The Great Nickname Debate

20th May: We received an email recently. And it got us thinking. Nicknames - is it ever OK to give yourself one?

A lovely chap called Caylan had been in touch. He really didn't like his name and was pondering the possibility of calling himself Charlie - or something similar - instead. But Caylan's dad wasn't keen. He said nicknames need to come from someone else.

In short, Caylan's dad said it's NEVER alright to give yourself a nickname.

And it got us chatting in the office at Heart. Jez and I sort of agreed with Caylan's dad. For me, giving yourself a nickname seems too forced and unnatural. It's a bit like those people who say, "I'm mad crazy me - I'm CRAZY with a K!!". It's all a bit forced fun and jollity.

Or is it?

Ang from Neston called us to say she didn't agree - and that you should be able to call yourself anything you like. It's your name after all...

And then we got loads of examples of when you've been given a nickname and it's stuck. In nearly every case, this was a name given to you by someone else (for example, my own sister used to call me Modgy - that was my name at home until I was about 15 and refused to answer to it).

Our favourite had to be the name Emma gave her sister, called Rebbecca. Poor Rebbecca's had to put up with being called Boris for the last 20 years!

Becca becomes Boris

So where do you stand in The Great Nickname Debate?