# Have you or anybody you know picked their own nickname? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 21, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499 "2010-07-21T18:34:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/1 "2010-07-21T18:34:17Z")
Inspired by the other thread floating around about how people got their nicknames. Most people I know have their nickname thrust upon them…by family members or friends. But I have met a few shallow people that picked their own nickname. As a matter of protest, I continue to call them by their given name, as I think nicknames should be awarded not taken. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/2 "2010-07-21T19:35:56Z")
If I recall correctly, Marion Morrison got tired of being teased about his name, so he started insisting people call him by his dog’s name, Duke. It stuck. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/3 "2010-07-21T20:37:12Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > If I recall correctly, Marion Morrison got tired of being teased about his name, so he started insisting people call him by his dog’s name, Duke. > > It stuck. Actually a Glendale, CA fireman, that he saw everyday to/from school, gave him the nickname. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/4 "2010-07-21T20:51:15Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > But I have met a few shallow people that picked their own nickname. I know Noodles. Noodles ain’t shallow. When I think Noodles, I think hearty, warm, often slimy, occasionally covered in gravy when the occasion warrants. But shallow? Never. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/5 "2010-07-21T22:14:25Z")
No. All my nicknames are variations on my given name, and I’ve never encouraged any of them. I don’t mind that no one calls me by my actual name though. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/6 "2010-07-22T02:31:33Z")
My given name provides many opportunities for various nicknames (for example: Elizabeth could be Liz, Beth, Eliza, Betty, Bets, etc.). When I was younger, my parents picked my nickname. As I grew, I didn’t like that nickname, and I chose my own version. All of the kids in my family have done that but one. His given name really only provides two nicknames and one of them is quite juvenile and I’ve never heard anyone over the age of 5 go by it voluntarily. ---
**Author:** ![wolf-alice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9e8a1a/32.png) [@wolf-alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf-alice)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/7 "2010-07-23T09:36:10Z")
[Probably this guy](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/39/87870292_bcca949e79.jpg?v=0). ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/8 "2010-07-24T12:39:00Z")
I too am a great believer that other people should pick a persons nickname. Which is why its irritating that this side of the pond people have started actually christening their kids with nicknames, as in Jamie, Steve or Bob. By the way people call me Stud Hunk. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/9 "2010-07-24T13:00:13Z")
I’ve only had one nickname, and it is gradually fading away. I was on the vascular surgery team as the low man on the totem pole, the intern. We were doing surgery with the terrifying surgeon one night, a man known for his abusive comments. As the surgery went on, 3 words were directed to the surgery resident and I. Those words were ‘Buzz’, meaning to cauterize a vessel, ‘Suck’, meaning to vacuum away pooling blood, and ‘Fuck’, whenever anything went wrong. This was good, because it meant he had little to say. At the end of a grueling 4 hours the resident and I staggered out. I turned to the resident and said “That was great, I never thought he’d be so friendly”. He looked at me like I had two heads. I said “Yeah, he was so fun, he gave us those cool nicknames: called me Buzz, called you Suck”. For the next 4 years the surgeons called me ‘ **Buzz** ’. Weirdly, the doddery lady in the film library heard this story and called me ‘Butch’ for 4 years. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/10 "2010-07-24T14:43:22Z")
I know one dude who picked his message board name because he found an avatar he liked - and then started trying to get people to call him by that name in real life. I usually just call him lots of various names but that isn’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/11 "2010-07-24T14:56:25Z")
I coined my nickname, but I didn’t choose it or force people to call me it. I originally started using Rysto as my handle online, and a couple of my RL friends started to call me that without any prompting from me. The name stuck all throughout high school. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/12 "2010-08-17T05:21:11Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > For the next 4 years the surgeons called me ‘ **Buzz** ’. > > Weirdly, the doddery lady in the film library heard this story and called me ‘Butch’ for 4 years. Reminds me of an old lady from a job I worked at. Everyone called me “Crusher,” for some reason I don’t quite remember, except Kathy. Kathy was in her late 70s and had been working at the factory for over 60 years. She called me “Chopper.” I let it slide. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/13 "2010-08-17T05:54:52Z")
I picked my own nickname. Growing up, I always insisted that people call me by my real name. Unfortunately, my name is cumbersome, anachronistic and generally uncool, so people would always be giving me nicknames, some of them annoying, some of them VERY annoying. After graduating high school and cutting myself off almost completely from that crowd, I decided that things couldn’t go on that way. I picked the nickname I hated the least and started introducing myself by it. Since then, no-one has ever called me anything else - and I’m fine with that. I’ve grown to prefer that nickname over my real name, and even old friends and family members who always called me by my real name growing up now address me by my nickname. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/14 "2010-08-17T06:04:21Z")
Back in the 80s I volunteered as a crisis intervention counselor and gay peer counselor. There were already three guys on staff with my name and the two standard nicknames for it. So I had to pick another name. I wound up picking a name that had belonged to a friend of mine who had died. He would have liked that. I still use the name when calling a restaurant for reservations or for carry-out. It’s an easier name to communicate than my real one. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/15 "2010-08-17T06:31:47Z")
Sometimes, when I have to give a name for a reservation, I’ll give “Sapphire”. Lynn is fairly common, and Glenn and Linda are too close to it. And I am NOT giving out the first name that’s on my birth certificate. So I give out my cat’s name. Back when I was playing D&D, and we’d call for a pizza for pickup, sometimes the group would use my character’s name, Algernon (the Mad Skinner\*), because it was uncommon but common enough that the pizza places could deal with it. If we’d used the name of the cleric, well, we’d have to tell them how it was spelled. \*Ever since the DM informed the group that we’d lost out on 1K GP because we hadn’t skinned the latest kill, my character skinned and sold just about every non-sentient critter we killed. And he’d skin most of the non-hominid sentients, too…there’s a lot of money to be made in [dragon bits](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VXQaPRy0cA). ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/16 "2010-08-17T06:37:10Z")
“The name’s Buckman.” “Uh… Nitro, hi.” “Interesting nickname. What’s your real name?” “…Nitro. I’m working on a nickname, though.” “Oh yeah?” “Yeah. Listen to this… Mike.” “…” ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/17 "2010-08-17T17:08:11Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > Inspired by the other thread floating around about how people got their nicknames. Most people I know have their nickname thrust upon them…by family members or friends. But I have met a few shallow people that picked their own nickname. As a matter of protest, I continue to call them by their given name, as I think nicknames should be awarded not taken. There are few things that irritate me more than somebody giving themselves a nickname. That is just against the rules! All of the rules. Shallow, shallow, shallow is right! I also continue to call them by their given names, as a matter of principle. It also seems that these people will ID themselves, quite often, on the phone like: “Hi, this is Karen “Pinkgarters” Smith.” Grrrrrrr! If you are going to give yourself a nickname, which you shouldn’t, don’t keep trying to ramrod it into practice, esp. all the while hanging onto your real name! Having said that, if you simply must give yourself a nickname, do it in a new environment where nobody knows that you have decided to give yourself a nickname. Make up a lie about how you got it. Lie and say "My friends call me ‘X’. If you are going to violate the canons of civilized society, please do not flaunt it so egregiously! As the OP points out, nicks should be awarded, not usurped. That would be like me calling myself “The Grand Old Man of the SDMB.” You have to pay your dues, and earn some modicum of, uh, something, to have a \*real \*nickname. If you give yourself a nickname, it isn’t a real nickname. Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/18 "2010-08-17T17:52:59Z")
My father’s name is Joseph David. So he was called J.D. growing up, and his sisters and family still call him that. But when he was in high school I guess he decided he liked the name Shay, and so began calling himself that. So that’s what everyone calls him. My mother, her family, his friends, etc. It’s weird though, I don’t really think of it as a ‘nickname’, I just think of it as his name. ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/19 "2010-08-17T18:06:09Z")
I used to be a barmaid years ago. When I told one of my customers that my name is Lynn\* he asked me what it was short for. I was reading welsh mythology at the time, so I thought about it for a couple seconds and told him my full name was Gwendolyn. He always called me Gwen after that. \*Lynn is a fairly common name and it’s on my birth certificate. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499/20 "2010-08-17T18:08:29Z")
A woman who worked for me insisted on being called “Jasmine”. The first time I addressed her by her given name, she gave me a mini-lecture about how she preferred ‘Jasmine’ because that was her name when she worked as a stripper. :eek: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-or-anybody-you-know-picked-their-own-nickname/547499.md?page=2)