<p>Sorry if this question is stupid :( My name is Emily and it's super common and it really bugs me. When I get to college next year, I'm thinking of introducing myself as Em instead. My family calls me Em most of the time, but my friends back home practically never do. Maybe I'm just over thinking it haha, but what if someone looks on my facebook page and sees that everyone's calling me Emily? I just really don't to make a presumptuous first impression. Have any of you ever done this name-swap/know about someone else who has? Thankss</p>
<p>It’s not weird in that situation. Em is a common nickname for Emily. It’s like if someone named Michael introduced themselves as Mike. When I read your post I thought it was gonna be like “Hey, my name is Chris. But you can call me The Intensity.”</p>
<p>Haha it’s fine. I have a really good friend named Elizabeth but everyone knows her as Liz (she’s Liz at college). Everyone back home calls her Beth (she’s Beth at home and to high school friends… but she hates the name Beth). Really no one cares. People realize that sometimes people just change and grow to like something else. (Although it does throw us off guard when we visit her house and people call her “Beth”. You obviously wouldn’t have that issue as people call you Em back home.)</p>
<p>Just relax and be Em :).</p>
<p>Many of my professors would ask students on the first day of class whether they had a nickname they preferred to be called. Classmates don’t usually ask that of each other, but if you’re introducing yourself you could just say that you’re “Em” instead of “Emily.” It’s not strange. I knew a Katelyn that HATED to be called Katie, and demanded to be called Kate instead. Another preferred only being called Caitlyn, and not Cait or Catie. So it’s not uncommon to let friends know what you want to be called.</p>
<p>Nope, a lot of people use abbreviations. As long as it’s not something weird (I like the “Chris to Intensity” example), people won’t think twice about it.</p>
<p>Just introduce yourself as Em. You’ll be fine.</p>
<p>that randomly reminds me of ‘M’ from James Bond.</p>
<p>I think the only way it would be pretentious or unnatural is if you start correcting people if they do happen to call you Emily…I knew an Andrew who tried really hard to switch to ‘Drew’ and would angrily correct everybody…it’s like, what’s the big deal? I’m not really sensitive about what people call me though, so maybe I just don’t get it.</p>
<p>“M.L.E.”</p>
<p>You can use that Em lol</p>
<p>irish- I will say something on that point. Kind of (little bit different situation- I don’t try to change my name, everyone else does). My name is Kate. Not Katie, not Katelyn, not Katherine. My name is Kate. That’s what it says on my birth certificate and it’s what I go by. I do correct people all the time when they call me other things because it’s not my name. And it bugs me. I don’t get angry- that’s too far- but when you constantly have people screwing up your name, it does get very aggravating.</p>
<p>People mispronounce birth name and misspell my American name so much that I no longer care what people call me. When people ask me how I say my birth name, I just tell them you’re saying it right, even though nobody in the USA knows how to say it right, except for my fellow countrymen.</p>
<p>As long as your nickname is a derivative of your real name, nobody will care. If you were going by something completely different it might be smart to explain to avoid the facebook confusion you mention.</p>
<p>I have a very uncommon name and people do make up their own variations; when it is a stranger it is annoying but I usually take it in stride. When it is a friend doing it on purpose I take it as a sign of affection…that’s just me.</p>
<p>My name’s Ryan, so you can’t really make a nickname out of that. Some girls call me ryry, some dudes call me rhino (from back in the xbox days, used to be my gamertag). But just shortening from Emily to Em wouldn’t be weird. I know this girl Emily and different people call her different things, it’s not weird at all.</p>