Abbreviating your name

[wolf]

momwolf's name was Eileen. There are no good abbreviations for that, but was called Sissy or Sis by her siblings and Aunt Sissy by the nieces and nephew.

My name is very short, three letters, two syllables, not very abbreviable, but some folks who think that was not short enough just used the first syllable. Actually, there was really only one guy, one of the day ambulance fellows at the nuthouse, and in return I would call him "Ant". He was never a Tony, always Anthony, which I found kind of interesting.

siswolf also has a three letter, two syllable first name, and does not have any nicknames. Her name doesn't lend itself to further shortening. "Aim" is not short for Amy. I just noticed ... she has two consonants and a vowel, I have two vowels and a consonant. We both have been shortchanged on vowels in our last name. I do not anagram well. The anagram finder tells me there are only 10 variations, and none of them make a good sentence.

[richlevy]

I really don't like it when people call me Dick.

Now if people wanted to start calling me "Big Dick", that might be okay. At some point in time, all implications of the phrase are correct.

I did have some relatives who called me 'Richie' until I was well into middle age.

I have been called 'Steve' on a number of occasions.

At work I am sometimes called just 'Levy' since we have quite a few 'Richards'.

[footfootfoot]

I have a one syllable name that lends itself to rhyming taunts similar to sean, sean, the leprechaun. or sean, sean sure as your born, and so on.

I have always made up nick names for friends, family and co-workers that stick. Sometimes they can be complicated mash ups of similar sounding suffixes and prefixes and a dash of whatever the linguistic zeitgeist is.

years ago one of my friends became "Crustacea B" after an encounter with seafood bisque soup left him worse for the wear. At first he was called Crustacea Bisque, then shortened to just Crustacea B.

[casimendocina]

We went through a phrase in late high school/uni when anyone's name that could be shortened to one syllable was and people with an 's' as the final letter had that exchanged for 'z'/z sound.

[footfootfoot]

So Barnabus would be rendered how?

[casimendocina]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

So Barnabus would be rendered how?

Barnz

[DanaC]

I used to get called danish bacon sometimes. Because my family called me Dani (daynee).

[Sundae]

Back in the day I was called Cherry Bakewell.
By people thinking they were the first to come up with it.
The "joke" was old, but did not weary me. Better than Cheggars, after all.

Oh, I checked with Ste. No, he had no idea I refused to call him Steve.
I'd like to say he was bemused by the conversation. But in truth he was indifferent in a good-natured way. That's ma bro.

[DanaC]

I think we should all just call you Dave from now on.


Hello Dave? Is that Dave? My wife wants to use your toilet Dave

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I think we should all just call you Dave from now on.


Hello Dave? Is that Dave? My wife wants to use your toilet Dave

I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that...

[Lola Bunny]

I have a very short name, lends no nickname. When I was younger, I was a clutz, well, according to my sister, and she would call me these names every time I trip or etc. Over a period of time, one term stuck and she used it as my name. That's according to my memory. She doesn't even remember why she called me by this nickname, and she's the only one who calls me this. Where I live, there's this bunch of girls. When we were younger, they started giving people nicknames. That happens when people live and interact with each other for so long, I guess. Since I'm so tiny, and the littlest of them all, they called me Smurfette. I tried to ignore it at first, but after a while, I gave in and responded to that name. So, my name now is either Smurfette or Smurfy.

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by Lola Bunny

... Since I'm so tiny, and the littlest of them all, they called me Smurfette. I tried to ignore it at first, but after a while, I gave in and responded to that name. So, my name now is either Smurfette or Smurfy.

So, now we're going to need a set of Smurfy's Laws:

#1. If anyone can get small, they will get small.

Original Monologue by Steve Martin
I mentioned that, earlier in the show, a drug joke - and I hate to do that, because it creates a mess, and I'm not into drugs any more. I quit completely, and I hate people who are still into it. Well.. I do take one drug now - for fun - and, maybe you've heard of it, it's a new thing, I don't know if you have or not. It's a new thing, it makes you small. [ indicates size with fingers ] About this big. And, you know, I'll be home, sitting with my friends, and, uh.. we'll be sitting around, and somebody will say, "Heeeyyy.. let's get small!" So, you know, we get small, and uh.. the only bad thing is if some tall people come over. You're walking around going, "Ah hahaha..!" Now, I know I shouldn't get small when I'm driving.. but I was driving around the other day, and I said, "What the heck?" You know? So I'm driving like.. [ extends arms high in the air like he's reaching up to a giant steering wheel ] And, uh.. a cop pulls me over. And he makes me get out, he looks at me and he says, "Heyyy.. are you small"? I said, "No-o-o! I'm not!" He said, "Well, I'm gonna have to measure you." They have this little test they give you - they give you a balloon.. and if you can get inside of it, they know you're small. Now, I've already talked it over with the cast - they've been working all week, it's a tough thing to do, come out here live. Immediately after the show, we're all gonna go out.. and get really small!

Let's get small.

[footfootfoot]

My wife says your toilet has a block...

[DanaC]

*grins*

[DanaC]

We used to just add a 'y' or 'ie' to someone's surname. So, I would sometimes be called Coombsie. I still call my bro that sometimes :p And if referring to his family as a group I call them the Coombsies.

Michael B would be called Brooksie. My SiL's maiden name was Hogan, so Hogey. J became Smiffy (smith).

That one's a more general trend though. Johnathon Ross tends to be referred to in the papers as Wossy (because he pronounced his R's as W's).

The other common one is to convert the first or second name into an 'ezzer' or 'ozzer' sound. Like...I sometimes try and wind Sundae up by calling her Chezzer :p But pronounced with a manc accent so it sounds almost like : Chezzor.

My bro had a mate years ago who was known to all as Hyphenated. Because he had a double barrelled name.

In Bolton/manchester we tended also to give people suffix or prefix names. So, Nutty Paul, Mad Sharon, Fingers Geoff, Nervous Pete, Little Pete, Kenny the Burglar, Dancing Max. They were genuine names btw. That was the group I hung with in Bolton.

I was delighted when I started watching Ideal , a sitcom with Johnny Vegas based on a manchester pot dealer, that his supplier was a full on Manc by the name of Mad Paul. That rang very true to me.