I went by Chris until I got married. At that point, I was Christin because I was going into banking and Christin sounded so much better with my new last name. Seriously. The only people who still call me Chris are my family and those AOIIs who've called me that for years. DH only calls me Christin when I'm in trouble
Talking about adjusting to a new name, I really think this one is a sorority phenomenon, because I've seen it in various places in the US. A sorority sister gets married and becomes Chris Smith. But her sorority sisters will still call her by her maiden name of Chris Jones, or will refer to her as Chris Jones Smith. You've got to move really far away to drop that maiden name
Two of our boys have names that can't be 'nicknamed.' The other is Nicholas, we were calling him Nicky before he was born! As soon as he hit 2nd grade, he informed us he was Nick and NOT Nicky any more. Yikes
Christin