I think I have called my daughter by her actual name less than twenty times in her entire (albeit so far brief) life.

I have a couple of nicknames, with one in particular being heavily used, and it isn’t a play on her name at all.

This is partly because I realize that the name we chose for her does not really fit her at all.  That is something I have no idea how to fix, and I blame my husband because I wanted to name her something that would have TOTALLY fit her personality but he vetoed it for NO GOOD REASON.  He says we can change her name and she would never know the difference, but that just seems wrong.

The problem is that when her relatives call her by her name and she doesn’t respond, they tend to get a worried look on their faces.   They ask me if she has a hearing problem, and does she always ignore people like that?  Well, yes she actually does ignore people like that, but it has nothing to do with her hearing.

I never really called the Munchkin by his real name either, though, and he seems to know what his name is.

Most of the time.