View Message

I've done that! I knew a Margaret Jean who didn't feel like a Margaret so changed to Megan in high school, but didn't totally identify with that either, so by the time I met her she'd become a happy Jean.

---

Everyone took it pretty calmly as far as I know. She never mentioned a problem.

I think Megan would surprise people a little more as a nickname for Margaret than Meg would. At least in my area, Peg / Peggy seems to be the more common nickname for older Margarets. So Meg might make more "sense" to people.

---

Also, I absolutely love Margaret nicknamed Meg :-)

I would think it was weird, even WITH the history it has. Why not just name her Megan? It's a name in its own right.

I'd think - it's a nickname, yeah, and it's suitable for a Margaret, but it's not really "for Margaret." I would say that she is Margaret but she goes by Megan. To me a nickname "for" a longer name is something you naturally switch to when using the long name doesn't seem familiar enough. Margie or Greta is what I would call a nickname for Margaret. Megan is a nickname Margaret can go by, like Betsy for Elizabeth.

---

But I wouldn't have that reaction "oh you really wanted her name to be Megan but that wasn't glam enough so you named her Margaret and called her Megan so you could have your cake, and eat it too," the way I would if you told me she was, say, Susannah nicknamed Suri or Penelope nicknamed Poppy.

I don't like Megan at all in the first place, and in the US, it's never been considered a nickname for Margaret. A variation, yes, but not a nn. If I met somebody who said she was called Megan, short for Margaret, I'd inwardly roll my eyes and think "Whatever you say, honey." And maybe think the parents had second thoughts about the granny-ish Margaret and were compensating with a more current variation that they had to call a nn because it was too late to change the official name. Or more likely, I'd think the Megan herself had done that. The way I imagine a teenage girl whose real first name was the old-fashioned Janet might insist on being called the more contemporary Jenna.

I think it's fine to call her Megan as a nickname for Margaret because according to this site Megan is a Welsh diminutive for Margaret and according to Merriam-Webster a diminutive is an "informal form of a name" which is basically a nickname. And now I'm thinking that Megan is too nick-namey to be a name in its own right. And I find it incredibly annoying that a lot of people think that Megan is her full name. One should hear Meg and think Margaret, not Megan. But even more annoying is that they would call her Megan. And they're "surprised" to learn that Meg is short for Margaret? ANNOYING.

---

But personally, I'd stick with Meg. It's not recently-trendy-but-now-losing-popularity the way that Megan is.

Not that it answers your question, however, I had both an Aunt Margaret,and a Cousin Margaret. (the cousin being named for the aunt.)
They were both always called Margaret, no short forms or nicks.

---

I use to call my cousin, "Cousin Margaret" to her face, so to speak;she was a generation older than me, and it was, I guess, thought disrespectful to just first-name her.
Sounds Edwardian, doesn't it? (I am older, but not that old!)

---

Oddly, her brother, who had a surname for a first name, was always called "Bud", and that's what I called him. He was a hunting, fishing kind of guy.

Margaret is one of those names where I don't question any of the nicknames I hear. Kind of like Elizabeth. I would never assume a Megan was a Margaret, it just wouldn't surprise me. There are too many recognized nicknames for names like that to remember them all.

---

I mean I know 6 Margarets. They all have different nicknames (Maggie, Daisy, Greta, Marge, Maisie and Meg). So I say if you like using both Meg and Megan, go for it!

I like Megan. :) If you called her Megan, though, I think people would assume it's her first name. Not that it matters.

---

In school, I wonder if the teacher with Margaret on her role might assume Megan went by her middle name? Since most people don't realize the connection. But that would only matter on the first day. :)