Has anyone ever used the name ‘Doug’ as a nickname for the legal name of ‘Byron’?
I’ve never heard of that before, not that Byron is a very common name. I was under the impression that nicknames arose from some variation of the legal name, or a shortened verion, for example: Dick from Richard, Tom from Thomas, Peg from Margaret.
But Doug? From Byron? It’s a little far-fetched to me.
Is it his middle name? Does seem kind of odd, but only because it’s another REAL name. My boyfriend has a nickname that is not based on his legal name and I don’t think it is that uncommon. But calling someone by another name that could be legal? Yeah, that’s a little weird and I’d be wondering about the etymology too.
My guess would be it’s his middle name.
FWIW, my family did that a lot. My grandfather, Paul Alfred, went by Alfred. My grandmother, Marion Helen, went by Helen. My uncle, Alfred Paul, went by Paul. etc.
Seems a bit farfethced, to me, too.
But there’s no reason why Doug has to come from Byron.
Last name?
Middle name?
Acts like a hound dog?
Looks like this guy?
…or any one of a gajillion different reasons.
My husband’s real name is Jerry and he goes by Willie (family only). When I first met them, I thought there was another mysterious “lives-in-the-cellar” brother. His whole family goes by aliases. Three have normal nicknames and two others had nicknames that were “normal” names. Go figure.
It could possibly be his middle name, no way to check for certain. That’s what I assumed at first, but a coworker told me that she’s heard of Doug and Byron being used interchangeably, and she had some uncle who did so. It made me :dubious: so I thought I’d poll.
I’ve got to guess it’s from his middle name too. I have a few cousens who go by nicknames of their middle names. Going by ones middle name isn’t too terribly uncommon. Just ask Henry Perot.
I know a family like this too …
Darcy is called “Sam”
Katherine is called “Susie”
I can’t remember the rest of them.
My friend Ed’s nickname is “Moe.” Except he spells it “Mow,” which somehow doesn’t make it all that much less weird.
It doesn’t strike me as all that odd, though of all my friends I can think of half a dozen who have nicknames that are just regular names which have absolutely no connection to their legal names.
My friend’s son is named Aren but her nickname for him is “Jim.” My grandpa, George, went by “Rip” and his second wife “Hazel” always went by “Rita.”
Shrug. I guess Doug for Byron is no more unusual than any other nickname. My friends always called me “Hoss” and I knew a guy named Andy whom everyone called “Pillhead” because of all the drugs he took.
I know of several guys (well, one is a baby) whose nicknames have nothing whatsoever to do with their real names. “Joe” is really Aloysius Luxuryyacht III not his real name - my mother was a friend of Joe’s mother and named him that pre-birth, and it stuck. “Bob” isn’t a Junior or anything, his parents just decided to call him “Bob” while giving him a totally different legal name.
Besides - if your legal name was “Byron” wouldn’t you rather be known as Doug??? “Beware of Byron” just doesn’t have the same ring 
In order of age:
Sharon —> Terry
Jerry —> Willy
Sherri —> Beanie
Carri —> Red
Merri —> Muggs
Garry (a girl) —> Nanny (how fucked up is that?)
And why bother with all the “arry’s” if you’re not going to use 'em? It boggles the mind.
My wife’s family is like that, being called by their middle names. Her brother is William Jeremy. He was always called Jeremy by the family and relatives and all through school. Now that he’s out in the world, everyone he works with, including his girlfriend, calls him Willie. It must be weird for the girlfriend when he brings her home on vacation, everyone calling him another name.
I don’t get “Doug” from “Byron” at all…
In my husband’s family:
William----->Danny
William----->Little Danny (not the son of the first Danny, by the way)
Kathy------>Dit
Kerry------>Dink
Everyone has a nickname in that family, but not all of them follow easily understood logic. Remember how Rudi on the Cosby show arbitrarily renamed her little boyfriend Bud? That would be how my husband’s family renames people.
My husband (as if he didn’t already have enough names) renamed himself Charlie.
yeah me too, I can think of a Dave who gets called Phil, a Simon who goes by Barry, and a Terry who’s universally known as Fred. Nicknames can begin in a huge number of random ways.
I knew a guy who went by Lyle because his father’s name was Lyle.
In Spain, most multi-word firstnames are… just that. Francis Xavier isn’t two names: it’s a single one (after D. Francisco de Jaso y Azpilicueta, aka St Francis Xavier).
But a helluva lot of older people with actual multiple names got as their firstname one that wasn’t what their Mom picked. The priest didn’t like what the Mom picked, so he went and stuck the saint of the day (or simply another name he liked better) in front or instead. Of course, the family has always called them whatever Mom picked.
An “Asunción” called “Loren” by everybody who knows her; a “Carmelo” who found out his firstname was “Pío” on his first day at boot camp and almost got himself a trip to the brig for it, except the sergeant had seen other cases before.
I get called “Maite” by many people who mix up my name and Mom’s (some of them call her by my name) or who think I must be named after her (nope, my family avoids repeats; my youngest bro is an exception because other “acceptable” names were already taken up by our zillion cousins).
In Spain, evident or widely used shortened names (Mari for María) aren’t even considered nicks or listed under any AKAs. I was quite surprised to find out that the US government thinks of me as a “Maria Luz aka Maria aka Maria-Luz aka Mary-Lou and a few akas more”; FFS, it’s just alternate spellings and anyway you fellows are missing two words in the middle! Nicks are related to how you are, something you did, or inherited. A friend of mine is known as “pegleg” in her Da’s village because she is the eldest dauhgter of the oldest son of the oldest son of a guy who had a wooden leg. I got nick’ed “Luger” when I was working in Costa Rica because they said I “shoot to kill” (in arguments).
I think this “Doug” think may be not so much a regular nickname as a case of confusion.
I know (or know of):
An Adrianna who goes by Edna
A Caroline who goes by Fred
A Donna who (for a while) went by Fred
An Alana who demanded that everyone call her Peter from toddlerhood until her teens
A Sharon who goes by Reg
A Nathan who went by Ed (he variously claimed that it was either because he was “hung like a horse” or because he was “a dick’ed” [dickhead])
I’ve known people who were called Franga (which is also slang for “condom” but in this case was derived from his surname), Donga (derived from surname), Aldo (combination of given and surnames), Chunky (unexplained), Roona (from Ralph-a-roona), Nipper (unexplained), Whooper (unexplained but my Nan knows and just blushes when it’s mentioned), Queenie (office nickname), Piggy (from surname), Wiggy (curly hair) and Bluey (red hair - my dad’s nickname!). My brother is called Prod by his friends (or Proddles by his annoying sister) and my own childhood nickname (thanks to one of my uncles) was Droopy-Drawers (he still trots it out on occasion, mostly when he thinks it will embarass me).
Doug for Byron seems utterly normal to me 
