Hi Jennifer!
I’m pregnant and my husband and I were thinking of naming our child Taylor. (We don’t know the gender yet) Are there any cute nicknames for the name Taylor and could Taylor be short for anything? Thanks!

Julia S.

Dear Julia,

I kinda flinched at Taylor, not because of the name–it’s a perfectly fine name–but because it has been way overused since it flashed onto the charts in the late 80’s. (Possibly because of Taylor Dayne, one of my favorite artists.) Taylor has been in the top 100 of birth names for girls since 1989, the year Taylor Swift was born! It feels a bit outdated to me at this point, but again if you love it, use it.

As for nicknames, I have heard TayTay, which is a bit infantile, in my opinion. Tay or Taye would work, as would just plain “T.”  Taylor is an occupational surname (last name) that was bestowed upon families where the father was literally a clothes tailor. Unless you extended the name to something like Taylora, it’s not normally identified as a nickname in itself.

Here are some alternatives to the name, though, just in case you want to rethink it:

Girls: Taya, Tessa, Tayla, Thea, Everly, Lyra, Tesla, Sloane

Boys: Baylor, Alistair, Alaric, Wilder, Kellan, Tobias, Tyler, Thatcher

Hope that helps! Let me know what you chose.

Sincerely,

Jennifer