I love the name Allegra for this baby but not really keen on Ally as a nickanme... maybe it will grow on me too!
With DD (Alyssa), I was very clear that it wasn't going to be shortened to Ally as I didn't like that name. So she is Lys, or Lyssa. DS (Bailey) has so far avoided a shortening, although I know my dad was joking about calling him BJ (middle name James) but I think he was trying to be funny because of the rude connatations (yes, he's still not grown up )

We didn't choose either with shortening or not shortening in mind. My own first name is Samantha-Ann, and the -Ann was added as they didn't want it shortening to Sam, something to do with one of the Auntie's mentioning she used to have a dog called Sam. I was Sammy Jo until Uni, when I made the choice to be Sam.