Definition:
A familiar form of a proper name (of a person or place), or any descriptive name or epithet used informally. See also:
- Anthroponym
- Antonomasia
- Guidelines for Using Capital Letters
- Hypocorism
- Meiosis
- Names and Nicknames for Residents of States
Etymology:
From the Old English, "extra name"Examples and Observations:
- "Let me explain something to you. I am not 'Mr. Lebowski.' You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing."
(The Dude in The Big Lebowski, 1998) - "Giving teachers nicknames is a way of weakening their terrible authority, probably. . . . My friends and I had teachers and coaches we called Flipper (real last name, Flappan), Stublet (not very tall), Stank (hygiene problems), Bat (short for Wombat; real name, Wambold), Dawg (short for Schoondog; real name, Schoonover), Papa Joe (longtime gym teacher), Easy Ed (beloved basketball coach), Myhoo (real last name, Mayhew), Woodchuck (real first name, Charles). There was a Latin teacher whose real last name was Wucker, an unfairly easy target; we called him Ed (his first name), Tony (what his wife called him), or Wuck."
(David Owen, "Call Me Loyd." The New Yorker. Feb. 11 & 18, 2008) - "Rhymes, contractions, verbal analogues and suffix additions seem to be the commonest ways of forming a nickname by internal methods: 'Colley' yields 'Dolly,' 'Patricia' goes to 'Trish' and "Ramow' to 'Cow.'"
(Jane Morgan et al., Nicknames: Their Origins and Social Consequences. Routledge, 1979) - "Nicknames are often descriptive, even if allusively so, though . . . they can be based on a person's forename or surname. They may replace an original name or be used in addition to it. The latter type of nickname is familiar with royal names, e.g., Alexander the Great, Ivan the Terrible, William the Conqueror. For such names, the formula with the is common, but the nickname may appear without it."
(Adrian Room, An Alphabetical Guide to the Language of Name Studies. Scarecrow Press, 1996) - "[P]laces (The Big Apple--New York), sports teams (Gunners--Arsenal), newspapers (The Thunderer--The Times), and musical works (Eroica--Beethoven's third symphony) illustrate the range of entities that have been nicknamed."
(David Crystal, Words, Words, Words. Oxford Univ. Press, 2006) - Nicknames in Monty Python's Flying Circus
Interviewer: Last week the Royal Festival Hall saw the first performance of a new symphony by one of the world's leading modern composers, Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson. Mr Jackson.
Jackson: Good evening.
Interviewer: May I just sidetrack you for one moment. Mr. Jackson, this, what shall I call it, nickname of yours.
Jackson: Oh yes.
Interviewer: "Two sheds." How did you come by it?
Jackson: Well, I don't use it myself. It's just a few of my friends call me "Two Sheds."
Interviewer: I see, and do you in fact have two sheds?
Jackson: No. No, I've only one shed. I've had one for some time, but a few years ago I said I was thinking of getting another one, and since then some people have called me "Two Sheds."
Interviewer: In spite of the fact that you have only one.
Jackson: Yes.
Interviewer: I see, and are you thinking of purchasing a second shed?
Jackson: No.
Interviewer: To bring you in line with your epithet?
Jackson: No.
(Eric Idle and Terry Jones in episode one of Monty Python's Flying Circus, 1969)
Pronunciation: NIK-nam
Also Known As: sobriquet, prosonomasia
