This week, Appellation Mountain’s Abby Sandel finds boys’ names that are anything but traditional, and wonders if nickname-free is the new priority when naming a son.

Flip through on an old high school yearbook, and you’ll probably find pictures of William “Billy” Jones and Mary “Mimi” Smith.

For generations, there was the name your parents chose, and then there was the name you actually used.

Some names were outgrown, of course.  Others held on long after you’d expect them to fade.  My great-uncle Flash was once a high school track star, but even as a portly gentleman in his 60s, he still answered to his nickname.

Of course, Billy and Mimi and Flash grew up in an era when lots of kids shared the same names, sometimes in the same family.  Flash was really Anthony, as were a few of his cousins.  Mimi is one of three Marys on her yearbook page alone.

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This question of the week was inspired by a Berry who wrote in telling us of a friend whose daughter Imogen was called the unexpected Idgie. Wasn’t that, she asked, the cutest nickname ever?

Definitely! we agreed.  At least it’s one of them!

What’s the cutest nickname you’ve ever heard?  Maybe it’s one you came up with on your own, maybe it was invented by an older sibling or by your child himself.  It might have been by design, or it might have come about by accident.

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Vintage names have been cool for a while now, but old school nicknames are just starting to come into their own.

The Brits have led the way on the revival of the retro nickname, with their fashionable little Alfies and Evies, Freddys and Teddys — though Teddy just might be a girl.

Especially fresh on this side of the pond are the old school nicknames for boys: We’ve long loved Ned and Joe and Hank, but we are newly fond of such choices as Ray and Hal, Walt and Monty.

For girls, names that are just beginning to awake from a long slumber sound especially fetching: Dottie, Betty, Lou.

Using one of these new old nicknames for your child can be a way to give a fresh spin to a classic name, to distinguish a little girl from her namesake grandma, or to set your Henry apart from the five others on the block.

Here, a roundup of classic and vintage names and their old school nicknames.

girls

Adelaide or Adeline– Addie

Beatrice or Beatrix – Bea or Trixie

Charlotte — Lottie

Dorothea or Dorothy — Dory or Dottie

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You do your best (Of course you do!  You’re here!!) to give your child a name that’s elegant, enlightened, perhaps even nickname-proof.

And then — maybe from older siblings, from nursery school friends, maybe even from you! — your child ends up with another, unexpected nickname.

Owie Bear.  Jojo.  Remster.  And most distressing, for my own three kids: Ro, Joe, and O.  Whoa!

Maybe the nickname is cute, maybe it’s horrifying, but in any case it was unplanned.

What do you call your child that you never expected to?  What nicknames have they taken on, from the outside world or inside the family nest?  What about your own unexpected nicknames and those of your siblings? What are those unexpected nicknames, and where did they come from?

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How do you tell when popular names get too popular?

If a name is in the Top 10, it might be easy, but what if they’re further down the list….and how far is far enough? Judging popular names gets even more difficult when they’re short forms, maybe not so popular at all on their own.

Just how ubiquitous is Lily?, an expectant mom asked recently on our forums. Lily as itself is Number 17 on the official popularity list; up there, for sure, but there are only a third as many Lilys as there are girls who get the number one Isabella. So is Lily really one of those names you’re going to hear coming and going?

Sadly, the answer may be yes, and here’s why.

Lily, along with a handful of other nickname names, is not only popular on its own, but it’s used as a short form for several other popular names: Lillian, Liliana, and so on. The result: Many more Lilys than you might guess.

This phenomenon can be applied to names with many spelling variations: Leila or Michaela or Mackenzie in their rainbow of flavors. But today’s focus is on nicknames gone wild. Sure, these are adorable, but they all come with a warning label: rampant popularity ahead.

Addie – Addie is sweet and old-fashioned and even fresh-feeling, a followup to the now-overused Abby. But Addie is coming up fast thanks to a host of newly-popular mother names, from the trendy Addison to cool classics Adeline and Adelaide, often chosen specifically because they come with cute short form Addie.

Alex – Alex may be the unisex nickname name of the decade, not only a Top 100 name on its own for boys for a short form for boys’ Number 6 Alexander along with a huge contingent of popular girls’ names: Alexis, Alexa, Alexandra et al.

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