A while ago in one of the comment sections, we had a discussion about names and nicknames. It was revealed that I hate, despise, loathe the most common nickname for my given name. In fact, I’m not all that crazy about my given name, but at least it’s tolerable and not stupid. Did I mention I detest the usual diminutive?
When I graduated from high school in my tiny hometown, I was determined to be called “nickname” no longer. So I laid down the law to my family and friends, and started correcting local shopkeepers who had known me my entire life by “nickname,” and was generally a pain in the ass about it to everyone. But it worked.
My Mom settled on just shortening my name by lopping off the very end. My Dad shortened it even further, just calling me by the first syllable; he’d done that most of my life anyway.
Whenever I met someone new, I’d introduce myself by my entire name, and if they immediately used “nickname” I would gently correct them. That worked well for most of my life.
Then I allowed OMWC to convince me to relocate to the Midwest.
People who are from here, and that seems to be almost everyone I meet–either nobody ever leaves or they all come back–invariably immediately assign “nickname” to me in their minds, and that is what they call me forevermore. No matter how I protest. *sigh*
In my non-GlibWorld interactions with Glibs, it seems many prefer their whole given name, too, which brings me to this week’s poll questions:
1. Do you have any preference between your given name or a nickname? Or do you just not care?
2. Are there people in your life who get a pass on what they call you?
3. Do you have a nickname not related to any part of your name? Did you make it up yourself, T-Bone? (I suspect many Glibs are called unflattering things, even–or especially–by strangers.)
In case you’re curious, my current intimates–OMWC, the Founders, and other very close friends–often just call me the initial of my first name. When my children want to be assholes, they call me the abhorrent nickname.
Yes, they are already disinherited.
I was called by my last name by most people through high school and into college. Didn’t really carry into adulthood.
I go by the common shortened version of my name.
The only one who has ever called me by just my last name is OMWC when he’s being snarky.
Even when I was in emergency services, nobody did that.
It has to be easier to say than the first name. My last name is one syllable and my first name, even when shortened, is two.
I should pay more attention.
1. I don’t really care. People can call me anything. Most people call me by my shortened first name.
2) Nobody really calls me anything different. My high school friends call me by my last name, but that feels just as natural as my first name.
-3- There was a girl in Jr High who called me Snickers. If I wasn’t so oblivious, I would’ve realized she called me that because she liked me. My paralegal called me cowboy the other day. I dressed as a Texan for our halloween office party.
Snickers? That’s a lot like Snacks Harrison.
Porn name?
Ozzie Bonesteel.
Smokey Meadows
Did I mention I detest the usual diminutive?
Awww, Bitsy, you love it, admit it.
You are also hereby disinherited.
Somewhat OT: I had no idea that Dorcus was a feminine name, but then I encountered it twice in a day.
Yep. Ran into its close variant (Dorcas) in New Testament studies. As a young teen, you can imagine the laughter such a name would produce from everyone who heard it.
I usually see it spelled Dorcas. Several churches have Dorcas Circles.
I don’t guarantee that I spelled it correctly. 🙂
A (much older) cousin of mine married a Dorcas. So I’ve actually met a live human being with that name. So…do I get a prize or…?
The worst first name I heard of in Puerto Rico, and it’s not uncommon, is Lesbia. How do you look at your newborn daughter and think ” Ah, yes, Lesbia”.
I prefer my given name but hate the nickname Sue.
I am in a similar situation, only (1) I am perfectly fine with friends and family using the “nickname” – which is the most common shortened form of my full name, and (2) I find that as I grow older I care less and less whether new acquaintances immediately move to my “nickname”, and in fact have been considering just using it from now on everywhere in order to avoid the nonsense (and not give the impression that I’m difficult – I’m not, really!) One reason I don’t is that the “nickname” rhymes with a lot of others and needs to be repeated two or three times, every time, as it’s not super-common and everyone mistakes it for something else.
I should also add that I go by my middle name, so yeah… all kinds of issues in this area my whole life.
So it’s OK if I call you Lou instead of Luther? Got it.
Are you kidding? “Luther” is such a cool name I would insist on nothing else.
It IS a cool name. All I can think of is Idris Elba. (Fanning myself)
I call him Loofah.
And I’m another person who goes by his middle name. As you can tell from the handle, it’s the short form, not the nickname.
Having majored in Russian in college, I use a version of the Russian equivalent at a lot of sites since it’s unlikely to be taken.
I prefer to be called by my full first name and I use to correct people who called me by the shortened version of my name.
It was common in high school and college to call each other by our last names and I was fine with that too.
Now people usually call me “asshole”, which seems to be my current nickname
Gee, I find that last part hard to believe. 😉
“Elizabeth? Do you go by Beth?”
“No. I like all four syllables.”
My name is one syllable, so I guess I never needed a nickname.
Mine as well, but it didn’t stop people from assigning me nicknames. :-/
My last name is also one syllable, and only four letters. Amazingly, people constantly misspell it.
In high school, one of our circle of friends had the last name Lowe, and another Lao. Nobody had trouble getting Miss Lao’s name right, but a lot of people got Mr. Lowe’s name wrong.
“Smif?”
Jelly.
PS. I have 3 older brothers with names that cannot be shortened & have no common diminutives even. I hate them.
I have many syllables in my first name. More than in my surname.
I think my Mom was trying to do what I did with Web Dom, give her many options. (Sorry, Sweetie!)
1) I much prefer the shortened version of my first name
2) I’ve stopped correcting most people at work who call me by my full first name, even after my signature and such have the shortened version.
3) A couple given to me by my dad when I was a young lad, but I won’t share them, nor has anyone referred to me by them in probably 25-30 years. As well as a shortened version of my last name that was used in my teens and twenties, I’d still respond to it, but never really expect it anymore. My last name is one that most people just skip trying to pronounce once they see it, and is longer them my first name, so no one uses just my last name.
How about Bob?
Yes?
Yeah, I think this is an important lesson one learns with age. People really don’t like to be “corrected” no matter how tactfully you try.
In real life, if someone is trying to address me by my full first name, it’ll usually take several attempts, since I don’t go by it ever. Most of the time it’s someone who works for my company reaching out via e-mail or chat (which well, they’re direct to me, so they obviously mean me). I’m guessing the lack of diminutives there may be cultural as well, as my company has people working for them world wide (hey, if I ever get a one-on-one with my supervisor, maybe I should ask what’s needed to transfer to work out of Costa Rica).
Did we go to high school together? Are you Vuke?
1. I’ve had several nicknames. None of them have stuck into adulthood. In at least one instance, that’s for the best since that particular nickname was unutterably puerile.
2. Most people in my life avoid calling me at all if they can help it. I’m okay with that. It’s peaceful.
3. I once had the nickname “Mississauga,” from a period when everyone I was around were nicknamed based on where they were from. It didn’t last long, natch.
1. Do you have any preference between your given name or a nickname? Or do you just not care? As long as I know you’re talking to me, I don’t care. I usually go by the shortened version, either way most people usually spell it wrong.
I guess everyone gets a pass.
Guys I knew on the college football team called me Big Man, I think it was more irony about me being shorter than them than calling me fat.
I call my husband Big Man.
As a wee lad I was known by the conventional nickname for my given name. Then, sometime teens-college I decided to go with my full given name for “official” (school) purposes, and a somewhat pretentious and non-normative shortening of my full given name for friends and family (which I now regret, but I’m stuck with it).
There are a few people in my life who can call me by my childhood nickname without repercussions. Some of those are “grandfathered” in, some have earned the right.
I actually like when total strangers shorten my given name without asking. Let’s me know who is a shitheel right off the bat.
LOL
I wouldn’t say they’re shitheels exactly… but it DOES say something about them.
I have a semi-retired colleague who persists in calling me by a diminutive of my name that no one else uses. Eleven years, and despite many corrections, he still calls me that. I really kind of hate him.
I can see why!
Best nickname ever was one of Spudalicious’s former co-workers. “Vagina Butt.”
After a few years, we had to stop calling him that. He got all sensitive and butt hurt over it.
I was called Muppet in high school. Call me Muppet and die.
One of us
One of us
One of us
Oooooo, we want to hear the story of how you got *that* nickname.
It’s not interesting. A guy I sat next to (in every class, every year, had lockers next to each other – small school) decided I sounded like a muppet. Looking back, and based on other behaviors, I realize now that he had a crush on me, but at the time he was just a total pita. Unfortunately, it stuck.
You get caught with a guy’s hand in your ass one time…
I kid, I kid. My official team nickname (everyone on my XC team in HS had to have a nickname, it had to be appropriate to be used in front of the parents (you had to shout it at the end of the year banquet as a freshman), and you’d damn well better respond to it when the upper classmen called you buy it.) was “Bunsen Honeydew” because I was in an accelerated math and science program. It never really stuck and I ended up with a different play on my last name.
You’re Rufus?
My nickname is a play on the spelling of my last name. I haven’t heard a friend call me by my actual name since I was a kid. My friends use my nickname so much one of my buddies wife thought it was my actual name and addressed their wedding invite to my nickname.
1/ Don is preferred; it’s Donald . . . but even Donnie is fine. . . don’t mind at all. IRL I find it endearing that everyone has their own way of naming me.
2/ So everyone gets a pass all the time.
3/ I’ve been Slick and Bondo. In high school, a fairly worldly place, girls called me by my very rare last name, which I liked in a distant, formal, and hostile sort of way because Don is safe and easy and a bunch of other sweet things I didn’t want them to think.
My husband’s Don. It’s not short for Donald or anything else, but he constantly gets people who try to make it Donald because they don’t want to use the nickname. and he’s all “nope just Don”. Other times – esp if I have to give the name for some reason – it ends up as Dawn.
I had/have many nicknames; one is a common abbreviation of my full first name, one is part of my last name with a “The” proceeding it, several shortened versions of my last name, and the last was given to me by my older sisters male friends after I started hanging out with them.
I don’t care about anyone using of the the nicknames except for the last one. It was flattering when I was 15, but it’s a bit embarrassing now. Only a few use the last one anymore and I don’t get in a twist about it.
Brett is hard to diminutize, but you also get Brad, Brent, Rhett, Brat, and worst of all… Bret. Fuck that guy.
My first name is Brent. I get called every possible name that starts with a B. Burt, Brad, Brett, you name it. I just answer to them all, as long as I know they mean me.
In the Army, my nickname was Bubbles. Because, it was claimed, that I would fart in the bathtub and try to bite the bubbles. I hated it so, of course, everyone used it.
They didn’t call you Twerp?
Well yeah, that too, but that was a shortened version of “Hey you mouthy little twerp.”
Yep, that’s why Muppet stuck.
Because you tried to bite fart bubbles?
A common question to a rookie on his first shift in he firehouse was, “hey, are there any nicknames you don’t like? ‘Cause we don’t want to offend you.”.
ITS A TRAP!!
LOL people fall for that?!
A new guy started hanging out with a bunch of us and misheard my friend Eric introduce himself. The new guy repeatedly called Eric by a mispronounced version of his last name. Eric made it very clear that he didn’t like being called that. So yeah, that’s now Eric’s nickname.
It’s a “Noble Profession” and a new guy isn’t all jaded yet. Give him the sincere, “welcome to the fire service, we car about you” look and they’r owned.
Yes, bite fart bubbles.
Which, by the way is physically impossible. You can’t bite your own bubbles
It’s hilarious that you know that.
*starts drawing a bath*
Challenge accepted.
In the Marines I was sometimes called “Stealth” because because I put in a new pair of boots and tripped on the stairs once. One fucking time with too many witnesses…
I’ve never liked my full first name. Gregory sounds like a prissy British rich kid to me. I’ve always gone by Greg. My mother and aunts still call me Gregory quite a bit – my grandmother had a weird hangup about full names so that’s just how their family rolled (although my uncles never adhered to this convention)
My wife will call me Gregory when she’s irritated with me, because she knows it gets under my skin.
The weirdest nickname I had that had nothing to do with my actual name was my freshman year of college. First day in the dorm, I’m unpacking. My stereo was the first thing I unpacked to listen to music while I got situated. I was going through a brief rap period at that time, and Wu Tang Clan’s first album was playing. A kid comes by and asks what I’m listening to. I tell him, and he thinks that’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard. For some reason, this kid had trouble remembering my name so he started calling me Wu Tang, and it stuck. I was Wu Tang or Wu for the rest of freshman year.
Gregory is one of those kewl names you find in almost every western language.
The Amazing Gregor, was a friends nickname, Greg he was…..
It does sound pretty formal. My full name doesn’t sound that formal – if it did, I would probably never use it either.
I like the Geoffrey version of Jeffery, and they can both be shortened to Geoff.
1. I usually ask people, at least in Japan, to refer to me by my nickname. My first name in full always came off a bit too formal and stiff for me to be comfortable with. Of course, it’s Spanish though so people still love to try saying it. I won’t stop their fun.
2. Only my older sister and a couple of my old high school friends get that. (Sis just calls me Kiddo and old HS friends called me Frank the stank after that Will Ferrell character).
3. Kiddo and there’s a few nicknames I won’t say in polite company. *wink wink nudge nudge honk honk*
Frank the Tank, wtf typo.
Too late. You’re Frank the Stank now.
Also forgot, coworkers at the job before my current one used to call me Pablo after funnyman Pablo Francisco. Not sure if I should be concerned that almost all my nicknames came from comedians now that I think about it.
My name is Robert, my friends call me Bob, and Art IS my middle name.
Also Bob the Builder
and I guess I dodged a few bullets when chatting with SP as well 😉
Hello Bob, I’m Robert/Rob/Robby/Bob/Bobby/Bert. I don’t think anyone has us beat on the number of nicknames to be derived from our full first name.
Yeah, ‘Robert’ is super-flexible. The female version is ‘Elizabeth’ – so many variants.
And I hate most of them.
Well it means Wise King, so we got that going for us,
When people first meet me, I usually introduce myself as ‘Gordon’ and then they will call me that. My friends and family, over time, have come to just call me Gord, though my Uncle Chris is the only one to continuously get away with calling me ‘Gordie’ without violent retribution.
‘Gordilocks’ was bestowed upon me as a handle at Burning Man, on the account of ‘Gord’ and that I have dreadlocks (not as many now, mind you) and that my original handle of ‘Trucker Gord’, given to me by a radio DJ way back in the day, is kinda boring.
In the sixth and seventh grade, my mother, having gone insane from my parents divorce, forbade me from cutting my hair, which caused it to become something of a rat’s nest, roundabout the same time that SkyDome opened in Toronto, with this new fake grass called ‘AstroTurf’ …. so my schoolmates called me AfroTurf until I later defied my mom and had my head shaved by the local barber.
I would be prone to greeting you with a “Hey, Gord-o”.
A few people call me that.
I used to call my best friend’s dad LL Kool Ray. He loved the Kools, was named Ray, and was definitely not a black rapper from queens.
“Ladies Love, Legend in Leather…”
I go by either form of my first name and don’t really care. Everybody gets a pass. I was given a nickname in high school due to a mis-hap with a christmas tree. It has stuck to this day and my life long friends still call me by that name. Their kids call me that. Their wives call me that. They introduce me that way and there are people who have known me for years and probably do not know my real name.
I was given a nickname in high school due to a mis-hap with a christmas tree.
Ah, so you’re Tinsel Tits.
Hey look! Its Souvlaki Nipples!
My name has a nickname but it isn’t super common. The only people to call me that are my family. I tried to get others to call me by it one year, but I couldn’t get the hang of responding to it.
I have a relatively generic first and last name, so no nicknames, other than my initials that spell another name my wife sometimes uses.
I knew a guy named Francis”NOT Frank – Francis!” He was weird in other ways too.
We were in the AF at the time and he was a LT
His last name was Fish.
Our own Lt Fish makes me think of this guy whenever he posts – Damn you Fish!
Frankenfish
Damn, I bet he’s heard them all.
Lighten up Francis
My middle name is Houston so you can guess how that played out once friends found out. YES I KNOW…HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM.
Family nickname is Marko. I just roll with it.
Did you also get “Sam” and “Tex”?
I used to despise one of the two common nicknames for my given name. As soon as my brother found out (when we were both teens), he started calling me by by that. He’d introduce all of his friends to me by that name, and so all the people they introduced me to.
I was in a band with a good friend of his, and everyone in the band used that nickname. I found out what “exposure therapy” meant during that time. (Actually, I kind of had already). Still not what I’d preferred to be called, but it’s been a long time since it was rage inducing.
Call me Rob and I’ll kill you……
/Rhetorical statement
Hey Robby!
/just kidding, please don’t kill me
Lighten up, Rob.
Funny, Rob is what my brother’s good friend in the band went by. Actually, 1 guy in 1 band. I played in bands with a few of my brother’s friends. They all called me by the nickname, though, b/c that’s what they thought I wanted to be called.
You could always just go by “Beto”
1. Do you have any preference between your given name or a nickname? Or do you just not care?
Prefer given. See above
2. Are there people in your life who get a pass on what they call you?
Pretty much everyone, if they aren’t obviously trying to be jerks, and stick to known variants of my given name.
3. Do you have a nickname not related to any part of your name? Did you make it up yourself, T-Bone? (I suspect many Glibs are called unflattering things, even–or especially–by strangers.) No
In case you’re curious, my current intimates–OMWC, the Founders, and other very close friends–often just call me the initial of my first name. When my children want to be assholes, they call me the abhorrent nickname.
I didn’t think of it for a while, because there was a similarly named pop star who used a different one on a few occasions.
Yes, they are already disinherited.
Sorry, I left on SP’s comments on my reply. Here:
1. Do you have any preference between your given name or a nickname? Or do you just not care?
Prefer given. See above
2. Are there people in your life who get a pass on what they call you?
Pretty much everyone, if they aren’t obviously trying to be jerks, and stick to known variants of my given name.
3. Do you have a nickname not related to any part of your name? Did you make it up yourself, T-Bone? (I suspect many Glibs are called unflattering things, even–or especially–by strangers.) No
I hate hearing my given name. It’s an ugly concatenation of syllables and it usually means someone is mad at me. I hate it when people truncate it. It’s then just an even more ugly single ugly syllable hanging in the air like a fart. Old people try to lighten it up by tacking a doubling consonant and a Y to the end. Ugh. I don’t tell old people to fuck off because I don’t want to upset them during their last remaining days on this Earth. But, fuck off, I really hate you right now.
My preferred forms of address are “Hey!”, “Yo!” or “Mr. [LASTNAME REDACTED]”.
Slightly, but a kid I grew up with, Brian Jay , was known all the way through high school as ‘BJ’. His parents are they ones who started calling him BJ.
I have no idea what the fuck was wrong with them.
He tried to move to ‘Brian’ after elementary school, but it didn’t take. It took going to college to move to ‘Brian’.
I’ve had a lot of nicknames throughout my life, good, bad and indifferent. My most common nickname in the firehouse wasn’t exactly complimentary, but my skin was thicker than their’s.
One day a new guy, that I happened to know as a paramedic and really liked, called my by that name. In front of a room full of coworkers I stared in his eyes with my best “I’m dead serious and pissed” look on my face and said, “you haven’t been here long enough to call me that”, and walked out of the room. That was some seriously good times. He chased me down apologizing profusely. He ended up being my co-Captain for the last six years of my career and is a lifelong friend.
My most common nickname in the firehouse wasn’t exactly complimentary, but my skin was thicker than their’s.
Needle-dick?
We still reflexively call you by your initials. Too many years of conditioning. And unfortunately, your actual name is the same as my father in law and my son, so when I use it, SP has to ask, “Wait, which one?”
That’s been one of the common ones in my life. That’s what my cousins call me.
“My most common nickname in the firehouse wasn’t exactly complimentary, but my skin was thicker than their’s.”
Hey Lardass. I mean Hardhat…..Hardhat.
So I grew up as a normal “Jim”. Then I moved south for schoolin’. I don’t think anyone in the south has a one syllable name so I became Jimbo. (better than Jimmy).
When I moved back to Minnesoda, my first project had 4 Jims on it. One day the senior most Jim got tired of the confusion and said that the other 3 of us had to use some other name from now on. So I went back to Jimbo. I’ve been that way ever since.
The best thing about being Jimbo north of the Mason-Dixon line is watching yankees decide whether they will actually use Jimbo or not. A lot of them still call me Jim. I worked with a lady from England and I would drive her crazy by telling her she had to call me Jimbo.
By the way the only nickname I really didn’t like was when I was called “{{horrible slur}} Jim” after a character in Huck Finn. Some of my asshole buddies in Memphis would call me that because they thought it was funny that I would absolutely refuse to use that word under any circumstances.
They thought it was total yankee assholeism for me to be that way. I told them that I didn’t do it because I saw how fucking sad it made a dark green Marine I served with feel when he accidentally overheard a light green Marine use that word.
You’d be in the majority now: I hear that word maybe twice a year.
They’d probably call you something nice now like YuhBetcha or Walleye or Bemidji.
I hear it a lot more than that, but it is always from my black friends. I don’t think I hear that work said by anyone in a real racist way any more.
Walleye would be a great nickname. But I’d probably end up being Crappie.
And it is Brrrrmidji.
Who wouldn’t use Jimbo? Is it because of the implications? Do you not have a pick-em-up truck?
And just because you’re a pope, you should know You’ve Got a Friend in Jimbo.
I play those songs for people at work all the time.
I also use this as my avatar on a lot of sites.
On topic, the only variant of my name that I don’t care for is the one that’s a true diminutive (ends in ‘y’).
In kindergarten, my teacher wrote that version of my name in one of the books I brought to school (“Clifford The Big Red Dog”, if you care) and my mother, to her eternal credit, took the time to have a word with my teacher: “no adult man should be know by y, so let’s not start using it now”.
Possibly the greatest single act of my childhood.
People who call you by a name you don’t want to be called is the very definition of asshole.
Fortunately, my first name is “exotic” enough that most people don’t feel the need to use a nickname to differentiate me.
Sure, how many people do you know named “Heroic”? Little chance of confusion.
Just don’t call me “Hero”, that’s a sandwich’s name.
Hiro
Protagonist?
Just for one day?
Not even for the night.
Wait, are you Alice Childress?
My secret is out.
/Gyro
My given name is “Dana” (and yes, I am male). I hated it growing up and by fifth grade had my friends call me “Ace”. By high school it had switched to “The Rock” or “Rock” (years before Dwayne Johnson). By college I had finally accepted my given name and go by it.
But y’all can call me Hobbit.
I hope someday we all meet in meatspace at the first annual Glibapalooza, I look forward to putting on my name tag that says “Hello My Name is TULPA”
They can just preprint them all to say Tulpa…….
Exactly what tulpa would do
My Korean wife is absolutely flummoxed by nicknames. The one that really gets her is when “John” is changed to “Jack”. And that it is only for John, not Jon. Her main complaint is that it isn’t shorter and other than having a J in both, doesn’t have any resemblence to each other.
Also, Dick, Rich, Rick all being nicknames for Richard bothers her.
Hey Jimbo, you and Tundra know my real name and that is my real name, not a nickname.
In high school my nickname was Indian or Indian Jack or Big Indian. No idea why. Now different friends refer to me as “Old Man” or “The Old Guy”. Actually I ‘m quite pleased that I’m able to hear that.
I never really obtained a nickname through my life. Luckily, my first name is a compact two syllables and there’s no abbreviation in the English language that I’m aware of.
Side note to SP: This very well may have already been discussed but I’ve always thought your handle here was the first two letters in the words Shiksa Princess.
*shrugs*
Real old friends from High Scool and the military call me by the shortened version of my last name. Everyone else uses the short version of my first.
Military buddies call me by my last name or Opie (because I was an innocent red head from the prairies of Minnesoda and was always being laughed at because of how country I was).
“Mikey likes it!”
I thought I’d finally rid myself of the diminutive when that commercial came out. Then I was “Mikey” for sure. I was then smart enough to know it was better to just go with it and it would wear out sooner. If I bristled at it I’d never hear the end of it. It eventually went away – mostly.
Actually the staying power of that phrase is remarkable – I still get it tossed at me once in awhile. I was even Mikey on a project at my last job because of it.
He won’t eat it, he hates everything
Fun story re: names –
A friend of mine moved from Japan to Albemarle, North Carolina as an exchange student at the age of 14.
His first day of high school, he’s wandering around, trying to find his homeroom. A large gentleman of color, who was a starting lineman on the football team, took mercy on him and tried to help:
“Hey, you look lost, where are you trying to go?”
“”
“Oh, that’s right down here, come on… so, what’s your name?”
” Motoki.”
“Uh… what?”
“Motoki.”
“Sorry, one more time?”
“Motoki.”
“Uh… OK – here we are – Hey everybody, we’ve got a new student here – this here’s Jimmy!”.
Smash cut to Boston, 20 years later and he’s still “Jimmy”.
Whoops, my angles got eaten – those empty quotes are “shows slip of paper with homeroom info on it”
Fumbles. It was always Fumbles .
That first part was a realistic depiction of how people actually get nicknames. Then it got dark…
Funny Because true 🙂
I would have been disappointed if no one posted this.
1. Yes. Use my name.
2. Yes. Some relatives can and do use an Anglicized version of my first name. Others will get creative, even using a characters name from certain video games and or female cartoon characters. These are few in number.
3. Many people have called me, “asshole,” and a number of ethnic slurs. Some that aren’t even directed at Mexicans. (He thought I was Native American)
Latins always have the best nicknames. And Italians.
I have an absurdly common name. (Top five in America) I prefer to go by the full version. My dad has the same absurdly common name, he goes by the very common diminutive. I HATE being called by his name. I am not him, and he is not me. A pet peeve are people who hear me introduce myself with the full name, sign my emails with the full name, then proceed to use my father’s diminutive. I just told you what my name was, and it was not that.
Within circles of friends or more casual groups, I accept a different diminutive, which is the first syllable of the name, and less irritating.
In short – my name is not “Bob”.
“Praise Bob!”
Praise Bob !
All Hail Discordia!
/starts holy war
You changed!
I threatened it earlier. And it’s a bit too soon for a picture of Saucy Claus. I should see if I still have my I [Ohio with a heart cut into it] Beer sign picture.
And I did have the picture… seems more fitting.
Lighten up Bob,
/Bob
There’s always the trusty old “Junior”.
Been there. By my 40s I just didn’t give a shit any more. There are some advantages to aging.
OK Two Dogs Fucking…..
woof
I LOVE that joke
Left me a hole big enough to drive a truck through he did,
Help me find my keys, and we can just drive out of here.
So not necessarily a nickname but one of my proudest moments came after I stood up at a union meeting and killed a stupid proposal deader than a door nail. I was told later after the meeting that the Union VP remarked, “that guy’s a fucking asshole”. I wore that as a badge of honor.
1. Do you have any preference between your given name or a nickname? Or do you just not care?
I’ve carried the nickname “Animal” around since about 1985. My friends all call me Animal. My wife calls me Animal. My contact entry in her cell phone is “Animal.”
2. Are there people in your life who get a pass on what they call you?
My family. A few friends. But I don’t care if people call me Animal, plenty of folks do.
3. Do you have a nickname not related to any part of your name? Did you make it up yourself, T-Bone? (I suspect many Glibs are called unflattering things, even–or especially–by strangers.)
When I was a young macho Army NCO, before I let them suck out my brains and make me an officer, a bunch of us were drinking beers in the NCO Club at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas. Back then when you bought a beer at the bar, the bartender just popped the top on a can and gave it to you – so, being young, dumb and macho, when we emptied a can we’d flatten it against our foreheads, like John Belushi in Animal House.
Well, one of my friends says to me, “Hey, Clark, I bet you can’t flatten one against the table.”
So I drained the beer I was drinking, set it on the table, stood up, let out a yell, and drive my forehead right down on the can – neatly breaking the cheap wooden table in half.
The guy sitting across from me leaped up, yelling “Damn, Clark, you’re a motherfucking animal!” And that was that – I was Animal from that point forward.
Monday morning I showed up for PT formation with a big bandage on my forehead. I was 4th squad leader, so I was kind of obvious in formation. The platoon sergeant saw the bandage, stomped over to me, and said, “Clark, what the hell…. You know what, never mind. I don’t want to know.”
And that, as the man said, is the rest of the story.
Braggart.
How many mustangs are there on this site? I didn’t think that was all that common.
As one of my personal heroes, Elmer Kieth, was fond of saying: “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.”
Mustang here. Army OCS
Most people use the shortened form of my name, though I don’t care if they do or not. No one has ever called me by any of the diminutive versions either; although my mother always made sure to threaten people not to use “Benji” when she introduced me to people, but that’s because she hated it, not me. I was called by my last name for a few years, but that was because there were three Benjamins working in the same office out of the 10 people there, so we all got called by or last names so we knew who was actually being talked to.
The only other things people call me are Jesus or Weird Al, depending on which they find funnier. I just roll with it.
That is the same story as mine (above). I am thankful to her, as I would not want to be an adult man called “Benjy” or “Benji”.
(I did have a friend who’d call me “Benj”, but she was hot, so I let it slide).
As you point out, in practice I’m most often called by my (distinct) last name.
My last name is less distinct than my first name, so I haven’t been called by my last name since I left that job. I do get the occasional drunk guy doing a vey bad Elton John impersonation calling me Benny and the Jets, but they usually get bored after the first time and wander off.
OT, I have written up a good chunk of text regarding the handle crafting process for my letter opener. It’s a different process from Leap’s article. I have a goodly number of pictures. As soon as the epoxy sets and I grind the handle shape, I’ll finish the article and see if the editors want it.
I eagerly await your next, anything really, you are quite readable Robert,
The next submission by me to drop will be a short story. It’s currently scheduled for the 12th, but has been rescheduled once already.
Cool, I have a few submitted as well, fluff mostly
I’ve thrown together a couple of pieces on fermentation, tossed the first one up in the drafts. The real fun comes that outside of distillation, beer is the hardest product to make.
Speaking of beer. I have krausen leaking into my airlock. I’m seeing conflicting info whether to bother cleaning it out. Some say you’re more likely to introduce bacteria by messing with it. Others say you don’t want it to “go off” in the airlock and screw up the whole batch. What do you think?
Is it a three piece or an s-style airlock? If it’s s-style, pretty much write it off, I’ve never found a good way to clean one of those.
But, I generally go with blow off tubes for initial fermentation for any higher gravity beers to avoid just this problem. Removing the airlock to clean it introduces a risk, but the risk is minor; remember, there’s enough gas and items being pushed out of the carboy/bucket to cause this. It’s not likely that somethings going to slowly drift in. If there’s fruit flies or other insects around, the risk is higher, since they’ll be drawn to it. Overall, you’ll be fine just cleaning it out after the fact (or just having another airlock and swapping them out).
It’s a three piece, so cleaning it won’t be an issue. It wouldn’t be hard to whip up a half gallon of star san solution and have a fresh airlock back on there in about 5 minutes, but I’m in a “don’t mess with it if I don’t have to” mood.
The only thing you need to make sure of is that it doesn’t get blocked up with krausen. As long as it’s bubbling and there’s motion, you’re fine. If it stops bubbling, then you have to worry about pressure building up and turning the airlock into a small water rocket.
I was going to post what Nephilium posted. I am just too slow tonight. 😉
kinnath: If it makes you feel better, it made me check on my two batches fermenting now (an APA and English Mild), I wasn’t anticipating blow off with either, and didn’t get it. The APA should only break 5% (if that), the mild may make it all the way up to 3%.
And the first fermentation piece does have the recipe for JAOM in it.
When your girlfriend catches her first glimpse of Glibertarians.com when looking over your shoulder.
LOL! I clicked!
Is there a version for when she sees my 20 tabs of SugarFree’s works?
They don’t allow snuff on youtube, unfortunately.
Fair ’nuff. I’ll just have to search the deep web.
Damn, drink some milk, girl.
Interestingly enough, every reaction from the girl on the left would have applied to a porn video.
I’ve done deep dives on hot pepper eating videos. There’s a lot of dumb, hot chicks out there.
Anything can be a porn video if you’re perverted enough.
SP I still submit there are more Robert/Bobs here than any other name, how about a poll?
I usually just get called a variation of my name Blakey, blackie, blakester etc.
Its the blakester….makin copies….
Seconded
I remembered a few others a girl in high school used to call me Andy because my middle name was Andrew and my fil used to refer to me as beakman because he didn’t bother remembering my name till I was around for awhile.
When my dad was angry with me he’d call me Whoops. It did wonders for my self esteem. I just roll with it now.
When my dad was teaching me how to drive, I pulled down the sun visor and accidentally bumped the rearview mirror out of place. Noticing what I did, I said “Ah, fuck” before remembering that my dad was sitting next to me.
“Sorry dad, it just slipped.”
“So did my condom, fix the mirror and keep driving idiot.”
Good times.
Funny guy. 🙂
I was six years old before I realized my name wasn’t Hey You Dammit.
According to howmanyofme.com there’s only 6 ppl in the US that have the same name as me.
Nicknames not required.
Wait…you’re telling me there could be negative me-s?
6 of me and I already know at least 2 of them are actually me at different addresses.
There is nobody else in the US with my name, per that site.
That’s not surprising, given my last name is unusual (and Canadian) – I own the domain – and my first name is less common.
I didn’t even type in my last name.
Beto, is that you?
That’s Master Beto.
Master Beto. That’s a Homestarrunner joke waiting to be written.
There’s only 1 person in the US with the same name as me, there was a second one (my grandfather) but he passed some time ago. Of course, AARP started sending me mailings when I was in middle school.
6,028 people have the same name as I, yet I’ve never had a nickname stick.
There is no other person in the united states with my name. I’m a certified snowflake.
Most snowflakes are self diagnosed
Snowflakes are created by colder temperatures in the atmosphere and water vapor condensing and then freezing.
Either that or white supremacy. I’m not sure.
There are 34,242 people in the U.S. named My Given Name
I’m rather surprised a NICS check only takes 10 minutes, or that anal probing by TSA isn’t standard on the rare occasions I fly.
Out of that many people sharing the name there’s got to more than a few felons, or arbitrarily watch listed.
I’m in the top 20 in terms of first name…bottom 70000 in last name. Combo them together…I believe there are two of us.
Interesting. My given name is in the top 15 most common names, but there are only 28 people with the same first/last name combination.
There are two of me. I’m sure the other me is some kind of asshole I’d totally hate.
So you don’t have a goatee?
Not since I had to start using a CPAP five years ago.
Well, that makes the other person with your name the evil twin (assuming they have a goatee).
Full beard with a CPAP, you need to check your clean shaven privlage asshat!
Meaning you have a beard with a CPAP? I can’t do it because I have to have a full mask – I open my mouth a lot when I sleep, and with the little nose-only masks air will start whooshing out of my mouth then and wake me up. Hence, no more facial hair for me.
Full beard, full face mask. Just get the headgear tight and it works fine, although I’m a side sleep and sleep against the wall, so that forces the seal shut.
I’m Ok with almost any version of my first name. My two older sisters named me, which is sweet when you think about it, as they were sooo looking forward to having another sister.
I had a hard time with some of the nicknames when in the south. I went to a wedding in NC and the groom’s name was Snapper, which is a derogatory term for vagina within my group of friends. I got drunk later and giggled like a loon every time he was called snapper.
1. Do you have any preference between your given name or a nickname? Or do you just not care?
I go by the standard shortened version of my first name. Outside of formal situations, no-one calls me by my full first name — which is fine with me. A couple of people at work used to call me by my last name which didn’t bother me enough to complain about it.
2. Are there people in your life who get a pass on what they call you? I’m pretty easy about what people call me as long as they’re polite.
3. Do you have a nickname not related to any part of your name? Did you make it up yourself, T-Bone? Not since high school.
Gad Bone?
Phishing for our aliases, SP?
I always suspected you for an FBI plant…
1. I have a very common given name with two syllables
I really don’t care if it gets shortened to its most common form, or if my given name is used.
My wife, siblings, and anyone I end up knowing for a while or working directly with always uses the shortened version.
My internal customers at work tend to use my given name because its my name in the address book.
3. Currently none
When I was in grade school we had a visit from a pair of the Harlem Globetrotters.
They wanted a helper so one of them pointed to me and said “Hey pee-wee come on out here and give us a hand”
As might be expected of 8 year-olds, it stuck. Fortunately it didn’t stick beyond 4th grade.
Damn, that’s cruel.
It was the 80s so hypersensitivity, bullying, PC, etc were not high on their radar.
I’ve been called everything under the sun when it comes to my name. Lachowsky is my surname and any way that you think it’s pronounced is likely wrong and something I’ve been called before.
Damn eastern Europeans and their penchant for using too many consonants.
My good friends call me asshole.
We have a lot of Skis, czkzcs and woswajowixzes around these parts.
Here in Cleveland, we’re full up on Germans, Irish, Polish, Croatians, and Serbians. You want difficult to pronounce names, just come visit us. I mean, Sokolowski’s is an institution.
Yeah, the staff – 40 to 50 people – in my ex-company’s Buffalo office was almost entirely of Polish extraction. It was funny watching my mostly Indian coworkers try to tackle some of those.
+1 kimmelweck.
I was upset when BW-3’s (now B-Dubs) removed weck from their name and the menu.
+100 beef on weck
Luzerne county is the only county in the U.S. where the Polish is the most common ancestry.
I resemble that
as do I. hmmmm
After years of people mispronouching Dziedzic, my dad’s family Americanized it. At times I have thouht of changing it back.
Jedjitz, approximately. Helps if said with a terrible imitation accent. My family’s name was anglicized for them. I’ve thought of changing it back, since out of forty six cousins I’m the only man that can pass the family name down, but I’m too lazy to bother.
Yup, I found the name on some of my dad’s drafting equipment and he told me the story (and pronunciation). They changed it to Judge.
Hopefully, they didn’t change your family to Smith.
The old family name was Kovács, which is Hungarian for… blacksmith. So your hope was misplaced.
I am a -ski. However my genealogy traces my first American ancestor to a town in Germany. Elbing.
Elving, from what I know, has changed hands several times between the germans and the poles but in 1890 when Johan came to the U.S. elbling was in German hands.
Apparently at that point in history, the German empire wasnt too friendly to Catholics. That’s why I was born in the U.S. instead of behind the iron curtain eastern Europe.
I have German ancestors from a town that is now impossible for most Americans to pronounce (Szczecin).
Y Cymry yn chwerthin arnoch chi. The Polish are pikers.
Yeah, but we were talking about people, not the Welsh.
🙂
I’d get angry about that, but the Welsh only have two emotions, depressed and drunk. Which might explain the language, come to think of it. Fuck it, time for another beer.
“Clinton deploys vowels to Bosnia”
https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/humor/clinton-deploys-vowels.html
LOL.
Before I read the comments…
I have a common English first name. When people call me that, I let them know: “Oh, call me [short name]”. However, my email sigs, business cards, and signed name is the full English first name. I’m a prick that way.
My wife will occasionally use the diminutive of my name. To be sexy. That usually works.
The only person other than my wife to use the diminutive in the last thirty years was my Sicilian grandmother. She died in the 90s.
Robert/Bob/Bobby – [BETO!]
Fredrick/Fred/Freddy
Elizabeth/Liz/Lizzy
Henry/Hank/???
Sarah/Sar/???
Rebecca/???/Becky
In grade school and college I was known by my last name which was the local custom.
At work now I go by the shortened form of my first name.
On the couple of boats I most often race we have 3 (sometimes 4) people we the same first name we go by our last names to prevent confusion.
To my kids and their spouses (and presumably my ex) I go by a nickname bestowed on me by them when they were young. That name still makes my German daughter in law wince.
I do love the Koreans and thier 5-6 last names. It makes looking for Mr Park from manufacturing in the company directory so easy. This is sarcasm in case you didn’t
So, I’ve never been clear; Is Mike a nickname of Michael, or a diminutive, or…?
When I think of a nickname, I think of the few people who call me by my last name with a “y” suffix…which I don’t mind at all.
You’re right- “Mike” is a diminutive, not a nickname. I wasn’t being precise myself earlier using “nickname” when I meant “diminutive”.
Michael – The proper name
Mike – The shortened, familiar name.
Mikey – The diminutive, for children.
Standard Anglo-American(ish) process:
Grandparents get to call their children and their children’s children by the diminutive. Jim becomes Jimmy once Jim has kids.
Parents transition the name as part of “growing up” from the diminutive to the familiar.Teddy becomes Ted once Theodore starts having his own opinions.
My 80+ yo father continues to call all of his 50ish and 60ish yo children by their diminutive names. My mother also does this about half the time.
Unlike my 3 brothers and 1 sister, my name does not actually have a diminutive “-y” form. So my wife asked me one day why my father calls me by a girl’s name.
My grandfather and aunts and uncles all still call my 67 year old dad Bobby. They (along with my late grandmother) are the only people on earth I have ever heard call him that.
FWIW, the same was true with my grandfather. He was the baby of three, had two sisters who were 5 and 7 years older than him, and even when they were all in their 70s and 80s they still frequently called him Allie instead of Al.
The only self-assigned diminutive I trust is “Jimmy” Weird but true.
Ahh…OK. Now that I think about it, that makes total sense. Thanks, TR.
I actually don’t mind any of the 3 forms, however I only accept “Mikey” if it’s said with honest affection. I prefer Mike, however I’m Michael to all of my family.
I’ve had a few close friends that refer to me as Michael and I, weirdly, cringe the tiniest bit when they call me Mike. This very small group includes my wife. However, I’ve never vocalized that to any of them, not even my wife. I let them call me what they feel most comfortable calling me.
Both of my brothers in law go by Michael.
My brother’s name was Michael. My dad always called him “Mickey Schtick”. My dad had his own nicknames for all of us.
My uncle Louis was uncle luke until I was old enough to be on first name basis with him. Then it was louis.
My uncle Francis was uncle Frank until I was old enough to be on first name basis with him. Then it was Francis.
My uncle Stephen was uncle Steve until I was kid enough to be on first name basis with him. Then it was Stephen.
My uncle William was uncle bill until I was old enough to be on first nake basis with him. Then it was william.
My aunt virginia was aunt Ginny until I was old enough to be on first name basis with her. Then it was virginia.
My uncle Bartholomew was uncle Brian until I was old enough to be on first name basis with him. Then it was brian.
Huh… I don’t think I’ve called any of my aunts or uncles by just their first names. The honorific has always been there.
I dont know why exactly, but in my very close knit family, once one becomes a man (self sufficient with a wife and kids and a home to prove it) then the honorific drops and we all see each other as equals. At least on the uncle, nephew level.
It dont work that way for grandparents, parents, or aunts. I don’t have a good explanation, it just is what it is.
My wife has always thought it strange that I generally don’t use the honorific with my aunts and uncles. That’s apparently a big no no in her family.
Different cultures always interest me.
I’ve got a fairly small immediate family (one sister, one brother in law, one niece, two nephews), and a huge extended family (at least 20 aunts/uncles and probably 40-some cousins). There has been one time when I enforced calling me uncle, which is when my niece (at 3-4) tried to call me dad.
My sister’s kids used to accidentally call me dad all the time, fuck that makes things uncomfortable. We’re not THAT KIND of family.
I have you beat on the aunts and uncles, but not on the cousins – none of my aunts and uncles had more than two kids, and several of them never had any.
On my dad’s side of the family no one went by any version of their given name, just nicknames.
I’ve always had my own opinions.
In about the third grade the movie TOBOR THE GREAT came out. Tobor (robot backwards) is pretty close to my last name so for one school year I was “Tobor “. I thought it was cool.
Some of my friends call me “G”, because of my discomfort during a conversation about gerbilling.
I thought I was being funny by calling my wife “Poon” for years. She had know idea what it meant. She’d been calling me Anpontan for years. She thought she was being funny because I didn’t know what it meant.
OT: every single political ad here is nothing more than “stop Trump” (there are zero ads from Republicans). Just saw one from that Jersey crook Menendez. “STOP TRUMP!”
If they screwed up the polls again on the midterms, it will be a blast. Normally, the polls give the dems a huge lead and then tighten them a couple weeks before the election. Maybe it’s a tinfoil hat theory, but it certainly looks like that is intentional. This time they did the tightening thing as usual, but know the polls are trending up for the dems. I believe the dems will take the house easily. If they don’t, the polls deserve to be put in the astrology section.
I have used the shortened version of my name for most of my life.
When I started traveling internationally on business, I would use my full name when dealing with customers, hotels, airlines, customs, etc. My coworkers who traveled with me got in the habit of using my full name all the time, even at home. So at various times in my career, all my coworkers either called my by my short name (when my job did not require me to travel) or they called me by my full name (when I was traveling on business). After 25 years, various people at work use the version of my name they learned back when I worked closely with them. So now I go to meetings with people I haven’t worked with in many years. And people will use both versions in the same meeting. I don’t even notice unless someone points it out.
OK Bob
Full first name is Clifford. Obvious shortening is Cliff. Not sure that I’d call that a nickname. I’m known as “deadhead” in a few different communities. FWIW, I always spell my nickname in all lower-case. I’ve been called a lot of things.
1. I don’t care.
2. Because I don’t care, everyone gets a pass.
3. I chose “deadhead” as my nickname on IRC, because I wanted to be pseudonymous and that was the first thing that came to mind (I’ve seen the Grateful Dead more than 100, fewer than 200 times). Both my Javelina Jundred bib and my Bataan Memorial Death March entrant certificates list my nickname in all lower-case. I can die a happy man.
My first name is so dull and boring that nobody can think of it right off hand, but if I were to tell you, you’d say, “holy shit, that IS a boring name“. There’s only one notable person from history with this name, and he’s not even that well known. Plus, he talked like a fag and his shit was all retarded.
I don’t want to give out my last name, but I will say that people often misread or mispronounce it and end up saying Cognac (I think it’s quite a stretch to say that they’re similar, yet everyone seems to make that mistake). That’s probably the closest thing I’ve had to a nickname, but I think I could live with it. Cognac is the finest; the primo, top-shelf stuff that you only break out for special occasions.
Your last name is courvoisier ?
I’ve been told my on air voice is like Barry White hosting The Ladies Man.
I miss Tim Meadows. I thought when he left SNL he would go on to bigger things.
Wow, this whole thread has stayed very much on topic for Glibs! Any way, Military at the border, it’s like Trump is playing Civilization or read a bout what happened to France a few times. I’m going with the video game idea.
If you want people to stay on topic, ask them to talk about themselves. *Guilty as charged*
Noticed that. He needs to denounce Mexico first though so he can gain Cassius Bail
And mind the phone auto correct on Casus Balli
I wondered who he was, didn’t register in my Roman dude catalog,
OT: I am a believer in language and in meaning. I harp on my kids when they use “anyways” and ” these/those ones”. I also hammer them when I get answers such as “Its sorta like that” or “I kinda…” I want them to be able to articulate what they mean with the words they use.
It is such an uphill battle though when all of media employs phrases such as “It seems that person X means…”
Recently “Sully” of landing a fucking airplane on a river fame made some comments. Nowhere in the article does he call out party affiliation but be abuse what he says can be used to fit a narrative we are met with headlines of “Sully Trashes GOP” or “it appears he…”
Fuck lazy reporting and fuck projection. Especially fuck assuming what someone really meant. Get the damn quote and stop with the nonsense of implying you know what they meant.
I have had too many beers. SKOL!
I don’t understand that last sentence. The words all appear to be English, but they make no sense in that configuration.
Enjoy another damn drink you slackers! There…translated.
The Slackers are quite good, but I don’t know what they have to do with beer.
/goes and grabs a Deschutes Chasin’ Freshies
Neil Armstrong flew on Apollo 13 and when it blew up he blamed the Russkies, ergo, NAZIS!
Get it now? MMMMMMm
Neil Armstrong was not on Apollo 13.
That rushing sound…its you not getting it…
I didn’t get into the news sector of my industries because I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold myself to my own standards given the restraints on the format. Hence why shitheels work in the news rather than people with standards I guess.
Um, COPENHAGEN! Is that how this works?
KOBENHANEN!
I only use my real name for legal documents. My parents decided to give me a nickname as a toddler that is completely different from my legal name. Thus, I have grown up using the nickname. With the university being politically correct, I was easily able to declare my “preferred name” online.
So V is for Vac after all…..
Did you throw tomatoes at Warren to protest her appropriation of native american heritage? (see, tomatoes came from the americas and where seen as in inferior plant, so it was common to waste them…………………………………………………….oh and also you throw them at people you don’t like)
I wouldn’t waste the time and effort to drive an hour to campus to meet her. I wonder if there are any polititions I would go out of my way to meet. Maybe Ron Paul. There are a few media personalities I’d try to meet if they had an event on campus.
When I was at UWO Hillary and Chelsea were both on campus. I was sitting alone in the student union reading. They tried to talk me, but I ignored them so I would go crazy nutso on them. I had to refuse to talk to them like 3 times before they stopped asking…it seemed odd how interested they were in talking to me, they must have known! I need more tinfoil!
Thats funny you refused to talk to her. I’d be more apathetic towards polititions. If there wasn’t a large media presence, I’d act nice and carry on a conversation. I wonder if it is immoral to act nice to such an evil person. Maybe it’s better to refuse to not acknowledge those people.
If I start a conversation I have a hard time holding my tongue. I prefer to be polite, and news media was there. So I know even I got into a verbal confrontation and won it wouldnt be portrayed that way, so I gave them the same courtesy I wanted them to give me and ignored them.
It’s a shame you didn’t talk to Hildebeast. You could have asked her meaningful questions and followed up when she responded with pablum. Rinse and repeat. I bet you could have gotten steam shooting out of her ears.
It’s sometimes tempting to check out political events on campus. I will never participate as I don’t want to ever be associated with any political group. It’d be interesting to go to a students for liberty meeting, but I’d fear being associated with the group. It’d be temping to do some fun trooling on the free speech wall, but I’d never risk it. I’m not willing to lose future job opportunities by being political in public.
If you are talking about overtly political events like rallies or protests that makes some sense. If you are talking about invited speakers then you are making a mistake. I learned a lot by going to speakers of all political stripes.
One family name oddity…..several of the women on my mom’s side of the family, including my mom and my sister, have “Rose” as part of their names. Rose is NOT their middle name, they don’t have middle names. Their first names are (name) Rose. It’s supposedly an Irish thing, that’s what I’ve been told anyway. Mom actually gave up a long time ago and just went along with her employers insisting on making Rose her middle name, but my sister has always been very insistent on using her full first name and standing firm on not having a middle name.
https://youtu.be/w7y19ED6Vrk
I grew up in the 90s
First CD I ever had. I’m eclectic with my music.
My first CD was Aerosmith, get a grip. My first tape was boys to men.
We all grow up.
The first tape I remember buying was Run-DMC’s Raising Hell when I was in fifth grade. First CD was in ninth grade, Led Zeppelin II.
The last album I bought. I still really do like Seal though.
My first musical purchase was an 8track from the dollar bin at a knock off of Kmart called Murphy’s mart. Stevie Wonder Superstition. My next five were LPs and tapes from Stix and Kiss
That was pretty good.
No middle name? Is that legal!?
And the prequels seem so good now in light of the hot mess that Star Wars has become. Fuck you Disney
I hope you are at least familiar with my Myth and the Mouse post.
I used a diminutive of my name as a kid until just as I was leaving high school. I’ve used my full first name since. In the army as a nothing, my last name was used which was fine. For Mandarin class, a similar but Chineseey name from the teacher’s wife.
1. Yes, prefer my full name, and not a nickname. I’ve had several different diminutives used. One of which is a famous person’s usage, and also share the same last name. But whatever, I’ve answered to hey you.
2. Some of my family, particularly my mom, still use the diminutive. Totally get a pass.
The one that burns my britches though is the lazy ass thinking MFers who reply to my emails at work with my last name, even though I’ve signed my email with my first name, because they’re lazy ass thinkers and ignore that our corporate outlook is set to Last name, First name. Did you not see the MFing comma? Do you not look at your own name in the To/From field and think “Gee, my name is backwards. Maybe his is as well…?”. Lazy MFers.
3. No, not cool enough for that.
Forgot, also use the diminutive for my nephews.
Oh, and I think I’ve told this story here before but it still makes me laugh. When I was stationed in Yuma, one of the air traffic controllers in our squadron was LCpl. Larger. Everyone called him “Dick B”, as in Dick B Larger. Which was just a funny nickname for a guy with the last name Larger.
Or so I thought, until later on in Iraq when he and I were both tasked with being trained to restart TADIL-B (ground digital comm link). This required accessing a secured maintenance van. There was a duty roster on the door that listed all personnel authorized to be in there, by their full names. Normally, you’ll only know last names for people in the Marines unless they’re a close friend. The first time I saw it, I about fell down laughing because I discovered where the name Dick B came from. His parents had actually named him Richard B. Larger.
That is a hard name to live up to. You have to grow into it.
Poor guy. It’s amazing some parents can’t see what’s coming based on the name they choose for their kid.
I had an aquantance that was nicknamed Fudge. I didn’t know why until I found out his last name was Packer.
I know some people here hold things against Andy Dick, but damn I still find this funny.
He’s a funny guy even if he’s a mess of a human being.
Tom Cruise is a Fudge packet in southpark too!
Nicknames:
I was in my early teens and going on a fishing trip with my dad. We stopped for gas in a little town in northern NM and Dad told the fellow running it that his dad used to operate a garage in the same building. The guy looks at Dad closely and says, “Skeeter?” Reminders that our parents were kids, too. Funny that the guy recognized him after 20 years or so.
Late to the poll as always but i hated the diminutive to my name as a kid to the point of violence. It is stupid and longer tham the actual name. Luckly no one uses it these days
/searches for diminutive of Dracula
1) My first name is too short to turn into a nickname, so my last name would get twisted around instead.
2) College buddies and mom
3) Other than “asshole”, no
My first name is too short to turn into a nickname – mine to you would think at 4 letters, but the need for diminutives is great