Prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet

[venta]

Fancy celebrating St Patrick's night tomorrow ?
The Far From the Madding Crowd has folk dancing (bad luck, it's us), music, possibly singing, monks to bless the beer, and all manner of goodness.


Yup, it's going the rounds, but I thought it might be of interest to some.

If you call me:

Venta you probably only know me from here.
Liz you're probably someone I've met in the last ten years, or who knows me from the Scout troop I belong to.
Beth you're someone I went to school with, or who was in the church choir with me.
Elizabeth you're probably someone I've met at some point. I tend to call myself Liz and Elizabeth reasonably interchangeably these days. Or you might just be cross with me.
Lizy you're RuthK, and where on earth have you been for the past twelve years ?
Lizzie/Lizzy you probably know me through rapper. I don't deliberately have a different name here, just it seems that's what people call me. Or you might have known me before I was about ten. Or you're a friend of Samantha's.
Bethaliz you're my Aunty Pat.
Blip you are Penny.
Spiv/Spivlet/Wizbit You're one of about four people I was at university with.
Morgause You used to play the same MUD as me when I was a student.
Silver You knew me online when I was a first year student.
Weebie You are family, or you're one of the few people who presumes it's OK to use my family nickname.

Have I missed any ?

Of these, I think only Elizabeth and its derivatives are in common use. Liz or Elizabeth for preference, please, though I answer to all of the above.

Am I odd in classifying some of those names as things it's OK for some people to call me, but not others ?

Comments

[triskellian]

Am I odd in classifying some of those names as things it's OK for some people to call me, but not others?
Nope. Especially with a name with so many short forms - you gotta draw the line somewhere, or you'll have people calling you really silly things which I'm not going to list in case they give people ideas ;-)

And it's only an extension of not wanting people who don't know you to abbreviate unless/until you give them permission (if only implicitly) to do it.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Of course, the other problem is that if I see "L Wootten" written somewhere, I genuinely don't register it as my name. Even when I'm calling myself Liz, my initial is still E. I got used to seeing "B Wootten" written on things at school, but it still looks wrong - and I'd probably assume it meant my Dad, anyway.

I accept this is very irrational, but I can't seem to shift it. Do you have the same problem ?

[triskellian]

I do, although not to the same extent as you, I'd imagine, because I've been almost exclusively Liz for years, so although I'd never write 'L Smith' for myself, a lot of people have done it for me.

I'm now trying to reclaim my full first name, because Liz sounds silly with the surname I'll be adopting, and I expect that will bring its own assortment of confusions - I'm aiming for being 'Liz' informally, but 'Elizabeth L--' in full-name-situations.

Damn the short form for having a different initial letter than the full version! I'm so envious of secretrebel :-(