Saturday, September 4, 2010

What's in a name?

You know that I am as guilty as most for giving 'nicknames' to my family members. I've never thought about this too much it just is a natural inclination. For a person who grew up with Boobie, Boob, Jordie and other names it might come as a surprise that I would also wish to create these !

Wikipedia defines nickname as a descriptive name given in place of or in addition to the official name of a person, place or thing. It can also be the familiar or truncated form of the proper name, which may sometimes be used simply for convenience (e.g. "Bobby", "Bob", "Rob", or "Bert" for the name Robert). The term hypocoristic is used to refer to a nickname of affection between those in love or with a close emotional bond.

My sister Kerry got the brunt of this when she was young.  It is however a great mnemonic which allows one to remember a name from characteristics of a person.  This usually works really well for me as I meet new people and my recall is pretty good.

Even when I first started dating Anna; I told my newington friends that her name was Margaux. This completely threw them off  !!!

OK now for a quiz;  name this person:
  1. Bunny?
  2. Beebum?
  3. Fatguy Attitude?
  4. Bullfrog?
  5. Little Gub?
  6. Prawn?
  7. Jane of the Jungle?
  8. Disco Benny?
  9. Pumpkin?
  10. Kobe Beef?
  11. _____ Bear ?
  12. Pie Head ?
  13. Buzzar?
  14. Bee?
  15. Samsonite

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