Hypothetical name question

To be honest, I'd never pick Tess as a nickname for Celeste or Esther! But like others have said, nn's don't necessarily have to have a connection.

With one of my children, we chose a name based on a nn we liked, and have never even used it! Once born, we chose a different nickname that isn't really obvious from her name.

The Celeste I know through work, goes by Cell or Celly (Selly).

I think a C middle name could easily allow the CC nickname.

I love both names (it sounds like you have similar taste, as those were our parameters too) and both nicknames for Celeste.

However, as we found with DD2, the kids at school will have very different ideas to you about what her nickname should be, and that'll be how she eventually sees herself. In our case, the corresponding names we always used would be Tess/Tessie, but the kids call her the equivalent of Celly, which I don't love. She likes it, though.

But eh, it's her name and her identity, not mine. I guess.