I wanna name my daughter (if I ever have one) after my grandma, Zonelle.
It’s unique, it’s pretty and I can call her Zo, Zoey, Zozo, Nelly Nelle. It’s a versatile name!
Based on similar reasoning, I have identified that the optimal first and middle name combination (as far as I have found, anyway) is Silmarillion Mackenzie for the broadest range of nickname potential. Silly, Mari, Mari Mack, Rilly, Marill, Lion, Kenny, Kenzie, Zie, Ril, Sil, Mar, Ken, Macken, Mari Zie, etc.
I always thought that giving kids a name with many nickname variants was good since it allowed them to have some choice and ownership over the name. As for having the same name, even having one slightly different doesn’t help if the teacher forgets and calls you by the more popular, but also not actually your name, just due to them sounding the same. There are a lot of Chris’s, Christopher’s, Kristen’s, Kirsten’s, Christina’s and Christine’s my age. Keeping them all separate was brutal for teachers.
My grandma, who was a teacher, once had three girls that all had the same first, middle and last name. I think she ended up using their mother’s maiden name initials or something.
As a person with a long name, that 1) has many variants, 2) has many ‘correct’ ways of pronouncing, and 3) has many potential nicknames, I would like to point out that having the latter doesn’t really give the person themself much choice of name; rather it generally means that different groups of people are going to settle into different nicknames for you.
My preferred nickname (and my oldest) is ‘Mano’, which by pure accident is a Spanish word, to the confusion of many over its origins as a nickname. However, the most common nickname for my name is Manny. In addition to these, I have been given the nicknames ‘Emu’ and ‘E-man’, at various points, although the latter lead to much confusion with the similar-sounding ‘T-man’.
Although I have discouraged ‘Manny’ and encourage ‘Mano’, I have gradually come to realize that it’s more effort than it’s worth, and thus I rather utilize my various nicknames to pinpoint exactly where people know me from.
Kelli217
I hope you never went through a period where people sang that Christmas song at you and thought they were being funny and scandalous. Or thought of you when there was that scene in WALL-E.
Plain Marie
Ah, another Christmas song baby! Yeah!
Kimi
I have so many questions about people calling you nicknames without your permission. I guess it just seems rude to me to do that, but I guess other people might not consider it to be rude. Maybe it’s a girl vs guy thing or related to certain groups like sports, as I was not really into sports after elementary school.
As for the pronunciation problems, after having an acquaintance go by the Swedish/Norwegian pronunciation of Kirsten and a cousin with the more typical version of Kirsten (the first sounds more like a key than a kur), I have seen how difficult it can be with only 2 main variations. Having unusual spellings can make it difficult too. I find it better to just assume nothing in most cases. I tend to have more trouble with last names though.
Psychie
Personally, I have a really common name, Jacob, and I do NOT go by Jake, and I tell people that when they try to call me Jake. not because I have a problem with Jake, but rather by pure happenstance growing up whenever I’d be in a classroom with multiple Jacobs I just happened to be the one who got the full name treatment, so I nobody ever called me Jake and as such I’ll get confused when I hear it because that name has always been associated with the other guys in my mind. I do have a long list of nicknames I will go by, but none of them are actually based on my real name. Since I’ve been an adult, people have taken to calling me by my last name, which is fine, but I’m not entirely sure why since there are somehow no longer any other Jacobs in my immediate circle so there shouldn’t be any confusion or need for alternatives.
For reference of how ridiculous it gets sometimes, in high school I had a 30 student class where I was one of 6 Jacobs, meaning we were a full fifth of the class. Back when I played YuGiOh in my group there was one guy who had been in the group since before me who went by Jake, then I joined so I was Jacob since we already had a Jake, and then a guy whose legal name was Jake Jacobson joined in, so he went by JJ.
I’ve gotten many nicknames over the years (hence the aforementioned list), but mostly based on my personality and interests, or in some cases based on specific things that happened, like that time my LARP character was adopted by giants who couldn’t pronounce his name so they renamed him Slappy, and then everyone from that game started calling me Slappy, even out of game. Nicknames are weird and few people are allowed to pick their own.
TomHCinMI
Yes. I’ve been Tommy and Tom and Thomas, and even TopCat, all with no control on my part.
I’ve been to some place where people use family name + a number for the order of arrival. But it’s not like SPECTRE, if number one leaves you’re still number two.
OYG*, you’d think the administration would have put them in different classes. Or were there three in every class? They must have mocked all the non-Pringles.
A person of my aquaintance got so annoyed at the fact she and all her siblings had their actual names changed to some variant, John was Jack, Barbara was Babs etc, that she called her daughters Fay and Sue. Fay changed hers to Faye and at school Sue was constantly asked, “Yes, but what does it stand for.”
We gave our children three first names each, and made it clear to them as soon as they were old dough to understand that although we would have one year we always used st home they could choose which one they went by in other situations.
The older one, Iesu Tomos Edwin, is Tom at home, but when he went to college decided to be Edwin there. The younger one, Iago Benjamin Matthew, is Ben at home, and Ben pretty much everywhere else, too – but goes by Iago with his really close friends.
The ability to choose one’s own identity is something my partner and I both consider very important (we both struggled with aspects of our own identities for years).
As a Scout leader, I meet a lot of kids with a lot of names – thankfully we’ve never had more than three of any name at the same time. So there was a Thomas, a Tom, and a Tommy at one time. And another time there were Daniel, Danny, and Dan. I also had several names that duplicated in my form group in secondary school – two each of Thomases, Michaels, Matthews, and Marks, out of a class of 25. xD
Strangely, in my entire life I’ve never met a single other person with the same name as me – Gregory. xD
Neither their father nor Sal called him Walky in the previous pages. I assume that he’s seeing that Billie is really not happy about being made fun of, and decides to get himself a nickname (following her reasoning with last names), to make himself the focus of the other kids’ teasing.
MacareuxMoine
You’re right: this is the very moment when Walky coined his nickname (which totally went over my head, the first time I read it), just to support Billie.
I recall my parents telling me that they each knew, like, four or five different Jennifers in high school and I always wondered how the hell they kept them all straight.
In high school, one of my best friend’s younger sisters was named Jennifer, and her nickname was Fer for a long time. She goes by Jenn now though, as far as I know.
Assuming the classic 10% and assuming the ‘rents knew 4.5 between them, that’s 9 chances at 10% each is about a 62% chance one of their Jennifers is fabulous. But I always thought that 10% figure was highly suspect and likely warped by being measured in a _very_ unnaccepting environment.
Still, 62% are pretty good odds, even if not particularly odd.
When I was in primary school, not only were there a whole bunch of Davids (I only use the Gaelic spelling online, and I didn’t even know about it then), there were two others who shared my surname. One was a couple of years older, but I shared an art class with the other, and we had to use middle initials when signing our work.
One year at an interest meeting for a club in college, 2 or 3 guys named pat showed up. Somebody dubbed one of the freshman pats “mr cuddles” and he remained mr cuddles, even after the other pats stopped showing up. Some of the best nicknames are because there are too many people with the same name.
Shadowsnail
I’ve always thought that someone named Patrick should go by “Trick”. Maybe I’ll put that in a story someday (if I ever actually get around to putting in the time and effort to write anything)
I’m reminded of a story I heard on a podcast. One of the hosts was in a friend group when he was younger, in which there were 3 guys named Will. If I recall correctly, the story went something like one of them went by Billy, one was Filipino so they all called him Willipino, and the host went by his last name, Stamper, so nobody was “Will” anymore.
I became “thejeff” basically the same way. Too many Jeffs in our immediate friend circle in college. The others picked up descriptors, I was the first so became “thejeff”.
Seregiel
The Jeff is a very elusive creature which can be found in groups in upper education institutions.
As a teacher, I’ll commonly get two or even three of the same name in a class. I don’t bother with nicknames or initials (unless the student specifically requests it); I just use the name as-is and they always know who’s who because I’m addressing whichever one I’m looking at. Works pretty well.
There were a ton of Jacobs in my school growing up so eventually they all had their first names erased in favor of their last names. So eventually there were no Jacobs, only Levi, Rosen and Fredricks.
My real name is Zoë, decently unique (my spelling especially) but doesn’t stand out too much, but i guess between the years 1995-2003 parents in my part of the country decided they were obsessed, because i grew up knowing at least 3 or 4 other Zoe’s of some variant in my tiny school. One of them was in my grade and naturally one of my “best friends” (we were like 9, all backstabbing little bongoes who hated each other) and to make matters worse, we had the same last initials too.
I don’t think people mixed us up much but when i had to sit next to a Chloe in class (much more common name, only Chloe in the school), that was hell.
My current nickname didn’t even come out of that, no one really tried too hard to differentiate us. zee comes from my now boyfriend seeing “zozeebo” as a screen name when we first met and deciding “that is way too many letters”
One time I was working with a class with three kids named Kate in it, and they all sat near each other, each with a difference hair color, and I just kept thinking about the Ashleys from Recess.
What I remember from that day was taking attendance and saying “Kate” and then having four voices pop up with “Which one?” and then used last initials for the rest of attendance. (I also don’t think “Kate” was the exact given name for all of them, but it was what they all went by.)
Though I have to admit, despite it feeling good at first, I’ve never quite found a name that really “fit” me.
Decidedly Orthogonal
All my favourite names for me were gifts from others, and include associated positive memories. It always felt weird to choose my own name when I did, and after a couple of legal name changes (married. mistakes were made) I’ve ended up back with my legal name at the time of my birth.
Still love those nicknames people have given me with care though.
It should be more societally accepted for people to choose their own name, without getting weird looks or roundabout accusations of a felony. Taffy isn’t any weirder a name than Gerald, and so what if a few people decide to name themselves “Ghostbusters 2 on DVD and Blu-ray”?
Doom Shepherd
“No, you see, it’s SPELLED ‘Ghostbusters 2 on DVD and Blu-ray’ bit It’s pronounced ‘Cat who lives in the barn loft.’”
198 thoughts on “Names”
Ana Chronistic
tbh I wanted to give any theoretical kids I had names that allowed for MANY nicknames if they so wanted to differentiate
…tho that does bring to mind a friend’s story about the first day of classes:
Teacher: Emily A?
Emily A: I prefer Emma.
Teacher: Okay, Emily B?
Emily B: I prefer Millie.
Teacher: Fine. Emily C?
Emily C: I prefer Emwy.
Teacher: Good lord… Emily D?
Emily D: Emily is fine.
Teacher: Oh thank god… Boyd?
Boyd: I prefer Emily.
Meagan
The last one is so great. As a substitute teacher, I am very familiar with this phenomenon.
Yotomoe
I wanna name my daughter (if I ever have one) after my grandma, Zonelle.
It’s unique, it’s pretty and I can call her Zo, Zoey, Zozo, Nelly Nelle. It’s a versatile name!
Psychie
Based on similar reasoning, I have identified that the optimal first and middle name combination (as far as I have found, anyway) is Silmarillion Mackenzie for the broadest range of nickname potential. Silly, Mari, Mari Mack, Rilly, Marill, Lion, Kenny, Kenzie, Zie, Ril, Sil, Mar, Ken, Macken, Mari Zie, etc.
TomHCinMI
Very creative!
Kimi
I always thought that giving kids a name with many nickname variants was good since it allowed them to have some choice and ownership over the name. As for having the same name, even having one slightly different doesn’t help if the teacher forgets and calls you by the more popular, but also not actually your name, just due to them sounding the same. There are a lot of Chris’s, Christopher’s, Kristen’s, Kirsten’s, Christina’s and Christine’s my age. Keeping them all separate was brutal for teachers.
My grandma, who was a teacher, once had three girls that all had the same first, middle and last name. I think she ended up using their mother’s maiden name initials or something.
Mano308gts
As a person with a long name, that 1) has many variants, 2) has many ‘correct’ ways of pronouncing, and 3) has many potential nicknames, I would like to point out that having the latter doesn’t really give the person themself much choice of name; rather it generally means that different groups of people are going to settle into different nicknames for you.
My preferred nickname (and my oldest) is ‘Mano’, which by pure accident is a Spanish word, to the confusion of many over its origins as a nickname. However, the most common nickname for my name is Manny. In addition to these, I have been given the nicknames ‘Emu’ and ‘E-man’, at various points, although the latter lead to much confusion with the similar-sounding ‘T-man’.
Although I have discouraged ‘Manny’ and encourage ‘Mano’, I have gradually come to realize that it’s more effort than it’s worth, and thus I rather utilize my various nicknames to pinpoint exactly where people know me from.
Kelli217
I hope you never went through a period where people sang that Christmas song at you and thought they were being funny and scandalous. Or thought of you when there was that scene in WALL-E.
Plain Marie
Ah, another Christmas song baby! Yeah!
Kimi
I have so many questions about people calling you nicknames without your permission. I guess it just seems rude to me to do that, but I guess other people might not consider it to be rude. Maybe it’s a girl vs guy thing or related to certain groups like sports, as I was not really into sports after elementary school.
As for the pronunciation problems, after having an acquaintance go by the Swedish/Norwegian pronunciation of Kirsten and a cousin with the more typical version of Kirsten (the first sounds more like a key than a kur), I have seen how difficult it can be with only 2 main variations. Having unusual spellings can make it difficult too. I find it better to just assume nothing in most cases. I tend to have more trouble with last names though.
Psychie
Personally, I have a really common name, Jacob, and I do NOT go by Jake, and I tell people that when they try to call me Jake. not because I have a problem with Jake, but rather by pure happenstance growing up whenever I’d be in a classroom with multiple Jacobs I just happened to be the one who got the full name treatment, so I nobody ever called me Jake and as such I’ll get confused when I hear it because that name has always been associated with the other guys in my mind. I do have a long list of nicknames I will go by, but none of them are actually based on my real name. Since I’ve been an adult, people have taken to calling me by my last name, which is fine, but I’m not entirely sure why since there are somehow no longer any other Jacobs in my immediate circle so there shouldn’t be any confusion or need for alternatives.
For reference of how ridiculous it gets sometimes, in high school I had a 30 student class where I was one of 6 Jacobs, meaning we were a full fifth of the class. Back when I played YuGiOh in my group there was one guy who had been in the group since before me who went by Jake, then I joined so I was Jacob since we already had a Jake, and then a guy whose legal name was Jake Jacobson joined in, so he went by JJ.
I’ve gotten many nicknames over the years (hence the aforementioned list), but mostly based on my personality and interests, or in some cases based on specific things that happened, like that time my LARP character was adopted by giants who couldn’t pronounce his name so they renamed him Slappy, and then everyone from that game started calling me Slappy, even out of game. Nicknames are weird and few people are allowed to pick their own.
TomHCinMI
Yes. I’ve been Tommy and Tom and Thomas, and even TopCat, all with no control on my part.
khn0
I’ve been to some place where people use family name + a number for the order of arrival. But it’s not like SPECTRE, if number one leaves you’re still number two.
Shadowsnail
OYG*, you’d think the administration would have put them in different classes. Or were there three in every class? They must have mocked all the non-Pringles.
*Oh Your God
ktbear
A person of my aquaintance got so annoyed at the fact she and all her siblings had their actual names changed to some variant, John was Jack, Barbara was Babs etc, that she called her daughters Fay and Sue. Fay changed hers to Faye and at school Sue was constantly asked, “Yes, but what does it stand for.”
Ana Chronistic
I have a name that’s “short” bc Mom wanted to make up for our long last name, and everyone thinks it’s short for something
uh
no
stop adding “uh” to my name pls
Stifyn Baker
We gave our children three first names each, and made it clear to them as soon as they were old dough to understand that although we would have one year we always used st home they could choose which one they went by in other situations.
The older one, Iesu Tomos Edwin, is Tom at home, but when he went to college decided to be Edwin there. The younger one, Iago Benjamin Matthew, is Ben at home, and Ben pretty much everywhere else, too – but goes by Iago with his really close friends.
The ability to choose one’s own identity is something my partner and I both consider very important (we both struggled with aspects of our own identities for years).
Yet_One_More_Idiot
As a Scout leader, I meet a lot of kids with a lot of names – thankfully we’ve never had more than three of any name at the same time. So there was a Thomas, a Tom, and a Tommy at one time. And another time there were Daniel, Danny, and Dan. I also had several names that duplicated in my form group in secondary school – two each of Thomases, Michaels, Matthews, and Marks, out of a class of 25. xD
Strangely, in my entire life I’ve never met a single other person with the same name as me – Gregory. xD
Moriarty70
I would have been that kid. Say it as a joke, but most of the supply teachers we had would have called my bluff and I’d be boy Emily all day.
Sirksome
My grandmother’s named Billie. Like not as a nickname, that’s just her first name.
Cholma
Is her last name Holiday? 😉
Clif
Billie Easter.
Deviant
Is it Billie Jean, famous non-lover of Michael Jackson?
Shadowsnail
William Jeanette is not my paramour, she is simply a young female with a spurious claim regarding the parentage of her progeny.
milu
The humanling was not begotten by yours truly!
Ava-Ann
Yeah I’ve got an Aunt Freddie myself. Gender bent names surviving the times, ftw!
Nova
I have an Uncle Stacy – Didn’t even know it was a “girl’s name” until I was in middle school and someone laughed.
Deanatay
Both my uncle and maternal grandfather were named Merle. It’s a type of bird, so it’s usually a girl’s name, but not in my family.
The Wellerman
Billie: Origins
Nono
Hrm. Did she intentionally not name-drop her last name? That feels… very intentional.
Cholma
Of course it was. She realized she didn’t want them to know she’s rich.
Andy
I think she realized that the teasing would continue until she picked another first name.
Deanatay
Well, ‘Billie’ IS her last name, so she’s not exactly hiding it.
I love how Walky goes through, “Hey, they’re teasing her for her nickname – hey wait, I’M often teased for my nickname… BESTIES!!”
dralou
Neither their father nor Sal called him Walky in the previous pages. I assume that he’s seeing that Billie is really not happy about being made fun of, and decides to get himself a nickname (following her reasoning with last names), to make himself the focus of the other kids’ teasing.
MacareuxMoine
You’re right: this is the very moment when Walky coined his nickname (which totally went over my head, the first time I read it), just to support Billie.
BBCC
This is sweet. New sister acquired!
RassilonTDavros
I recall my parents telling me that they each knew, like, four or five different Jennifers in high school and I always wondered how the hell they kept them all straight.
Nono
I mean if they wanted, they could have used Jennifer, Jenny, Jen, and, uh… Fergie?
Illjwamh
In high school, one of my best friend’s younger sisters was named Jennifer, and her nickname was Fer for a long time. She goes by Jenn now though, as far as I know.
Kimi
Jenna is an alternate too, or going by a middle name.
Shadowsnail
Furry and Nif
milu
Jenjen! Nifnif! Jennifnif! Nifferfer!
…i like reduplication =D (not all my friends approve of that quirk.)
Sirksome
We don’t know, odds are one of them was gay.
RassilonTDavros
Fair point. Jennifer’s attempts to keep herself straight will always be doomed to failure.
Decidedly Orthogonal
That’s not very odd.
Assuming the classic 10% and assuming the ‘rents knew 4.5 between them, that’s 9 chances at 10% each is about a 62% chance one of their Jennifers is fabulous. But I always thought that 10% figure was highly suspect and likely warped by being measured in a _very_ unnaccepting environment.
Still, 62% are pretty good odds, even if not particularly odd.
Thag Simmons
Something using the last name is pretty common.
DaibhidC
When I was in primary school, not only were there a whole bunch of Davids (I only use the Gaelic spelling online, and I didn’t even know about it then), there were two others who shared my surname. One was a couple of years older, but I shared an art class with the other, and we had to use middle initials when signing our work.
Lumino
I think my favorite version of this was in college when yet another Chris joined our local “All Things Nerd” club.
“We’ve got too many damn Chris’ here. You’re like the forth one, so you’re C4.”
Tripping into a good nickname out of frustration. The early 21st century was a wild time.
Andy
I was one of 3 Andys in my fraternity, and there were also 3 Mikes. Considering the chapter was like 14 men, that was mildly surprising.
Dinajoyce
One year at an interest meeting for a club in college, 2 or 3 guys named pat showed up. Somebody dubbed one of the freshman pats “mr cuddles” and he remained mr cuddles, even after the other pats stopped showing up. Some of the best nicknames are because there are too many people with the same name.
Shadowsnail
I’ve always thought that someone named Patrick should go by “Trick”. Maybe I’ll put that in a story someday
(if I ever actually get around to putting in the time and effort to write anything)Taffy
I’m reminded of a story I heard on a podcast. One of the hosts was in a friend group when he was younger, in which there were 3 guys named Will. If I recall correctly, the story went something like one of them went by Billy, one was Filipino so they all called him Willipino, and the host went by his last name, Stamper, so nobody was “Will” anymore.
thejeff
I became “thejeff” basically the same way. Too many Jeffs in our immediate friend circle in college. The others picked up descriptors, I was the first so became “thejeff”.
Seregiel
The Jeff is a very elusive creature which can be found in groups in upper education institutions.
Plain Marie
At least you weren’t C3.
Illjwamh
As a teacher, I’ll commonly get two or even three of the same name in a class. I don’t bother with nicknames or initials (unless the student specifically requests it); I just use the name as-is and they always know who’s who because I’m addressing whichever one I’m looking at. Works pretty well.
Rose by Any Other Name
Same. Knew a ton of Jennifers growing up.
Also, currently, I only have two ‘mom’ friends (that is female friends who have children of their own). Catherine and Katherine.
zee
There were a ton of Jacobs in my school growing up so eventually they all had their first names erased in favor of their last names. So eventually there were no Jacobs, only Levi, Rosen and Fredricks.
My real name is Zoë, decently unique (my spelling especially) but doesn’t stand out too much, but i guess between the years 1995-2003 parents in my part of the country decided they were obsessed, because i grew up knowing at least 3 or 4 other Zoe’s of some variant in my tiny school. One of them was in my grade and naturally one of my “best friends” (we were like 9, all backstabbing little bongoes who hated each other) and to make matters worse, we had the same last initials too.
I don’t think people mixed us up much but when i had to sit next to a Chloe in class (much more common name, only Chloe in the school), that was hell.
My current nickname didn’t even come out of that, no one really tried too hard to differentiate us. zee comes from my now boyfriend seeing “zozeebo” as a screen name when we first met and deciding “that is way too many letters”
Yumi
One time I was working with a class with three kids named Kate in it, and they all sat near each other, each with a difference hair color, and I just kept thinking about the Ashleys from Recess.
The Wellerman
Did you call them using their last names or something?
Yumi
What I remember from that day was taking attendance and saying “Kate” and then having four voices pop up with “Which one?” and then used last initials for the rest of attendance. (I also don’t think “Kate” was the exact given name for all of them, but it was what they all went by.)
The Wellerman
Oh that’s so cute! ?
Yumi
Also, hell yeah for naming yourself! Naming yourself can feel awesome.
The Wellerman
Hell yeah it does.
Though I have to admit, despite it feeling good at first, I’ve never quite found a name that really “fit” me.
Decidedly Orthogonal
All my favourite names for me were gifts from others, and include associated positive memories. It always felt weird to choose my own name when I did, and after a couple of legal name changes (married. mistakes were made) I’ve ended up back with my legal name at the time of my birth.
Still love those nicknames people have given me with care though.
Taffy
It should be more societally accepted for people to choose their own name, without getting weird looks or roundabout accusations of a felony. Taffy isn’t any weirder a name than Gerald, and so what if a few people decide to name themselves “Ghostbusters 2 on DVD and Blu-ray”?
Doom Shepherd
“No, you see, it’s SPELLED ‘Ghostbusters 2 on DVD and Blu-ray’ bit It’s pronounced ‘Cat who lives in the barn loft.’”
milu
Taffy isn’t really a weird name for a generation who grew up on heroines named Buffy and Rory.
milu
Did you name yourself Yumi? storytime! …storytime???
Reaver
Ugh I’m an Ashley and wanted to punch someone every time they were all “LOL LIKE THE ASHLEY’S FROM RECESS”
Yes, thank you it was the most popular name I was born >.<
The Wellerman