hey Laurie... well i agree with Beth C... so long as you continue and he wants it, then he will be Samuel... my oldest is Jenni (after a German song) and people still call her Jennifer... my middle name is Beth and it is what i prefer for many reasons... but for years I was Valerie (my first name)..and growing up I hated "Val" but that didnt matter... people think they are being close to you by re-naming you.
I think, Laurie, the important thing is to over his lifetime... keep reminding him why is Samuel... do a layout about it, do seven layouts....surround him with this knowledge... i have a "Mary" because of the verse Luke 1:45... i was pregnant with Mary after a miscarriage... and for the past 18 years I have told her reg. why she was named Mary, and how I prayed for her during that pregnancy... and what I prayed for... her whole life, mission, spouse, her character, her passion for God...

check her out she is cool
http://www.scrapbook-bytes.com/galle...0&ppuser=37040

people have given her nicknames over the years (yes even with a simple name like Mary... go figure) and she has always reminded people what her name is...
more importantly I hope she remembers in part because of her name, that she has been committed (like samuel was...both yours and Hannah's Samuel) to the Lord

so I think probably I should go do a layout about all of their names... good idea you gave me

smiles... people can be dumb... we just keep on lovin'

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Beth
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I have had this problem with myself growing up. My name is Trisha, but people insist on calling me Patricia and I've had a few call me patty, under the assumption that my name is Patricia. Just keep at it is the only advice I have!

We have shortened 2 of our kid's names. Alexander is Alex and AZachary is Zach (Ryan is just Ryan, lol). The problem we have now is getting Zach to introduce himself as Zach, or Zachary, and not Zachy. Zachy is the name Ryan used to call him when they were babies (and Zach used to call Ryan Ryry).

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Well I wish I could help, but I lost this battle. LOL My son is Nicholas, which is what I've always wanted him called. But of course over the years it's automatically been shortened to Nick. I've pretty much always called him Nicholas or Nico (our personal nn for him). Now that he's 11 though, he WANTS to just be called Nick, he won't hardly answer to Nicholas anymore.

With Olivia, that's what I try to call her, but she does get called Livvie a lot.

I know it can be done, when I worked at the daycare a billion years ago, we had 3 Christophers, you weren't to call any of them Chris, they wouldn't even answer if you did. We also had a Thomas, a Samantha and a Walter, none of who went by nn's.

Just stick with your guns. BTW, I LOVE the name Samuel, we would seriously consider using it if we ever had another boy.

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Lovely name - I agree, keep correcting people until it sinks in. Will you mind if he wants to be called Sam later on? I know Samuel has a special meaning (love it, btw - great choice) but that will still be his given, legal name, even if he chooses not to go by it. That's what I had to tell myself when my eldest dd started wanting people to call her "Cat". We call her by her full name at home (pronounced like Catherine, just spelt differently - don't get me started on peoples pronounciation btw!!) but she gets a wide variety of nicknames, always has. After her, I made sure that I liked the nicknames of the others I chose. My 15yo was called Becca more or less from Day 1. None of us like "Becky" too much - doesn't suit her at all, but people for some reason don't try it, since we've already gone straight to Becca? Same deal with Jamie (who I don't think even knows his full name is James!) and there's not much you can shorten Anna too. No one's tried Annie yet. Just let them try.. LOL!

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Donna
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My name is Angel and to this day I still have people calling me Angela or Angie even Angle sometimes. Or when people start spelling it they spell it Angle and I'm thinking "How is Angel hard to spell?" And when people ask how to spell it I'm like just like you spell Angel, it's exactly the same. I always hated my name growing up because of this fact, but now I am glad I have the name that I do (this was my grandma's maiden name, but hers was spelled Angell, pronounced the same, had my parents known this is how it was spelled, it would've been spelled that way, which that I am glad it's not). Now at least I like my name, just don't like that people never think that is my name. So when I got pregnant with Austin, my husband & I decided that we wanted something easy...easy to spell, pronounce, couldn't be shorted etc. So even though you hear Austin everywhere I'm glad we picked that name (and hopefully he won't have to go through what I did and still do). Although I have had some people ask me how to spell it because they said there are some others who spell it differently.

I have to say, probably not. My husbands name is Jonathan, and he goes by....Jonathan. Most people call him that, occasionally some one will ask if he goes by Jon, he says no, they say, can I call you Jon, he says no - and they call him Jonathan. Then there are the ones who take it upon themselves to shorten it - without asking, and in 8 years I've not found a way to get those people to stop. And at this point I think it bothers me more than him...and really confuses our kids

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Lucrecia

Laurie - I think there really are people who have a habit of shortening names. However, I personally think that the story of why you named your son Samuel is so beautiful, people wouldn't mind hearing about it. And THEN you'll be surprised that they'll remember to call him Samuel instead of Sam or Sammy.

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Rona
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awww- thanks for all of the stories and encouragement guys! Great advice here
We will definitely keep reminding him (and others too- thanks Rona) why we named him Samuel- and yes Bethie I've been meaning to do a LO about that. I really hope that he wants to be called Samuel when he gets older too.

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