My father-in-law and his son both are named Conrad, and they both are known as “Connie”.
My wife had an Aunt Stinky.
I was given the nickname Grizzly in high school.
Used to hang out with a guy named Todd, that we all initially called Toad. After a while it got changed to Sprocket, after Toad the Wet Sprocket became popular. To this day, he is called Sprocket.
There’s another guy named Reagan, who came up with his own nick-name, the Big Ragu. We all refused to use the Big moniker and just call him Ragu.
Some years ago I used to work with a guy named Robert, who went by Prof. We were both in IT; if I recall correctly he received the nickname many years before that when he was in the armed forces, and from that point on everyone referred to him as Prof, even his wife and daughters (when speaking about him in the third person anyway…I’m pretty sure they called him ‘dad’ to his face).
My parents decided a good nickname for me would be Grub. I think they were wrong, but what can you do?
My father’s nickname to his brothers and childhood friends was Grub. At 6’2" he was the shortest of the brothers, hence the nickname.
I knew a kid who went by “Trace” because he was “the III.”
A buddy in school got the nickname Loopy. It was sort of a mix-up between a teacher, a Hispanic kid that went by Lupe, and my (white) buddy. Being white, he insisted that it be the oo version.
Worked with a guy who was universally known as Flash - lots of people never knew what his actual name was. He had a brother who was likewise known as Wolf.
The guy who taught my dad to fly was named Virgil, but was called Fats. He wasn’t fat.
My grandfather was called Mutt.
I know a guy named Ray that is know as Snuffy, his brother-in-law is named Dennis but was known as Bronson (looked a bit like Charles Bronson).
I started this thread about “Bear” stealing our cement mixer. Bear’s real name is Andrew, but everyone calls him “Huggy Bear” or “Huggy.” Don’t know why.
“Greaser” is a friend of mine. He got the name of because of a
Premature ejaculation problem “Grease Her” when he was a teenager
I got it because I always looked scruffy. Or grubby, if you will.
My dad “Hank” for Henry. Common enough I guess.
A big man that I played co-ed softball with : Bubba. Of course the list of nicknames for my softball friends could get pretty long, but I don’t recall if I ever knew Bubba’s real name.
Huggy Bear was a character on the old TV series “Starsky and Hutch”. In the series the character was played by Antonio Vargas. In the 2004 movie he was played by Snoop Dog. Maybe this character was the genesis of your friend’s nickname.
Based on past experience, I would’ve guessed he had a younger sibling who called him that in an attempt to say “brother.”
I know folks that go by PorkRoll (or P-Roll), Stain, and Peckahead, although they all use their given names often. Pablo (given name David) uses his nickname all the time. A coworker had his legal name changed to Megatron (no last name) after using the name for years.
About a century ago one of my distant cousins had the nickname “Splut.” I have no idea where it came from.
I know a Scrabble player (and Starbucks fan trying to visit every Starbucks stand-alone store) named Winter. When he registered for membership in the NSA (now NASPA), they insisted that he have a last name, so Jkqxz is his last name. (Out of the 100 tiles in a regulation set, these are the only ones with no duplicates.)
A former Scrabble Champion goes by Trey, because of the III after his name.
My aunt called me Butch when I was little, because I always had a butch haircut. When I grew up, I let my hair grow out, and acquired the name Garfunkle for my effort.
Around here we have:
Snake
Bubba (an oldie but goodie)
Boogie
Perk
Critter
Peaches (who is an old man)
His name wasn’t Jesus, was it? Chuy is a common Spanish nickname for people named Jesus.
My father’s given name was W. H. His family called him Dub.
My mother’s oldest sister was known all of her life as Midge. Her husband was Hap.
I knew of an Italian guy, Carl Gibalarro, who had the nickname “Bubooglio” because of a drunk guy who couldn’t pronounce his name.
I knew a guy named “Flock,” a big burly 6’ 3" 300+ lbs. He got the nickname because when he was a boy, he played Pee Wee football, but they didn’t have a jersey big enough to fit him. So they borrowed one from the Church of the Lost Flock, which only showed the last word on his back. So, he was “Flock” ever since.