Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

This forum is for members to discuss topics that do not relate to anime music videos.

Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby dj_ultima_the_great » Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:58 pm

So, I'm a foreign language major. As such, words are something that really interest me, and in particular, I'm always curious about the way we name things. We've had threads before about your username's origins, but what about your real names? (Just first names, please. Internet security and all that jazz...)

1. Who named you? Why did they pick that name? Does it mean anything special? Do you like your name? (If not, what would you want to be?)

2. What about nicknames? What do people call you? Do you have any interesting nicknames for anyone else?

3. What about your username(s)? Does anyone call you by a username in "real life"?

As for me...

1. My mom named me. She picked my (Jennifer) and my brother's (Jonathan) name because of two characters in a soap opera that she liked. Although they do have meanings (my brother's is "Gift of God" or something like that), she didn't pick them for that reason. I don't care for my name. I do not and have never felt like a Jennifer, or even a Jenny/Jen, although I have been called all three equally in life. If I could rename myself, I would probably pick Alexandra, or any number of other "A" names, since I seem to have a liking to them.

2. I usually just go by Jen. My brother calls me Chief, although I never really figured out why. I loved my mom's nickname for me when I was little, but it was embarrassing when I got older, because nobody understood it and all interpreted it wrong. (It is less confusing when written.) Piggy Pea. Piggy because I loved and collected various pig memorabilia, and pea because it was play off of "sweet pea." I kind of hate this nickname now, because people just poke fun at me over it. As for other people, I don't really do nicknames. My sister is BD because my brother couldn't say her real name (Brandy) properly when he was little. My brother is "sibling" and that's about it. I do a lot of pet names, though. Babe, love, sweetheart... things like that. I mean, I don't do it to just anyone - if I don't know or like you, I won't do it. So, if I call someone by a pet name, they can usually infer that it has real affection behind it.

3. I use dj_ultima_the_great (with or without "the_great") pretty much everywhere online, and aside from its original conception, no one ever calls me by that name in "real life." Only on the internet does anyone call me DJ or Ultima or Ulty.

So what about all of you? My stories aren't too interesting, but I'm sure some of you have cool origins behind your name(s) and others'.


- Jen
User avatar
dj_ultima_the_great
 
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: Wisconsin
Status: Resident Videogame Editor

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby JaddziaDax » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:54 pm

1. I don't tell people my real first name because people often abuse it (by calling me by it just to piss me off), besides I don't respond to it. (It's not even on my facebook either.) However according to my "baby book" my mother picked it out because she "always liked it". I don't think that there was anything beyond that. She died when I was a kid so there isn't any real way for me to ask her either.

2. Katie is essentially my "nickname" but it might as well be my real name since everyone calls me it, and it's the only name I really respond to. If someone asks me what my name is the answer is Katie. At a job I used to have, they had my real first name on my badge for two weeks, I had to remind myself that they were talking to me every time they called me it, until they finally changed my badge to "Katie". It was even in the roll call at school as Katie.

I don't use pet names for anyone really. I might use "hun" for my husband, but I think that's about it. Both of my sisters go by their nicknames that my mom gave them as well.


3. I use JaddziaDax on just about everything. Most of my friends on the org call me Katie still so there's only a few friends from other forums/games that actually call me any derivative of my screen name.
I have been called Jaddy, Jazzy, Dax and a couple others. Sometimes in real life, usually just online/over voice chat.

On a related note I often switch between Scoob and his real name when referring to scoobinsmdbz, but he's really the only one I do that with.
User avatar
JaddziaDax
Crazy Cat Lady!
 
Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Location: somewhere i think O.o
Status: I has a TRU Arceus

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby CodeZTM » Sun Sep 12, 2010 4:15 pm

1. Who named you? Why did they pick that name? Does it mean anything special? Do you like your name? (If not, what would you want to be?)
I was named Zackary. My mother picked it out. It was derived from the popular Saved by the Bell character. I WISH I WAS JOKING. On the whole, I enjoy the name. THE FULL NAME. I'm not fond of just Zack, but I've gotten over it in my years. I've always loved the name Jake/Jacob, and I wish that was my name.

2. What about nicknames? What do people call you? Do you have any interesting nicknames for anyone else?
My nickname is defaulted to Zack. I'm often known as "Code" online, and that hasn't changed over the years. It came from my obsession with the show Code Lyoko. I've also been known as Code_Chrono, which my obsession from Chrono Trigger.

3. What about your username(s)? Does anyone call you by a username in "real life"?
No, and should that time ever come where my internet life and real life meld together, I will destroy the world.
User avatar
CodeZTM
Spin Me Round
 
Joined: 03 Mar 2006
Location: Arkansas
Status: Flapping Lips

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby BasharOfTheAges » Sun Sep 12, 2010 5:45 pm

1) I'm pretty sure my mother named me. I'd ask her but she's ash in a box and therefore can't be bothered to return phone calls. I don't know that it means anything special, though my maternal grandmother, her two sisters (my great aunts) and my aunts told a story of my mother having difficulty during labor (1st child) and they exasperatedly tellign her that i was just-in time.... years later and the joke still isn't funny. I don't dislike my name.

2) I've had comedic types that always try to give everyone nicknames try stuff with me but nothing stuck.

3) Out of my editor friends, Wendy still calls me "Bashar" or just "Bash" in real life. A few other friends used to, but don't anymore... though they do use the name when referring to me in the 3rd person to alleviate any confusion I guess. I actually call dokool and LantisEscudo by their screennames in real life some times because I know so many people with their first names that it's just easier - especially in the 3rd person situations.
Another Anime Convention AMV Contest Coordinator 2008-2014 & Head of the AAC Fan-works Theater - follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/AACFanTheater
:sorcerer: :sorcerer: |RD: "Oh, Action!" (side-by-side) | |
User avatar
BasharOfTheAges
Just zis guy, you know?
 
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: Merrimack, NH
Status: Extreeeeeeeeeme

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby Kitsuner » Sun Sep 12, 2010 5:59 pm

I don't remember which of my parents chose my name, but I think that partly because my brother has two biblical names, they chose the same for me because patterns are awesome (it's also why my siblings and I were all born roughly two years apart, alternating between boys and girls :uhoh:). The reason they chose my specific names is because Jonathan and David were best friends, so they combine well. It's a nice name, but I always get weirded out when I see it written.

I've got a lot of nicknames, especially from my family. JD and Jaded are the only really common ones that I can think of right now (except for generic names like Bro, Brother, Dude, etc.), but there are lots of variations. I'm rarely called Jon or Jonny by people who know me (though it's becoming more common since I've moved to Chicago). Actually, that's not true, one of my best friends from high school calls me Jon. Some of my other high school friends call me by my last name too, so I'm pretty versatile when it comes to names.

I like thinking up nicknames for other people. Some of them even catch on with other people, like calling G_Q "Jeeks" or... well, I'm pretty sure there are others, but I don't really keep track of nicknames when I'm not using them. Most of them generally roll out naturally.

When I joined a-m-v.org, I wasn't really thinking long-term with my username, since I avoided the forum for two years. I just tacked a consonant to the name of one of the characters in the manga I was reading at the time (Love Hina, if you're curious). Once I really became part of the community, people shortened it down to Kit, and outside of my family, school, and work, that's how most people I hang out with know me. It works out well, because aside from going by my last name, most of my names overlap with other people in my circle of friends. Of course, I couldn't do that with my family, because believe it or not, one of my uncles is named Kit. I sometimes get confused during holidays and such when I forget that he's the only real Kit in my family.
OtakuGray wrote:Sometimes anime can branch out to a younger audience and this is one of those times where you wish children would just go die.
Stirspeare wrote:<Stirspeare> Lopez: Vanquish my virginity and flood me with kit. ["Ladies..."]
User avatar
Kitsuner
Maximum Hotness
 
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Location: Chicago, IL
Status: Top Breeder

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby dj_ultima_the_great » Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:10 pm

Kitsuner wrote:I like thinking up nicknames for other people. Some of them even catch on with other people, like calling G_Q "Jeeks" or... well, I'm pretty sure there are others, but I don't really keep track of nicknames when I'm not using them. Most of them generally roll out naturally.


This reminds me... I believe that you (or possibly sto, but I think it was you) are the first person to ever address me as Ulty - it was in IRC, if memory serves.
User avatar
dj_ultima_the_great
 
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: Wisconsin
Status: Resident Videogame Editor

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby 8bit_samurai » Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:13 pm

1. I'm named after my uncle, which around here everyone usually name their kids after (deceased) family members, whether it be first or middle names or both.

2. My current nickname around here is Ping, which is a shortened and mispronounced version of my last name. One of my friend's nickname was Al (the one who gave me the nickname Ping), out of that it derived into Albow, which then I turned it into Bobo (shortened from Bobobo bobobo bobo, or whatever that show was called), which everyone calls him now and still sticks to this day, though I usually just call him Al.
Under Construction
User avatar
8bit_samurai
Hmm...
 
Joined: 17 May 2006
Location: Alaska

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby Ileia » Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:35 pm

1. My dad named me after a character from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Lt Ilia (The bald woman, for those of you who've seen it) but chose to get the spelling from his other favorite movie, Star Wars. So it's spelled like Leia but sounds like Ilia (eye lee uh). Kinda set the tone for how geeky my hobbies and interests would be....I like both Star Trek and Star Wars, though only the original series of Star Trek and the movies (Nothing after The Undiscovered Country, though) and I like the Star Wars books more than the movies, my last count was that I'd read 119 of them. It ended up being a fairly fitting name for me.

2. I don't think I've ever really had a nickname that's been used often, other than the casual Engrish-is-fun "Ireia" or cutesy-voice-speech-impediment "Iweia". I apparently used to have trouble saying my name when I was little and just lopped off the first half of my name and called myself "ee uh". A few people have had their own nicknames for me, I had a friend who called me "I", which confused everyone. "I just left to go to the store." etc.

3. Yes, people call me by my username all the time. But that's what happens when your username is your name IRL. Every panel I've done has had the same joke, when the other panelists are like "I'm *real name* sometimes known as *username*". And I'm like "lulz I'm Ileia sometimes known as Ileia". Most recently used in the NDK opening. ("By Scott 'Pwolf' Grasso and Ileia 'Ileia' Centracchio.") I used to have a palindrome username, but everyone just called me Ileia (because really, how are you gonna pronounce the palindrome? :P ). There are a few people that I still call by usernames (Kit is my roommate now and I still call him Kit >_>)
User avatar
Ileia
CornDog Whisperer
 
Joined: 09 Aug 2004
Location: On teh Z-drive, CornDog
Status: ....to completion

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby Kitsuner » Sun Sep 12, 2010 8:23 pm

dj_ultima_the_great wrote:
Kitsuner wrote:I like thinking up nicknames for other people. Some of them even catch on with other people, like calling G_Q "Jeeks" or... well, I'm pretty sure there are others, but I don't really keep track of nicknames when I'm not using them. Most of them generally roll out naturally.


This reminds me... I believe that you (or possibly sto, but I think it was you) are the first person to ever address me as Ulty - it was in IRC, if memory serves.

I'm pretty sure that was me. I like names that end with a long E sound.
OtakuGray wrote:Sometimes anime can branch out to a younger audience and this is one of those times where you wish children would just go die.
Stirspeare wrote:<Stirspeare> Lopez: Vanquish my virginity and flood me with kit. ["Ladies..."]
User avatar
Kitsuner
Maximum Hotness
 
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Location: Chicago, IL
Status: Top Breeder

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby Ileia » Sun Sep 12, 2010 8:28 pm

It's always fun when you give people nicknames and they stick....like Nancy and Boob and Eve.....
User avatar
Ileia
CornDog Whisperer
 
Joined: 09 Aug 2004
Location: On teh Z-drive, CornDog
Status: ....to completion

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby Otohiko » Sun Sep 12, 2010 10:16 pm

1. My mom named me mostly. My dad originally wanted to call me Ivan (I would've then been born Ivan Andreevich Krylov, but it was settled that I would be named after my late great-grandfather. He was a doctor (as well as a field surgeon during WWII) and according to relatives he indeed had a similar personality to me. He was rather intelligent and wanted to write books and memoirs, but by the end of his life had only written a couple of pages. On the other hand he was a real family man and was loved by his children and grandchildren. Didn't take life more seriously than he had to. He was also known as a very jolly vodka drinker.
I like my name, never really had an issue with it. It seems like Georgiy/Georgy is a pretty rare name for people my age (never met another George yet who was less than 50 years old), so it always immediately stuck with people. For some reason people never called me by my last name.


2. For most of my life, most of everyone I communicated with (in Russian) always called me not by my full name but by the dimunitive version of it, Gosha. That's what I consider my actual name, really. I wish it didn't sound so silly in English.
There is another dimunitive version of it in Russian, Zhora, which I absolutely despise because it resembles the word for "glutton". People should never call me that. Otherwise there's tons of other sub-dimunitives that can be derived from Gosha, and I'd been called lots of those. Goha (my brother's preferred variant), Goshara, Gosharik, Goshan and even Gohan (lol) came up pretty often.
As a result, always had a lot of nicknames in Russian that started with G. Gus' (Goose), Gusenitsa (Caterpillar), Gashish (Hashish) were some of those.
Some of the more exotic ones would be Chingachgook the Great Worm (by my karate sensei, because I would always get kicked down to the floor then not get up) and of course the Mayor of Crotchtown (uh, ask Ileia).

I don't really like making up nicknames for people, not sure why, though I pick them up pretty easily.
One thing that people probably don't know though is that since I think in Russian a lot, I often Russify names of my friends when I think about them. I just don't tell them cause they sound dumb in English.

3. Otohiko came from a sort of merger between my old nick (Otoko no Hito, "man" in Japanese) and Love Hina character Otohime Mutsumi. Although it is an actual Japanese first name. I like it cause it's relatively unique as far as nicknames go, but also kinda sticks. I don't mind being called Oto, and I answer to Oto about as well as George, when I'm around .org people. I don't really have a preference between the two to be honest, although it seems like over the last couple of years most of the .org people I know in real life have permanently switched to George.
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby LantisEscudo » Sun Sep 12, 2010 10:27 pm

1. Who named you? Why did they pick that name? Does it mean anything special? Do you like your name? (If not, what would you want to be?)

I'm pretty sure my mother picked it out, though I don't know the reasoning behind it. I do remember one story she told where she claimed one criteria for all of her kids names (me and my three brothers) was that if she had to shout it in a public location, it wouldn't sound stupid.

Some "meaning of your name" places claim it means "gifted," but I don't put much stock in that stuff. Symbolism is all well and good for fictional characters, but trying to apply it to real people is pretty stupid. The only part of my name I'm not entirely happy with is my last name, since is seems to be impossible to spell by anyone in this state, unless I'm literally standing over their shoulder dictating it (everyone wants to swap two letters' positions).

2. What about nicknames? What do people call you? Do you have any interesting nicknames for anyone else?

I generally go by the shortened form of my real name, though I answer to both that and my full name. I despise the diminutive "Mikey" and refuse to answer to it. A small group of people also call me "stat boy" for my behind-the-camera work on a local sports show for the last several years (mostly the crew of the show and a couple of the regular callers).

I'm pretty much crap at coming up with nicknames for anyone else (or even myself), so I don't bother. I go by what everyone else is calling them, usually.

3. What about your username(s)? Does anyone call you by a username in "real life"?

My username is actually my second here, though I wasn't a very active participant with my first one (JHU Battousai). I came up with it by mashing two proper nouns from my favorite series together (Magic Knight Rayearth) like a full name. Bashar and some of the other New England editors call me by that (or at least the first half), but I generally have the rule of thumb that my real name is for real life, my username is for online; immediate family and cons are the two exceptions.
User avatar
LantisEscudo
 
Joined: 08 Mar 2001
Location: Vermont

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby Prodigi » Mon Sep 13, 2010 12:30 am

Otohiko wrote:One thing that people probably don't know though is that since I think in Russian a lot, I often Russify names of my friends when I think about them. I just don't tell them cause they sound dumb in English.

I'm curious to hear some of them :O

1. I'm the youngest. My brother was the second child and the first boy, and my mother loved the name Callan and wanted to call him that. My dad hated it and made her a deal that the first born boy would be Andrew, and the second son could be Callan, fully intending to never have a third child/second son. Hello? (this story irks me since I've always hated my name and I was so close to avoiding it)

2. I pretty much kept it as Callan for most of my life until the last few years when I've shortened it to Cal. Over the last few years I've been called Jesse a lot (particularly when I was in Chicago at the same time as other Cal) which is a shortening of "Jessica", which I think Aes was the first to dub me? Either her or Ileia. Some people such as Yue still just call me Jessica anyway :p I've taken to Jesse a lot. Thinking about legally changing my first name to Jesse and making Cal my middle name.

2. In terms of username most people shorten Prodigi to Prod, and previously iProd.
Prodigi
is the conductor.
 
Joined: 06 Sep 2003

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby godix » Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:33 am

dj_ultima_the_great wrote:1. Who named you? Why did they pick that name? Does it mean anything special? Do you like your name? (If not, what would you want to be?)

Esmeralda: What is your name?
Butch: Butch.
Esmeralda: What does it mean?
Butch: I'm American, honey. Our names don't mean shit.

That being said, for the last several generations there's been a tradition of switching middle and first names. EG Great great grandfather was X Y, great grandfather was Y X, grandfather was X Y, dad is Y X, and I'm X Y. I don't like my middle name, so even if I do have male children this tradition will be stopping. And no, I will not be saying what my middle name is. I know the org, if I did then that's all anyone here would call me.

I have no idea where my first name came from, but even though I don't like my middle name it has a cool story behind it. *WAY* back when, there was a pirate in my bloodline. Not a music downloader, but a real honest to god walk the plank type pirate. He wasn't one of the famous ones that anyone would have heard of though. He raided English ships and, considering politics at the time, my family took pride in that. Early on, males got his name as their middle name in tribute. Hundreds of years later, the moronic X Y - Y X thing got started.

2. What about nicknames? What do people call you? Do you have any interesting nicknames for anyone else?

I've always introduced myself with the full name Robert, so that's what most people call me. I don't comment or complain if Rob is used. I usually do not even acknowledge the person was speaking to me if any other name is used. The only exception is a girlfriend I had a long long time ago who picked a cute rhyming nickname (which I won't say for the same reason I won't say my middle name). However, she sucked my dick regularly so I didn't get violent about it. Although she did stop calling me that when I told her I'd nickname her 'whore' if she kept using it.

For other people, I generally call them whatever they introduced themselves as. Generally I figure that's what they want to be called. For example, my wife introduces herself as Cat rather than Catherine, so I don't think I have ever called her by her proper name. That's in speaking.

In writing, I tend to shorten a lot of peoples names. It's not uncommon for me to pick somewhat insulting names to call others as well, it's especially amusing when other people pick up on it and call them that too. I also remember calling someone Two Tabs for reasons that I'm sure made sense at the time.

3. What about your username(s)? Does anyone call you by a username in "real life"?

I almost never talk verbally to people I meet online, so I rarely hear anyone actually saying my username. The times I have heard it, no one says it right (usually go-dix or god-iks). Oddly, the few times I say it I don't get it right either (I tend towards god eye eks). I imagine most people online would use my username if they were speaking to/about me. My real name isn't secret, but it's not common for people to use it online either.
Image
User avatar
godix
a disturbed member
 
Joined: 03 Aug 2002

Re: Names, Nicknames, and Their Origins

Postby Nessephanie » Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:51 am

Prodigi wrote:
Otohiko wrote:One thing that people probably don't know though is that since I think in Russian a lot, I often Russify names of my friends when I think about them. I just don't tell them cause they sound dumb in English.

I'm curious to hear some of them :O.

Me too, I wanna know what mine would be :D

1. My legal name is Lisa, no one but my family, or people who've met me through my family call me that. Originally I was going to be named Larissa (a female version of my dads name, Larry) but somehow that turned into Lisa by the time I was born (I do wish I'd been named it since my dad has passed even though I never saw myself as a Larissa). I never had a problem with Lisa other then I find it kinda plain, for the last 7 years or so I've wanted to legally change my first name to Elisabeth cause I think it's prettier (and still has Lisa in it), I plan to change it after I'm done with US immigration stuff.

2. Most people call me Liz and it's the name I prefer (though as I said I don't mind people calling me my legal name, it just feels very formal now compared). I get called Nessie by people in the amv community and I like it, it's cute. When I was younger I had various nicknames that have since passed like Lizard or Babydoll. My auntie calls me Midget cause I'm short.
I use the common nicknames for some of my org friends (like Kit and Moonie/Mewn) but for most I use a combination of real names and usernames depending (usually real names). I call Brad, babe but that's about it. Oh, and I call Kit, Kitkat.

3. Everywhere online I'm Nessephanie, it's a name I created myself when thinking of an RP character and it stuck. I'm the first and pretty much only nessephanie around. (I think I've had one person take the name for some website lol). People only call me my full nickname when they don't know me well, everyone else refers to me as Nessie if they're going to use my online name.
Last edited by Nessephanie on Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Nessephanie
Cookie Monster
 
Joined: 07 Nov 2004
Location: Chicago

Next

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: chitzilla and 1 guest