Annette: “Do you know who Malcolm and Donna are?”
JSR: “It’s not ringing any bells.”
Annette: “Tess mentioned them in this Nut and Bee order. She says she’s staying with them in Palmerston North and you know who they are.”
JSR: “Nope.”
Annette: “Knowing your old friends they’ll have absurd nicknames like…”
JSR: “Like ‘The Weaz’!”
Annette: “Yeah”
JSR: “And ‘Turbobunny’ …”
Annette: “Exactly”
JSR: “And I’ll be all to Tess like “Ohhh, you meant The Weaz and Turbobunny! Why didn’t you SAY?”
Sad. But true.
February 28, 2008 at 7:22 am
Idiot and 99 perhaps?
February 28, 2008 at 9:05 am
Yes, Idiot and 99.
– Pogo
February 28, 2008 at 7:24 am
Indeed. I did know who she meant.
But I still stubbornly refuse to call Andrew Ozy.
February 28, 2008 at 8:03 am
His name is Andrew? who knew.
February 28, 2008 at 7:43 am
And then there’s the people who go by three nicknames and two versions of their given name and switch their preference every few years so in order to have a conversation about them you first need to know when the other person met them.
I don’t know if that sentence makes sense as I was distracted midway by a little boy needing reassurance that “there won’t be a scary zebra”.
February 28, 2008 at 8:02 am
This happened to me when I was giveing a 1 and a half hour statement to the police about that murder.
Policeman: So then you were dropped home by your friend
Me: Yes
Policeman: and their name
Me: Euan….. um
Policeman: how long have you known him
Me: Oh years and years.
February 29, 2008 at 12:13 am
I’ve always been confused by people referring to being on a ‘first-name basis’ with someone. Intimacy appears to be knowing their LAST name.
February 29, 2008 at 12:36 am
I miss being able to do the “Mrs/Miss etc” thing. It sound so grand.
See how Schmoo’s image changes when we go all Pride and Prejudice on his name…
“Oh, Mr Dawson, you’re such an excellent card player. Please partner me at whist.”
February 29, 2008 at 4:16 am
Unfortunately, telemarketers have taken the gloss off that for me. They ring up and say ‘Is that Mrs Dearden?’, to which the only answer is ‘no it bloody isn’t’.
February 29, 2008 at 4:36 am
Yup. I am SO not Mrs Anstice. We are even listed under both names in the phone book so there’s no excuse.
Mind you I’m not really comfortable being Miss/Ms Hitchings either – it just sounds like someone else.
Man I am picky about what folks call me!
February 29, 2008 at 4:45 am
Yeah, so are you Mrs Hitchings then? See I never know.
February 29, 2008 at 5:01 am
If I absolutely have to I can cope with Ms Hitchings though that feels more like a separate persona than really me so really I don’t much like being anything other than Isabel.
February 29, 2008 at 5:07 am
How about your boys, which name do they use? Or is it both? In which case what happens if _they_ get married and have children.
OTOH it would be great for family geneology research to keep all names.
February 29, 2008 at 5:11 am
See below 🙂 If they marry they can choose to do whatever they feel is right at the time.
I know one family who give their daughters mum’s last name and their sons dad’s one which I think is pretty neat but leave the danger of feeling like you have to keep on sprogging until you have at least one kid with each name.
February 29, 2008 at 5:19 am
Yeah, that would suck for us if we’d played that game 🙂
See this is why I think there’s a reason for the tradition, it’s just easier. It did take me a few years to get used to being Teressa Rooney, but now my maiden name sounds strange to my ears.
I like having Shoei’s name because it makes us seem more like family to me. we are The Rooney’s. After growing up with mum and I having different names it’s so nice to be able to all have the same name together as a family. I don’t feel like I have lost my personal identity, I feel like I have gained my own family.
Weird eh?
February 29, 2008 at 5:27 am
As a family we are The Hitchings-Anstice family which I really like because it brings both sides together.
I really like that it’s OK for every family th choose what’s going to work for them and the world just seems to cope.
February 29, 2008 at 6:19 am
“Ms Hitchings” is totally librarian-hot though. Rawr!
February 29, 2008 at 4:44 am
I’m so Mrs Rooney. I couldn’t get rid of “Bielski” quick enough. No one knows how to say or spell it. Let alone with a multiple variant first name of “Teressa”.
OTOH I never know how to do last names with women who keep their own names. The full name is easy enough, but are they Mrs or Ms?
February 29, 2008 at 5:07 am
Generally I think it’s Ms when someone keeps their own last name only but sometimes Mrs if they hyphenate.
February 29, 2008 at 5:24 am
Did you marry Jamie via paperwork? I know in Karen and Hooch’s case, they did marry but Karen has kept her own name, but she does refer to Hooch as her husband.
February 29, 2008 at 5:28 am
Nup we’re livin’ in sin 🙂 though I wouldn’t change my name even if we did make it official.
February 29, 2008 at 5:36 am
Ooooo…. You wicked woman. The Purity Police will be on your door any second now.
How do you introduce each other? I ask because I’m never sure what’s going to annoy people or not. Some people get tizzy with the term “partner” because it sounds like a business arrangement. “Lover” just sounds cheesy. “Significant other” seems a bit clinical.
February 29, 2008 at 5:44 am
I like “partner” – it seems to me to have a feeling of equality and implies that we are on the same “team”. “lover” sounds more temporary or clandestine – whole bunch of inappropriate connotations.
February 29, 2008 at 7:36 am
I use ‘lover’ a lot, because I love the way it makes people uncomfortable. Otherwise ‘partner’. I’ve never had any problems with partner.
February 29, 2008 at 4:54 am
I think the other reason I was happy to change my name was that my mother used her maiden name and I had my father’s. It was all so complicated to have different surnames. Me and Shoei being Rooney’s and our kids being Rooney’s is so much easier by comparison.
What do you guys do with your kids’ last name?
February 29, 2008 at 5:05 am
The kids are hyphenated which is a pain when you get forms with small boxes to write in but attaches the kids to both of us and means that they can choose which name to use when they get older if they prefer.
February 29, 2008 at 5:13 am
Snapo! You just answered my question. Although isn’t this going to make life complicated later on…
eg. if Bob Smith-Jones marries Wendy Watt-Turner are their kids going to be Mary Smith-Jones-Watt-Turner etc.
And if they choose to remove one name, isn’t that a bit tough on the parent whose name gets binned? And how do they even choose which name to drop. Argh. I’d almost go for a blend, like Bob Smones and Wendy Wurner, then their kids could be Mary Smurner.
February 29, 2008 at 5:23 am
It’s not a perfect solution but it’s an option that means I don’t automatically lose my identity just cause I’m the girl. I basically assume that if the situation arises the kids will chose the name/combo that sounds or looks most pleasing to them and that’ll be fine whatever it is. Or they could pick a totally new name – that’d be OK too.
February 29, 2008 at 7:38 am
I’ve never had the slightest problem in fifteen years of having different surnames. Everybody calls me Emma. The children have my surname as a second middle name, and Karl’s as their surname. Doesn’t bother me at all.
I also refuse to use a title at all. That pretty much forces people to call me Emma. That being my name.
February 29, 2008 at 9:27 am
My favorite way is the Russian Patronymic system truth be told. They don’t have titles either (unless you count Prince or Baron).
March 1, 2008 at 3:55 am
As a side note, the Russian system (which is very similar to the practices in South America) does lead to problems in less advanced parts of the world. In the US, for example, the State Depaprtment can’t deal with double barrelled surnames where the children will (usually) have different surname combinations depending upon gender, while “Homeland Security” will fvck it up in entirely different ways.
To give a real life example, we have a client at work right now that had State reverse their name on the visa in their passport (apparently the US State department can’t read passports!) and when hey arrived in the US the Immigration officer actually *altered* the arrival card to be *incorrect* (& different from both the passport & the visa). When the client went in to get their Social Security number, the SSA refused to issue one. And now their employer is being forced to send the worker home and start the whole process over again because the US departments refuse to recognise their mistakes and correct them.
Names can be fun. 🙂
This post has no real point. Sorry.
February 29, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Oh Mrs Rooney what a splendid hat!
I simply cannot wait till this afternoon when we all have tea in Mr Rooney’s gazebo, and we can have scones and jam with clotted cream!
February 28, 2008 at 8:11 am
Actually I remember having a discussion with a non-kaos flatmate who was berating me for myself and my kaos friends “all having stupid nicknames”
He said “It’s so childish, you all call yourself fairykins and lasergun”
I said “that’s silly nobody calls themself fairykins, and it’s las-r-gun actually”
February 28, 2008 at 9:59 am
If the Realm was still going, you _know_ tomorrow when you log in, there’d be a fairykins.
February 28, 2008 at 8:29 am
I still having issues deciding if I should introduce myself to people as fishie or Andrea.
February 28, 2008 at 8:47 am
In a lot of ways it’s easier to have a unique nickname especially if you have a really common name like I do, I was at a party at Dillon’s place once and realised the other 4 people sitting around the coffee table with me were all called Michael, and three of us were Michael James (insert surname here).
February 29, 2008 at 12:37 am
Which is why you should become “Mr Dawson”.
February 29, 2008 at 1:32 am
Hey, I did my bit to avoid that ever happening again 🙂
February 29, 2008 at 4:46 am
Yeah, on that count you went above and beyond the call of duty 😉
March 1, 2008 at 6:12 am
In my mind you’re still always fishie 🙂
I may call you Andrea, and refer to you as Andrea, but when someone else says “Oh Andrea’s going to meet us…” I always have to stop and do the translationg in my head “oh! She means fishie!”. Heh, isn’t that weird?
February 28, 2008 at 8:34 am
I introduce myself as Catherine and they look blank and then I say caycos and they say ohhhhhhhhh right.
February 28, 2008 at 8:52 am
Wintermute, your meno-fu is withering away.
Having moved to Greymouth I’ve had to revert to calling Shoei “Michael”, how weird is _that_.
February 28, 2008 at 9:41 am
Now that’s just _wrong_
February 28, 2008 at 9:57 am
Wintermute? I thought he was Rainbow Black.
February 28, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I am. Also, Spartacus.
February 29, 2008 at 1:33 am
I thought he was Terminal Frost….
February 29, 2008 at 4:47 am
lol, that was the next thing out of Shoei’s mouth when he typed the previous comment.