I heard a Boz Scaggs song on the radio tonight, and it hit me that I have no idea what “Boz” could be short for. It’s not like he’s the only Boz in the world – for instance, Boz Boorer is a guitarist who has worked with Morrissey a great deal.
Whatever the origin is, it’s not likely to be derived from his given name, which is William Royce Scaggs. The only reference I could find said this:
Cool. Love the “Boz” man.
Well, the first famous “Boz” was Charles Dickens, who used that as his pen name, when he first began writing about life in 19th century London.
One of the few other semi-famous folk I can think of named “Boz” was Raymond “Boz” Burrrell, a British rock singer/musician whoi came to prominence with Bad Company and (earlier) King Crimson.
Since Burrell had a bluesy background, as did Boz Scaggs, I’m wondering if BOTH men adopted the name in homage to some old time musicians or blues man named Boz?
I read once that it was short for “Bosley.” However, the article did not indicate why he was ever called “Bosley.”
A cite, but it still doesn’t indicate the origin of “Bosley,” but it was too long ago to be because he resembled Mr. C.
http://musicmoz.org/Bands_and_Artists/S/Scaggs,_Boz/Biographies/
It’s my understanding that in England, it has in the last few decades become common to form diminutives with a “z” – Gary becomes Gaz or Gazza, and the like. “Boz” looks like one of those formations. If Scaggs had been a Brit, I would have guessed William --> Will --> Bill --> Boz.
So this thread is super old but i found it yesterday while trying to find out what the real name of this guy I’d just met was - he had been introduced to me as Boz.
So I thought you might it interested to hear that in his case, Boz is short for Borris!
Acsenray, your theory was correct. Us english do like to shorten names and put a z on the end 
This probs isnt true in Boz Scaggs case, but I thought people might be intrigued anyways.
It’s also common in Australia to put -z or -za at the end of nicknames.
Moved to Cafe Society.
Note that this thread was started in 2005.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
FWIW, the “z” ending for nicknames can usually only replace an “R”. You can’t just add it to any name.
So Terry = Tez, Gareth = Gaz, Warren = Woz are all acceptable. You’d never be likely to find someone transforming “Bill” to “Boz”, as someone suggested above, because their is no “R” in Bill. However “Boris” = “Boz” works perfectly.
Yeah, and it was bumped by a(n almost certain) drive-by who supplied an irrelevant response to something that had already been answered.
I don’t see where it was irrelevant or that it had been definitively answered. The bumper provided a specific example to the OP’s query with a KNOWN origin. Blake then fleshed it out with more (and more helpful) info than any previous answers provided.
I’d heard that, but wherefore Michael Jackson → “Jacko” in the British tabloids?
There’s been no sources given that Scaggs has ever been named or called “Boris.” The hypothesis that Boz came from the name Boris in this case is irrelevant without a source that Scaggs was at some point a Boris.
If I were to guess, it’s to make Michael Jackson’s name rhyme with the word “wacko”.
According to Wikipedia:
Still doesn’t say exactly why his schoolmate gave him that nickname, but it does add another piece of information.
However, I also looked up the aforementioned Bozzes Boorer and Burrell. Neither is named Bosley or Boris, and their articles make no mention of how they acquired the “Boz” moniker.
This is another rest-of-the-English-speaking-world thing. First syllable of surname + O is a very common way of creating a nickname for someone. I’ve had people do that to my name. It’s not disrespectful, in fact it’s usually done affectionately.
The fact that it goes so well with “whacko” in the case of Michael Jackson is just a happy accident for copy editors.
The thing is, if Boz is short for Bosley, it should be pronounced “bahz”. But during the Lido Shuffle days, I distinctly remember DJ’s saying it as “boss”. In fact, until I saw the name in print, I assumed it was “Boss”, as in Boss Hogg and Boss Tweed and that other rocker from New Jersey.
Of course, DJ’s can be wrong. I’m not sure what if anything Mr. Scaggs has said about pronunciation.