By any other name

We have someone coming to take a long course with us next year whose name is Michael Hunt, poor soul

An old one Rufus
Maw; How's that for name-shortening? , and how old would you be then, if you don't mind me asking?
I know you won't believe me, but Richard is a real live 80 year young lawn bowler colleague and I thought it was a comment relevant to this thread. Not joking! Mind you, we are always very circumspect by calling him "Richard"

my sons name is edward he answers to Edward or Ed his pe teacher insisted on calling him Eddie and he never answered him at a parents evening he said eddies doing well but think he has a hearing ptoblem has he had his hearing checked . i said eddie who lol

Haha Rufus you did make me laugh. When I was a child there were two twin boys who lived just up the road from me. Their surname was Edwards.

Their parents named them Andrew Edward Edwards and Edward Andrew Edwards - imaginative, eh?

my daughter is Toni and over 50 yrs ago it wasn't a common name. Some people used to call her 'Tone' but even as a small child she would say 'my name is Toni not Tone'. i was asked many times what it was short for, it wasn't short for anything. my boys are Paul and Martin and neither are shortened or lengthened.

I had a work colleague called Isaac Hunt phoenix!

@Riverwalk - Irene isn’t ‘universally’ pronounced ‘Ireen’ - when I was a child in the 60’s my next door neighbour’s daughter was ‘Ireenee’, and if you watch the 1960’s TV series of the Forsyte Saga (and millions did), Irene Forsyte’s name is pronounced ‘Ireenee’, so that was probably the better-known pronunciation at that time.

I remember a rather posh neighbour naming her daughter Gloria. All the local kids called her Glue!
My husband was always called Richie. He was really fed-up with a neighbour who insisted on calling him Rich-ard.

At school and still, people miss the last A off my name. It changes my name completely and I find it very annoying. Even when they see it written down they get it wrong!

My son’sfriends in teenage always called him Jol - which derived from his surname! Years later most of his friends still have no idea that his name is actually Martin!

We deliberately chose names for our children that we thought couldn't be shortened (Lucie and Simon) and that was fine when we lived in Surrey, but when we moved to the West Country where it seems all names are abbreviated (Michelle to Meesh, for example, or Elaine to E), they got called "Loose" and "Si" by their friends. Grrr! My daughter in particular was not happy with "Loose" and neither were we!!

Surely the teacher can't have been serious in saying she was thinking of excluding a primary school child 'for a few days' for such a silly reason?? Would a class teacher have the authority?

My MIL called her son, my DH, Douglas, because it cannot be shortened. He has never been called anything but Doug.

LOL. AS the youngsters say.

I've never known an Ireeeen. I've known one or two Ayerenes. I once worked with someone called D'reeeen though.

My middle name was spelled incorrectly by my father when he registered my birth. It is constantly ‘corrected’ when I fill in forms, etc, and when I point it out I have even been asked ‘are you sure’? My reply is always ‘I’ve had that name for over 70 years so I think I know how to spell it by now’.

My beautiful niece is known as Boris!!! - christened Rebecca, shortened to Becker then into Boris !

Half a century ago, our secondary school refused to shorten or soften anybody's first name. A huge thing was made of it in every new class at the start of every autumn term.

My class included two Janies (duly christened and legally registered as such) and it drove the teachers up the wall. Staff addressed the boys by surnames only, but they either had to spit out the friendly sounding name Janie or put Miss in front of the surname.

Needless to say, the Janies weren't often picked to speak, no matter how often their hands went up. Except in French class where we were all addressed by the nearest French equivalent and the teachers were too busy trying to persuade us that inanimate objects were masculine or feminine ... I never really grasped that concept. Wonder how the Janies got on?

My aunt's name was Chrissie which I think is a lovely name and was usually called Chris but I don't think I every heard her real name used.

My son was christened Jamie but again and again people call him James, at one point he got so fed up he started using his middle name instead which was Simon so got the simple Simon jokes.
He is now known to most people as Jay

My Christian name is foolproof, but people have a real problem pronouncing my surname, even though it's said exactly as spelt. I never realise I'm being called at the doctor's surgery, and she always gives me a slightly pitying look when I suddenly jump up. I haven't plucked up the courage to correct her though!

I have spent most of my life being changed into opposite sex. I am female called Lesley but people usually just spell it the man’s way of Leslie or being called Les which is also mostly a man’s name ?

I am Elaine; I've been Eekie, I've been just E, but only my (sadly deceased) BF could get away with Lainey.

My youngest granddaughter can't get her head round the fact that my name isn't actually Grandma ....

I get called wen. Or wend.i hate it.its WENDY i tell everyone.dknt call me those others names igs niy my name .grrrrrr

Sorry stupid typing

My 34 year old DS was the worlds worst in primary school for shortening names. His best friend was Kenneth, called by all the other children and teachers "Ken" by my DS - "K"!