Count me in as one of the many who is disappointed that I wasn’t the first to post “Don’t be a Dick.”
What I can’t stand is when people call me Bob. Or Bobby. Or Rob.
Especially since my name is Todd.
Agreed. I was at a party recently when someone (a grown man well over 30) introduced himself to me as “Tommy”. I just about spit my drink up laughing, and said “Tommy???” You call your self Tommy? Okayyyyyy.
But this whole Rick/Rik thing has gotta be a rock 'n roller thing. Can’t be just Rick, he has to be Rik. How about The Rickster?
I think that if a person wants to be called a certain name then other people should respect it. I think I learned that from my mom. Her name is Catherine. Not Cathy. She has never been a Cathy, and never will be a Cathy. You call her Cathy, her eyes kill you with death beams.
My name is Teresa. Not Terry. Not Theres. Not Theresa. At work one of the VPs is named Theres. Everyone there called me Theres for a while. There are still people, even after I’ve been here a year, that still call me Theres. I will be very nice and point out the proper spelling and pronunciation. Not a death beamer, I. But it really annoys me when I have made it clear what my name is and people still insist on calling me whatever they feel like. Makes me feel little, like I’m not important enough to have my preferences respected on my own damn name.
My little brother is named Michael. When he started kindergarten he decided his name would be Mike. We were cool with that and he was Mike for about five years. Then, I started calling him “The Boy.” He was cool with that. Then Mom and Dad started calling him “The Boy.” He was not cool with that, so they stopped. He turned 21 yesterday. I still call him “The Boy,” and will continue to do so until he expresses his displeasure. (I do double check with him every now and then, especially around his friends, to make sure he is, in fact, still cool.)
Like you, I do not like people to call me by the diminutive of my name. I make it clear the first time they do it. “Please”, I say with a smile, “I prefer Rik or Richard, NEVER Ricky.” And that has always put an end to it. (Of course, my name isn’t Richard, but you get the idea.)
I have never heard of the name Theres. How is it pronounced? Like there with an s?
It sounds like someone trying to say Teresa and getting lazy and bored and leaving off the “A” at the end.
Or like someone saying “trees” as in “tall, woody plants” but with a “sss” at the end instead of a “zzz.”
Me: Tuh-ree-sah or Ter-ee-sah, either are acceptable.
Them: Tr-esss
I can’t believe every single idea I had for a post has already been taken.
I’d never call him Dick, I’d call him Penis Envy. 
Might I suggest never going to work for George W Bush, because he has this habit…
“You’re doin a heck of a job Ricky!”
I think what The Riksterroony is saying here is that it’s really rude to keep calling someone by a name they don’t want to be known as. Everyone has the right to be known by a name they choose. Deliberately calling them something else, despite requests to quit it, is a basic insult.
But everyone else also has the right to think you a tool/doofus/idiot because of the name you’ve chosen. Insisting on Rik, instead of Rick, gets dangerously close to this.
I grew up in Iowa in the 1970s-80s, when it was almost unheard of not to go by a diminutive if your name had one. I was well into my teens before I knew Sally was short for anything.
Something changes when you get into more urbane precincts. In college at U of Michigan I met Lawrences, Sheldons, Melissas and such from faraway places who balked at being called Larry, Missy or Shel. (In fact Melissa, who was Thai IIRC, insisted on saying it as if it were spelled Melisa.)
Having a name that is commonly spelled without an e, but mine is spelled WITH the e, I can sympathize with the OP. To paraphrase Data from Star Trek, one is my name, the other is not. If his name is Rik, it’s Rik. Not Ricky, Dick, Ricardo, Dicky, or Frank. People who keep on doing it after being asked to stop are just being, well, dicks.
I remember one time (it wasn’t at band camp) that I met this guy named (I think) Andrew, and I said, “Andy?” and he said, “No, Andrew.” So, quickly and easily, we established that he wasn’t a diminutive kind of guy, and that was cool.
I’d prefer you call me by Tab or Taber. Stupid fuckers is not my preferred name, so I would appreciate it if you did not call me that. Thank you.
My first name is Robert… but I don’t use it, I go by Dave. I get people calling me Robert, Rob, and Bob and while it sometimes irritates me, my irritation comes from the fact that these people are trying to be too friendly/ too intimate. I don’t call most people that I’ve worked with for the past 17 years by their first names.
My philosophy is to call me whatever you want, but understand that I may not answer if I don’t realize you’re talking to me.
I think you should do as Indiana Jones did, and refuse to grab your father’s hand until he calls you by your preferred name.
Even if that’s what he named the dog.
Rik.
grin, bob head up and down
The Rikster.
grin, bob head up and down
Rikerrino, rantin’ about people mispronouncin’ his name.
grin, bob head up and down
The Rik-meister, not gettin’ any respect.
grin, bob head up and down
Don’t call him Ricky.
grin, bob head-- ah, hell, you get the picture.
I am with the OP. I have a diminutive name I let everyone use, but when people find out my real name, they find it funny to call me by that. I don’t want people calling me that, 90% of the time Americans ruin the pronunciation and I happen to think it’s a beautiful name and would like not to have it butchered, please. Also - I give that name to the temple, etc., so I know exactly who’s calling.
What IS Sally short for?
I also have a shortened name I go by that can have a “y” added to the end. I hate it. Only my mother, sister and niece still use it, because it’s impossible to break them of the habit.
Someone at work started calling me that “y” name when talking to people in my department. It was very obviously done as a little insult to me – in 5 years I’d never used the “y” nickname and it was not on any forms, phone lists, intranet postings, etc. I called them up and gave them a very stern message of what my name was and it wasn’t “y”. And I reported them to HR. Never happened again.
No way I see this as someone “forgetting” the proper name. It’s a taunt.
This is the scenario (except with different names, as neither Robert nor Dave are good “girl” names) I live with. I got to hate the nickname I had as a child, for a number of reasons (bullying & teasing, it didn’t sound feminine & pretty to me, etc.). So I tried using my full name, but everyone seemed to think I was being stuck up (“Well, lah-di-dah, ‘Abigail’ [false name used for illustrative purposes]”, they’d say). Also, complete strangers would still shorten it (because everyone with this name uses the diminutive).
So, I tried going by my initials for a few years. It was ok, but I wasn’t really thrilled by it, and it definitely didn’t sound feminine. Finally, my SO hit upon a solution (he didn’t like the initials thing, either) - a nickname of my middle name, one that sounded feminine.