Inventing your own nickname

[OldClothes]

I know I'm probably unreasonable but here goes.

A young volunteer colleague of mine calls herself by her nickname and seems to want everyone to use it. It relates to her first name but it's not a common variant and is barely shorter than her actual name.

It's also very informal - the sort of thing someone might be called at school by their close friends, but most of us barely know her. AIBU to find this a tiny bit annoying?

Glad I made you smile! No teens, no kids but I work with young people! 😁

There are plenty of common shortenings e.g. Mimi for Miriam or Kit for Christopher that are accepted despite many thinking they sound silly/childish. Why is Rebbers any different?

You sound immature.

Say it like a frog.

Would I have called whom, Bill? The person who wants to be called, 'Rebbers'? No, not unless that was how she introduced herself. If she had then I would but I wouldn't be using multiple names, just one.

Do you mean in the way that some people go by their middle names rather than first names? I know quite a few of those, would always use the name chosen and in common usage.

Thing is that if I stuck to the nicknames I'd been given at school or home, I'd be telling people to call me

Greaseball (wasn't allowed to wash my hair more than once a week)
Binbag (my clothes were any better)
Flid (my brother)
Cret (same brother)
Jinx (other brother)

And my full name was only bellowed or snarled when I was about to get a thump to the side of the head (the rest of the time it was get here or You), so I didn't want to ever hear somebody using that again, either.

So I use the nickname that somebody kind gave me. It's the name of someone who wasn't being abused at home or school, it's the name of someone who had a kind friend, who had a friend who saw something of worth in her. I don't care if anybody thinks I'm being juvenile, it's my name as much as the surname of a man is the name of a woman who used to be married to him is.

My mum was called by that shortening of Jennifer as a girl, but pronounced to rhyme with reefer. She has always preferred it, but it didn’t stick as my dad wouldn’t use it.

Lying I thought you would get the Mallory Towers reference, you sounded like Gwendolyn.

mooncup

People can give themselves nicknames tho.... my little girl gave herself one at about 15 months and though she knows her full name she prefers to tell people her nickname when they ask.

She's only 2 and a bit now but we respect her wishes.

Saying that, Rebbers is a dumb nickname and I'd feel silly saying it at first.... in this day and age where girls can be boys and boys can be girls, I say we just call people what they want!!

I knew a Christopher who went by 'Toffer' and it also made me feel weird! It felt like a random insult that a child had made up (like, 'Oi! Toffer!' or 'Stop being such a Toffer!'), I felt like I was being rude by saying it.

Not as bad as Niffer though.

Rebbers isn't great either. I'd just feel a bit stupid saying it i think.

Clearly has no expectation of being taken seriously in the workplace.

I've got one at the moment - a Catherine (I think) who refers to herself as Catkin ffs.

You should call her what she wants to be called, but you could try Reb if that feels better to you. My nickname is a slightly unusual shortening of my name, and a lot of people use the more usual slightly shorter version. Similar to if I prefered Becky but people used Bec. I don't mind that, even though it's not quite my choice.

She's young, and a volunteer, call her what she wants. At some point in her life perhaps someone will flag that she might want to sound a bit more professional at work.

I worked with a 'Uel' which was short for Samuel. So bloody awkward to say, and so over-engineered so that he wouldn't just be a normal 'Sam',

@Ccoffee Uel is a name in its own right though.

Is it? I've never heard it before. This was definitely a shortening.

Just looked it up, so it is, a biblical name.

I work with lots of foreign immigrants who have shortened their names / slightly changed them to make them easier to pronounce.
I also meet lots of patients especially older people or also immigrants who use nicknames/ other names than their first names...

Several of my own family have changed their names to short names or nicknames currently or in the past which makes tracing my family tree difficult...
For example the Nigerians in the family have completely shortened both first and surnames.
And my great aunts were known by names totally unrelated to their birth names (think Nelly for Marion, Molly for Elinor!)
Then my mums grandad was known by his second name Bill when he was actually called Reece.

I didn’t even notice that this young person was a volunteer. That makes it a bit do list of you and your colleagues to be honest. If it’s so so difficult for you and your colleagues and you feel so silly calling her by the name she wants to be known by that you need to post about it online maybe you could just let her know her free time that she’s offering isn’t wanted since a bunch of adult colleagues feel too ‘silly’ saying her name.

I have to legitimately call a person in my place of work (a professional non-casual work place may I add) "Dong" at their request 🙃

Rebbers is also ridiculous

Yes, I think Rebbers is a very silly schoolmatey kind of nickname, and not on a par with Becky at all.

🤣🤣🤣

🐸

You win the thread!!

Just call the girl Rebbers and be done with it. It's not that dreadful.

I will, but I might cringe sometimes.

Just call her T-bone.

Mostly I just call people by what they choose to be called, regardless of setting or whatever, but I have one friend who has been shortening my (already diminutive) given name down until it's now just a syllable and I've lengthened hers from her given diminutive, via her given name and now I'm adding suffixes

😆😆