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I am in total opposition of “nick names”

nick_nameThey have named you for a reason, so that everybody can call you by that one name to uniquely identify you from the other person. If you are sitting next to a person, I call you by your unique name to distinguish you from the other. That is how naming works.

With introduction of nick names, the classic functionality of names is endangered. If I call Robert, Bob, its one more name that I have to remember. And there are likely to be more people similar to the name Bob than Robert. I don’t want to address Nathanial by Nate. If your parents have named you Nathanial, they wanted everybody to identify you with that, not as Nate. I get confused. Moreover, I have to think twice on how to store your name in my address book. And if you are on social network like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, you have different names for the same person. It even makes smartphones like Android* and iOS dumb. And I get even more confused when different people refer to you by different names. It even makes it difficult to search you on Google, Picasa or YouTube.

Why do we need all that mess? Why cant we have one and only one name associated with a person. Nick names/Pet names are inefficient, useless and they in fact invalidate the real purpose of names. If you don’t like your name, man the f* up. Live with it.

 *Android has a built in feature to merge Robert with bob and Nathanial with Nate

Edit (May 3rd 2020): I am rethinking this.

4 Comments

  1. Loco5niner
    Loco5niner March 5, 2012

    I like nicknames.  Why should I be stuck with the “Christopher” that my parents chose for me, when I prefer “Chris”?  As for being inefficient, efficiency is not the most important thing in my life.

  2. Pooja Parikh
    Pooja Parikh March 5, 2012

    I dont agree at all with your post. I love nicknames. When people call other’s with their nicknames its shows closness and bonding between them. My many friends gave me different nicknames and it still continues. Also I dont agree when you say your so called Parent Given Name Identifies you Uniquely. My name is so common (thanks to my parents) that if you call my name 10 doors open up and gals come out with the same name. Nickname Does help here because i know in this entire world only this person calls me with that name. Its sad to see such a poor perception towards such a valuable thing. I hope your GF (If you have ANY) reads this post and never uses nick name on you if she does. 🙂

  3. ermatov
    ermatov December 30, 2012

    niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

  4. Mikael CitrusChilli Chuaungo
    Mikael CitrusChilli Chuaungo May 25, 2013

    Nice article bro…
    Speaking of nicknames…i do like it…and people have started liking it since ages beyond. What worries you is that humanity is losing touch with the value of the names. But as you can see, we r populating like crazy, and we suddenly marry a gal whose Dad’s name is the same as yours lolzzzz. The controversy of nicknaming is similar to the controversy of text-language in everyday life. Both are good, but can be detrimental in the long run if not taken with a pinch of salt.

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