:41 pm

My friend Jacinta goes by Joey

remy Says:

June 16th, 2009 at 10:28 am

What’s wrong with your friendly local gas station attendant?