Moments of Permanence - We should be clear on certain things: Names, identity, and why certain people need to shut up hard

From: elspethdixon Date: June 15th, 2009 04:07 pm (UTC) (Link)

I've found that I use different nicknames for different circumstances. Elspeth is my name in fandom. Liz is my name IRL. Elizabeth is my name in legal/formal settings. Beth, Betty, Betsy, Bess, Libby, and Eliza are not my name. I don't mind Elspeth being shortened to "Els," though, which I've seen people do more than once because they can't remember how to spell it.

I had a teacher in 6th grade who insisted on calling me "Beth" (instead of Elizabeth or Liz -- that was before I'd started going by Elspeth), and one customer at a former workplace who called me "Lisa," but both of them were old enough to be my grandparents and correcting them felt like it would have been rude. Someone closer to my age, I would have corrected (plus, I eventually realized that said customer actually was calling me "Liz" and his accent was putting a stress on the sibulant that just made it sound like "Lisa," whereupon I was really glad that I had never corrected him).

However, being called by a different nickname than the one I use isn't as annoying, IMO, as what one of my high school teachers used to do, which was refuse to use nicknames or call people by anything other than their legal first name at all. No "Zach" instead of Isaac, no "Liz" instead of Elizabeth, and definately no going by your middle name (every time he'd take attendance for the first week, he'd read out "William [lastname]" and there'd be a resounding silence, as everyone in the classroom stared at one another and tried to remember who on earth William was. Including William himself, whose middle name was Kenneth and who'd gone by "Kenny" since kindergarten).

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From: sami Date: June 15th, 2009 04:19 pm (UTC) (Link)

That's just being a jerk because you can.

Almost a shame he didn't have to deal with a family at my school. (There were a lot of them. ETA: Not all from the same *nuclear* family - cousins and things.) The family was from the Philippines, I think it was, and had some seriously Catholic traditions, so every girl in the family had the first name Maria.

Unsurprisingly, they went by their middle names, because those were actually different.

Edited 2009-06-15 04:20 pm (UTC)

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