I think some areas of the country are more likely than others to use nicknames for friends or family members. Cultural differences, too. Sometimes the terms are more like cultural monikers than nicknames; like people use <bro> as a hypocoristic term (but maybe not <sis>). Also vintagers of different ages are different in the use of nicknames. Sometimes nicknames become important handles for politicians. I like Ike, but W -- yuuchhh! It has been mentioned before that our S2ki names or even our avatars sometimes determine how we are referred to on the board.

Europeans sometimes laugh at Americans for shortening names like Nick for Nicholas, and accuse us of being stuck on monosyllabic names -- Bill, John, Sue, Ann... (but they do it, too --e.g. Wolf for Wolfgang..) Do you use or assign nicknames in your family? Are there other interesting nicknames that come to mind?

 

My family always used nicknames and some of them have stuck for a lifetime (unfortunately?). I always thought it was perhaps because we were in the south and it seemed to me to be more prevalent down here (though that may not be true at all). If anyone in my family calls my Martha I don't respond -- I assume they're speaking to someone else! I've always been Sissy, my oldest brother Bill is Butch, my youngest brother Neill is Goodie, brother Steve was SP (his initials), my father Howard (who was a redhead) was Strawberry (shortened to Straw) or Red, my mother Lucille was just Cille. Among my longtime friends, I'm MJ, Maddie, and other less kind names!

 

My college roommate from Camden SC..... William Michael McCreight II, sed nicknames in their family. His father was the first and his son the third. Their nicknames...... Cotton (the first), Ace (the second) and Skipper (the third)..... Not real sure of the origin, but Cotton was around 50 when I met him - he had white hair like a head of cotton. Ace like to sail and power boat and I can only assume that after he married and he had his first (and only son), he too loved the water and sailing ... hence somewhere he was tagged with "skipper"...... Not sure of the Ace thing.......he didn't play cards and he wasn't real sharp when it came to common sense... but he is an engineer (EE) ....

 

I am simply known as Al since Alfred seems just so formal and butlery. The AJ in the screen name refers tro my and +1's initials, so I am not known as AJ (though I could since my middle initial is J) except to a few people who only know my online.

 

I am known as shithead, but usually only my mother calls me that.

 

Cool Morris! I never knew I had a brother.

 

..but Mo, you didn't capitalize it, so I assume it's not a name but maybe an intended description.

 

As a young kid they called me "Buebel" - that's with an umlaut - and roughly translates into pecks-bad-boy. As an adolescent, little f***ker, was my father's favorite.
My working days' friends called me "schnauzer," supposedly having to do with my style, attitude, and early grey hair.
Most older members of our family all began with the letter "J", 4 Johns, 2 Joes, June, Jan.
Among the younger set: Lauren is Princess; Brooke is Ellen, Jennifer is Sue, Regina is Gina, John is JC, Kate is Liz, Colin is Everready, Connor is Con-man. The grandkids call me Opa and +1 goes by Mimi.

 

dean is my nickname/alias. In reality I am Spanky Nottbottom, world reknown S&M p-rn star.

 

(World-1), actually ... I never heard of you before. But I like learning new things, so that's cool.

I go by "Mike" so much that I consider it my name. Only my mother and people who don't know me call me Michael. I did have one girlfriend who called me that as her private name for me, which I have always thought was rather ironic.