<p>My BIL has an unusual family first name and a gender neutral middle name. Hmm… that explains a lot…</p>
<p>My grandfathers were Henry and Alvan (yes, with an “a”). He never went by that, but instead used a diminutive form of the familyname-middlename I and everyone else in the family share with him. He named his son (my mom’s brother), the same name, Jr. My uncle, though, went by “Jim” which is not remotely related to either Alvan or the middle name. Or their surname, either. People calling their house would ask for “Al.” Mom would say, “there’s no one here with that name.” And sincerely mean it.</p>
<p>Grandmas were Rose and Mary. Sweetly generic (though Mary’s middle name was Olive, which she very much disliked, even back when it was more common.)</p>
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<p>Thank you, khsstitches, you’ve made my day! I’ve taken uniform abuse when revealing this before. :D</p>
<p>I have relatives called " Brother" on both sides. Is that an African American thing?</p>
<p>Or maybe Southern? A guy in our church died in his 50s. He was known to all as “Son” (even though that wasn’t his given name.)</p>
<p>What I never get is why people continue childish nicknames - like Twinkle and Tiny and Skip into adulthood and even old age. We all have numerous chances to shed nicknames - start of college, start of a new job, etc. The fact that everyone knows them by Tiny or whatever means that they must have continually introduced themselves as such. Baffles me.</p>
<p>in my mom’s southern family, the oldest daughter is often nicknamed “Sister”.</p>
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<p>Ooh, now we’re getting into Tennesse Williams territory. The cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof:</p>
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<p>My Chicago born aunt was known throughout the family as Sister.</p>
<p>But did she introduce herself outside the family as “Sister”?</p>
<p>In my younger years as a not-for-profit administrator I worked with quite a few people since deceased who were born between 1900 and 1920 who had attended places like Andover, Groton, Hotchkiss and who continued, as senior citizens, to go by the names they had been known by as schoolboys. Their wives were similarly known by the nicknames of their younger years. Board meetings might be presided over by someone named Bim, who called on committee reports from Fuzzy, Daffy, Bubbles, Bunk and Loo. It came as something as a shock when this public school guy attended my first board meeting, but you get used to this sort of thing. The younger generation appears largely to have discarded their prep or finishing school nicknames upon reaching adulthood. Kind of a shame in a way.</p>
<p>I guess if you’re Fuzzy at Andover, you’re Fuzzy for life!</p>
<p>I agree Hudsonval- nicknames are charming, and too often lost now. Or not even developed in the first place. There is something sad about a young boy (Jonathon, William, etc.) who is never given a nickname, or parents who discourage a shortened version. (And they would be horrified at Bubbles, Bunk or Fuzzy!)</p>
<p>My mother has gone by a nickname all of her life. She hates her real name, neither of which I will reveal…however there are people who have known her for years and years who actually do not even know her given name!!!</p>
<p>S1 has gone by a nickname all his life…^^^not one of those weird ones. His name is not unheard of for a male but you don’t hear it every day. </p>
<p>When he started college, I told him to feel free to start going by his given name if he wanted to. I love his nickname but if he wanted to use his more common given name, I wasn’t going to stand in the way. I have an uncle who was Robert all his life until he went to college and became Bob. Conversely, my bro. was Bob all his life until he left home and started going by his initials, R.V.</p>
<p>S2 said “no, I’ve gotten used to it and I like it. People always know who I am with that name…think I’ll stick with it”. And so he did
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He just graduated in May and commissioned into the military. Now I wonder if he will continue to stick w/ the nickname or feel the need for a more “manly” name so start going by the given name…we’ll see. If I were a betting person, I’d bet on the nickname though.</p>
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<p>Are you my sister? </p>
<p>Sometimes I’ve got to question my grandparents’ intelligence. They named my mom “Maxine”. But then they realized that she might be called “Mickey” and Mickey Mouse was just becoming popular and they didn’t want her called Mickey Mouse. So they had her name changed to something entirely different (not even starting with the same letter)…then proceeded to call her Mickey until their dying days. ???</p>
<p>My 89-year old father and his 85-year old brother still call each other “Bobby” and “Johnny” respectively, as they’ve been doing for the last 80+ years. Johnny’s wife, my aunt Minnie, age 83, also still calls my father Bobby. Even though he’s been known to the rest of the world as “Bob” since he was in college, if not earlier. I think it’s kind of cute, really.</p>
<p>On my mother’s side, my great-uncle Bernhard (1894-1991) was known his entire life by the nickname “Mops” or “Mopsele” – when I was a small child I thought Uncle Mops was his actual name. It was bestowed upon him when he was a baby by my grandmother, his older sister; “Mops” in German apparently means something like roly-poly, and is often used in German to refer to a pug dog.</p>
<p>My nickname growing up was Charlie. I got the name “Spit-em-up Charlie” in early infanthood and (thank goodness) only the Charlie stuck. My family even went so far as to start calling me Chuck when I turned 16. Can’t tell you how many bottles of Charlie perfume I received between 16 and 20 years of age. When I moved away from home, I started using my given name which is the only name I respond to these days. BTW, my given name has no relationship to Charlie whatsoever. Can’t explain it, but there it is.</p>
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<p>My husband did that, too. I always have to think twice when a relative calls and refers to him by his old name.</p>
<p>I did not change my name when I went to college, and I regret it. I dislike my given name, and have always wanted to change it – which I could do easily (I don’t want to give away my name here, but it would be equivalent of changing Ann to Anna). I know I could still do it, but it just seems so late, now.</p>
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<p>Oddly enough, this was also very common in my small Midwestern hometown. Almost everyone had a nickname from childhood and that nickname stuck with the person forever.</p>
<p>This seems to be dying out (literally) and I find it sad.</p>