AS I SEE IT: WHAT’S IN A NICKNAME

Posted By on October 31st, 2010

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

So the news is that Mohammed is now the favorite name in England….Gone are those gender neutral names like Beverley, Leslie, Vivian and in with Mohammed. Nothing wrong with that. After all Jesus is a very popular name with Latinos and Lord is a very popular name in the English world, and Gottesman (man of God) is around too. Mohandas, as in Ghandi is a name for servant of Mohanda the Hindu God.

But what about the nicknames? Some are tricky in America: Peggy is sometimes really Margaret, Edward is sometimes Ned or Ed.Among the Kennedys Edward is Ted, John is Jack and Robert has become Triborough.

In Israel statesmen and generals have kiddy nicknames….Bibi, Tzipi, the Yossis (Sarid and Beilin), Dudi, Udi, and Muki (even the late and great Shmuel Katz had the silly nickname). The late Chaim Herzog’s nickname or code name in Ireland was Vivian….Just think Israel could have had a Vivi also.

In America, it’s hard to take “Tommy” Thompson, former guv of Wisconsin and head of HUD seriously, although I take the actor Tommy Lee Jones seriously seriously. Remember him in “Rules of Engagement”…  a real He man.

Now among Jews, gone are the Stacies and Jordans (for girls and boys) and Dylans (for boys and girls)and back to the old standards Sadie, Molly, Sophie, Daisy but no Ruth yet.

Also the old Biblical names are back….Isaac, Jonah, Jacob, Joseph and Moses.

So back to nicknames…..For Mohammed the logical one is Mo….for Mohandas too and for Moses too. So this is truly multi-culti.Picture the three little Moes in kindergarten together…

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