I know we’ve had several threads about how you chose your screen name. This is not one of those threads.
Are you called a nickname out in the real world? How did you get it? Do you prefer it over your real name?
My nickname IRL is Joey. (kinda scary to post it out there, but y’know, i’m crazy.) I got the nickname one summer between my junior and senior years of high school. I was working in a small financial office run by a father and his 2 sons. One of his sons came in on my second day, and I greeted him by name. He couldn’t remember my name, only that it was “something Jo” so he said “Hi! mumble Jo!” hoping to get away with it.
“Huh?” I was young enough to ask.
“Hi mumble mumble Jo” he said, this time passing his hand across his mouth as he mumbled, with a twinkle in his eye.
We laughed and he started just calling me Jo - which became Joey.
When I started my senior year at my new school, there were several girls who had my same first name. One of them pleaded with me, “Don’t you go by anything else? It gets so confusing!” and I said, “Well, some people call me Joey.”
And that was it. Since 1988, I’ve been Joey. How about you?
When I was in 2nd grade I was in class with 2 other Jessica B’s. One became Jessica, one became Jessi and somehow I ended up as JJ (“J” being my middle initial as well).
Jessica and Jessi still go by those names, 25 years later. I tried to shake JJ when I got to middle school and found out it was a boy’s name - or rather, a boy went to the school who also went by JJ - but the kids kept calling me JJ and the teachers were all “who?” so I had to go with it.
Now, everyone I went to school with and their friends call me JJ, but absolutely no one else does.
As it turns out, in the latest incantation of our school social circle (friends from school and their friends/SOs), there are no less than 5 Jessicas and a Jesse, so being JJ has been advantageous.
First name= Eric and standing 6’3" 270 lbs. So there have now been 4 isolated incidences (H.S., college, graduate school, and post-doc) of being awarded the same nickname, “Big E” (or Biggie or Biggy). The red facial hair often leads to the second most obvious nickname.
Yes, I am from the South. I don’t know if that has anything to do with my nickname or not. I came to be called that due to being the eldest of 5 children. My real name was to hard to pronounce for the younger children just learning to talk, so the adults told them to call me Bubba, and it stuck.
It’s used so often that there have been people who have known me for years before they found out that that isn’t my real name. It’s a good thing really, as I have a common name, and it helps when there are other Chris’s around.
My family nickname is Scooter Bug (Scooter, for short). Apparently when I was learning to crawl, I scooted instead of crawling. It’s stuck and I can honestly say I’ve never heard my father call me anything else - even when he was insanely mad at me. No one outside of the family calls me that though. My “outside” nickname is just a shortened form of my first name.
My dad used to call me “mugwump” and “moose” when I was a kid. I don’t know exactly when that stopped, neither of them really apply to me these days. No one calls me that anymore.
I’ve always wanted a new nickname, but I guess I don’t have the sorts of friends who “do” nicknames.
I talk. A lot. And my best friend in high school was one of the Big Men on Campus. We went and saw Eddie and the Cruisers - crappy little movie, but there you go. Eddie the frontman rockstar (i.e., Big Man on Campus equivalent) turned to his keyboard player at one point and called him WordMan - and after the movie was out, my friend turned to me and said “that’s you - the WordMan.” So a few of the guys in the same gang took to it and the rest is history.
When I was in business school - we were sitting around a poker table and the topic of nicknames came up. I shared WordMan and one buddy (henceforth referred to as Eagle from the same conversation) said “WordMan?!? Nah - Verbiage!!!” And so *that *stuck with *that *group of friends although some have shortened it to Verb…
In 3rd grade, I played baseball at the local little league. I noticed some of the other boys wore they’re jerseys to school - just the shirts. I decided I liked the idea. I walked out of my room the next morning in my babseball jersey, accompanied by my baseball pants (The capri looking things that are tight around your shins,) high baseball socks, and cleats. My mom convinced me to be rid of the cleats, but I wouldnt listen to her when it came to the pants/socks. When I got to school, I was humiliated. Kids were picking on me, etc. Fortunatley, that was in 3rd grade, and nobody remembered it in later years. I was granted no nickname. I dont have one now either. Sorry.
Got several nicknames, depending on the group I’m in.
One chatroom I’ve hung out in for a little over 10 years (yeesh) calls me Rags, based on my handle, obviously.
In college, I was Phil or “AFP” (Another Freaking Phil or Annoying Freaking Prick, depending on how they felt about me at any given moment; “Phil” was a common nickname for ROTC cadets in my sci-fi club )
Now that I’m in the Air Force, if I have a nickname (which I only kinda do), it’s “Larry”, but mostly because our shop chief likes to call everybody Larry (except for the one female in our shop. She’s Larri, obviously.) He distinguishes between the rest of us by some pun on our last name, so rather than give y’all a highly engrossing riddle as to my true identity, I’m just gonna leave that clue off.
In a factory in Italy where I was assigned for 8 and a half weeks, eventually someone told me that the workers had started calling me “la spagnoletta” (the little Spanish girl) and asked whether that was acceptable. Since I’m female, Spanish and not particularly big, I’m fine with it, thanks!
Our lastname has the structure “Commonlastname from Place”. For some reason and even though there’s several Commonlastname families in town, my brothers are known as “the Commonlastnames”. This makes me “the Commonlastnames’ sister”; I will sometimes explain that it’s actually them who are my brothers: I got here first!
When choosing character names in WoW, one thing I take into account is possible shortenings. Brits tend to use the first three characters as a nick: this may produce unacceptable nicknames, sometimes because I’m used to not cutting up syllables, sometimes because the resulting word is, uhm… not something I’d want to be called. I haven’t come up with that process, but since it will happen, I do consider it.
Friends from another game call me by the name of the main character I had in it; she’d been named after the bf I had when I made her. I don’t like the bf any more but I still like both his name and the derivation, and it’s easy to pronounce.
My main character in one is Melodyn - I justed added “n” to Melody because I thought it sounded more elfen. And they still call me Mel same as other games I’ve played.
When I was a freshman in college, I lived in a rooming house. At one point I came down with some kind of virus, possibly the flu. I wound up giving it to every one of my housemates. From then on they all called me “Germ.”
