Upper/Upper-Middle Class Nicknames

[Slickly]

I grew up upper-working/lower-middle class, state educated, but we moved in Y5 and I went to a good grammar. I've spent the last 20 years in Australia. My DH is upper-working class, a lot of his uni friends went to prestigious public schools. We have just moved back and have seen a lot of DHs old friends. What is with the nicknames that have nothing to do with actual names, talking of names like Minky, Binky, Bunty, Berrie, Minty, Nixxy etc.
I met a grown woman who introduced herself as something similar to these, others were used on children/teens.
AIBU to think these are so cringeworthy? Why do they do this? Do you call yourself by a random unrelated nickname?
I know some small children who might go by a sweet nickname, but not teens or adults, I find it so odd!!

I think one of the aunts of my dm or some relative was known as Dimmy

I hate the adding "y" at the end of the name which seems quite prevalent in football and cricket.

Normally the point of a nickname is to shorten the original name not to make it longer.

I would guess upper working class means family of skilled manual worker or shop assistant, junior clerical etc rather than unemployed very poor, disadvantaged etc. for those of you puzzled by the term.

People in UK have always used nicknames and its never had anything to do with class unless it's in the sense that working class people often take themselves a bit too seriously to allow nicknames to carry into adulthood. Using a nickname just speaks to me of supreme indifference as to what other people think which I applaud.

Surely, skilled manual worker and shop assistants and so on are working class. I've never heard anyone use the term upper working class and I'm old so been around a long while.

The very disadvantaged and permanently unemployed would be classified as part of the underclass.

Awful, I agree, but I suppose it's better than Muff 😆

Many nicknames make the name longer... like any where a "differential" is added such as Little Bill, Fat Sue, Baby Harry...

And I have a name you can't really shorten, think Jane. I get a Y added at the end a lot instead

Bunty is old fashioned nickname for Elizabeth

Bunty is old fashioned nickname for Elizabeth

And Agnes. If you didn't know how Bunty comes from Agnes I suppose it could look rather random.

The divide between the middle and working class is down to education level. Lower middle class and above are typically educated to tertiary level while working class tends to leave school earlier.
Traditional working class would include both skilled and unskilled labourers they generally work for an employer, so think of your tradesmen that might work for a company, this also include the emergent service sector, .. upper working class usually consists of skilled labourers that have gone on to own company's, like say you hire a contractor that has his own employees, both the boss and the employees are involved in the labour but the boss would be considered a class above since they're typically skilled to a hire level & have greater economic stability.

Tbf the upper & middle terms have since been revised as of 2013 (I vaguely remember the BBC launching the "great brittish social class calculator" at the time of the revised publication 😅) and there are 7 official social classes in modern Brittain:

• Elite.
• Established middle class.
• Technical middle class.
• New affluent workers.
• Traditional working class.
• Emergent service sector.
• Precariat.

Meant to say higher* level not hire 🫠

"Tbf the upper & middle terms have since been revised as of 2013 (I vaguely remember the BBC launching the "great brittish social class calculator" at the time of the revised publication 😅) and there are 7 official social classes in modern Brittain:"

• Elite.
• Established middle class.
• Technical middle class.
• New affluent workers.
• Traditional working class.
• Emergent service sector.
• Precariat."

That old BBC quiz, with those classifications, is dragged out in a lot of the class threads. It's usually good for a laugh as it's so far wrong for the majority.

Allow people to have their own subcultures if they’re not doing any harm, I care for people from aristocracy to the very poor and find it more cringeworthy when people criticise anyone that doesn’t conform to typical middle class British culture. They really are all people at the end of the day, it’s not only different ethnicities that should be allowed their own culture

Ah ok, thanks for that.

So instead of class becoming a thing that is no longer relevant in a modern society it has become even more nuanced, allowing for even greater levels of snobbery.

I imagine the great majority of people would have no idea which of those seven class categories they fit into and would still describe themselves as middle class or working class.

• Elite.
• Established middle class.
• Technical middle class.
• New affluent workers.
• Traditional working class.
• Emergent service sector.
• Precariat.

Ah ok, thanks for that.

So instead of class becoming a thing that is no longer relevant in a modern society it has become even more nuanced, allowing for even greater levels of snobbery.
I imagine the great majority of people would have no idea which of those seven class categories they fit into and would still describe themselves as middle class or working class.

That's just from an old BBC quiz. It's not generally used and it's not actually accurate as most people laugh about that on the class threads. There are other classification systems, especially the socioeconomic one (A-D), which if you ever studied social sciences you've probably seen.

I knew a Shuggy and a Sandy at uni (short for Hugh and Alexander respectively) but I think that's a Scottish thing rather than a posh thing.

I once had a work dinner with a Misty, a Miffy and a Minty all at once. Minty was short for Araminta, no idea about the others.

There’s a garden designer called Butter and I often wonder if it’s her real name. Oh, and Tuppence Middleton.

Whatever, it’s all more interesting than the endless parade of Emmas and Sarahs isn’t it?

I know someone who is always called Binky. Real name Cornelia! I think Binky in MIC though is Alexandra.

Also a Huggy (Hugo) and Jonty (Jonathon) which I guess are less obscure shortenings.

For a while my ds was called Wilma by his sister... that looked scarily like it might stick for a Time... thankfully reverted !

My DM went to a posh girls boarding school. We were watching Miranda the other night, who was listing the nicknames of her private school classmates, and DM recognised a lot of the names from her class - names like Tattie and Podge.

My DCs went to boarding school and most of their nicknames are derived from either their surnames or otherwise some unfortunate incident that happened at school to cause the nickname.

I personally had a nickname growing up that was completely unrelated to my name so it does happen. I didn't much like it so luckily I have moved around enough that it has largely been forgotten now.

I always wondered where Binky Felstead got her name from.

My Great Uncle was always known to everyone was "Biff". I have no idea what his real name was, as he was never called anything else. It took me ages to work out Biff was the girl in the reading books as I assumed it was the boy.

Uncle Biff was definitely working class though.

There was a Miffy at my primary school. Her real name was Carrie-Ann, so no idea why. I don't think she'd have been middle/upper class either, but I didn't know her well.

Manbat!!! 🤣

@CoalCraft electricians are often known as Spark or Sparky. Now there's an example of a Working Class Nickname