Talk:Nickname

Regarding Australian "ironic" nicknames - how can I prove it, it's just a known fact. People round here (NW NSW) use that form of construction all the time. "Blue" in particular is a defining usage of Australian English especially abroad - "G'Day Blue" is a stereotype and cliche of the way Aussies talk. I have various guide books on Australia and most mention this type of nicknaming as typically Australian - take a characteristic and invent a nickname based on its opposite. What else is there to say? Anecdotal and what written evidence I have backs this up. I'm not sure why you're so against remarking that this is Aussie usage anyway - usually edits have to be defended. I've defended my end - argue yours. Graham 03:19, 14 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Easy: How many actual people have that nickname? (Blue) I've never met a single one myself, and know of no well-known celebrities or sports people with that nickname. Generally the word "blue", in Australian slang terms, means a fight, a mistake, or depressed. To me, these common usages with their negative overtones make it unlikely as a common nickname. (Also, it is extremely rare for a straight-haired person to be nicknamed "curly"!) If this was a common nicknaming construction, then one would expect some famous actual examples, yet "Slim" Dusty is not fat, while "The Great White Shark" indeed had white hair.

However, I will not remove the "cliched, stereotype" again.

Yes, blue means all those things as well. That doesn't mean it is NEVER applied to a red-haired person. In fact my girlfriend gets called Blue occasionally by her Aussie colleagues, and yes, she has red hair. This is not proof of course, but then again, neither is being unable to think of a person you know or have heard of with such a nickname - that's just a lack of personal anecdotal evidence. Also, counterexamples don't prove it either - "'Slim" Dusty may not have been fat but that doesn't mean all those nicknamed Slim are likewise not fat. I'm not saying that this form is especially common, and maybe it's a form that is dying out (this is a definite possibility, because I personally have a hunch that this was something the Aussies inherited from the Poms, and was possibly a lot more common back in the old colonial days - this form is still used quite commonly in the UK), but you do hear the occasional example, and the guide books mention it, so... I think it should be left in. Graham 03:49, 14 Jan 2004 (UTC)

I never said it never happened. I deleted the bit about Australia because I felt this construction wasn't neccesarily common in, nor restricted to, Australia - which is what you are now saying too. Also, I never removed the whole thing, I only removed the bit saying it was common in Australia (as opposed to anywhere else). I just don't think that it neccessarily is common in Australia. Maybe the guide books all got that tid-bit from... other guide books? It really was an extremely minor deletion anyway, an attempt to remove stereotype which I've never been a big fan of. MyallR 14 Jan 2004

I would just like to add that as an Australian I hear the term "Bluey" used as a nickname for red-heads all the time, and think it should be in the article. But I would also like to mention that this article has a very strong English POV, and should be edited to become more international. For example, the sports nicknames doesn't mention a single sports club from outside England. --plattopus (talk) 17:34, Mar 18, 2005 (UTC)

Relating to given names: To use "abbreviation" and "diminutive" as synonymous does make sense in English, but not in many other languages. In the Italian example used "Giovannino" is a diminutive from "Giovanni" and it is longer.In fact, in many languages diminutives are formed by affixes and tend to be longer than the straight form of the name. --Georgius 08:25, 15 May 2005 (UTC)