View Message

Yeah, I guess you're right, tons of them do insist and succeed at it. I know a Stephen (pron. Steven) who's never Steve, and a Charles who's never Charlie, and a Michael who's never Mike. I have just known so many Steves, Matts, Mikes, Dans, Daves, Joes, Phils, Nicks, Ricks ETC ETC that it is easy to assume they must not care that much. But really I think what I observed is, that the most common man names are more common than the most common woman names, and more of those common male names have a single common short form, than the most common female names do. I rashly generalized and attributed it to gender, because I was thinking of a few guys in particular I know who accepted their nicknames, whose personalities are such that they would not insist on being called by a full name, or even give it the slightest thought when someone used the one usual nickname for their name (Dan, Dave, Steve, Mike, Tom, Joe, Brad etc). While I can't think of any women I know who are like that, I'm sure they're out there.

This message was edited 4/22/2013, 9:04 PM