No one else in the family has ever mentioned this, but I am curious what happens when we are all in the same room together -- will the not-hippo-side start using my other name so the baby can have the L name?

My grandmother had a niece named after her, and they just called them Big and Little [Name] if it was ever relevant. So that's fun!

I hate to say it because I do miss my family, but I am so not stressed about Christmas this year. Most of the gifts I usually buy for people and have to wrap have been shipped directly to their recipients from the website they were purchased from.

Yeah, honestly, I've been asking myself if I'm okay being by myself at Christmas this year, and I think I am? It's nice not having the burden of coordinating gifts as much and traveling cross-country. My gifts largely have been shipped to my parents' house and my mom will wrap them for me (for which I have apologized and said thank you). I'm planning to stay in my pajamas, eat what I want to eat, watch what I want to watch, and sleep like it's my job.

My family used Big K and Little K for that type of situation. It works for a dozen+ years before you have to figure something else out.

My family had Big Bill & Little Bill, Big Chris & Little Chris, Big Mike & Little Mike.

For further confusion, Little Bill was known to his friends as Jim, but known to the USArmy and USNavy as James.

Little Mike is now 52 years old. Little Chris is now 46 years old.

My father's second (and now third, long story) wife has the same first name as my mom, one spelled with an -i, one spelled with an -ie. When I was a kid they worked at the same place (an elementary school) so when I 'd call to talk to my mom, they'd say, "J LastName the teacher's aide?" and I'd go, "No, J LastName the Noon Duty."

My father's older brother was called by his middle name by our family, by his first name by his wife and by his last name by the rest of her family. My father - who had an odd name - was called "Jim" when he was in the Air Force and by a number of other people and by his initials by some of his co-worker/friends. Me? I go by my middle name - a family name which is also a man's name, so phone calls at work usually involve spending some time explaining that yes, that's my name - and spelling it - and yes, I'm a woman, so now can we get to why you called.

My family had Big Bill & Little Bill, Big Chris & Little Chris, Big Mike & Little Mike.

My mom's family has at least plurals of Michael, Kevin, Thomas, George, and even Ralph and Roger (though the Georges, Ralphs and Rogers are dead now). Same with my dad's family and William, Judy, and Connie (and "big" and "little" are used to distinguish the women, but not the Bills).

It feels like 50% of my husband's family is named "Anthony." He even has a sister named "Toni," who is married to another Anthony.

There are so many Anthonys, we call one "Jimmy." The problem is, Jimmy married a woman who was divorced from a Jim, and already had a son named Jimmy, so she calls our Jimmy "Tony." They've only been married for a few years, but when s-i-l talks about "Tony" to us, you can see our wheels turning until we figure out she means Jim. When she says, "Jimmy" she means her son. When she says, "Jim," she means her ex.

Oooh, interesting, Sparky1!

Empress Maria Theresa named all her daughters "Maria [middle name]". If it's good enough for the ruler of the Austro-Hungarian empire, why not for others?

I just found out that my niece has tested positive for COVID. She's in her mid-20s and reasonably healthy. I hope she'll come through it with no major complications.

I found out fairly late in life that my uncle Svetik went by Steve in the army and at his job. I didn't find out until his funeral that Svetik was a nickname for a longer name with only a few letters in common. And Babushka's second husband Arkady was called Mike out in the world, which I found out when I introduced him to my friend Mike at a holiday dinner and he said "oh, my name is Mike, too" and the whole family went "bwuh?"

Niece~ma, Calli