What's in a name?

I've been called, Brandan, Brundin, Breenden, Brindin and any other combination of vowels, it's one of the major reasons when I introduce myself to people I call myself Bren, another reason is that people can't accidently leave the 'N' off the end and change my sex, something which as you can imagine my school friends did with alarming regularity and my baby brother Stefan still does to try and get a rise out of me. Which I hasten to add doesn't work as I can come back with Stephanie for him, doesn't really figure does it? I get the second vowel being got wrong occasionaly as it's a 50/50 chance of it being an 'A' or and 'O' but even sometimes I confess to being a little bit shocked by what some people come up with, though my friends, including the aforementioned Emma find it hysterical.

I've also had a few nicknames in the past, to my family I'm Pop, in homage to Popeye who apparently when I was a baby I used to do a mean impression of whilst being carried upstairs to sleep. This involved into Poppy when I was a teenager to wind me up by my Dad in front of my friends, something that used to work quite well on me it has to be said. At Gipsey Bridge Primary I was known as Titch for my small size or BJ which as I got older was sort of frowned upon giving the sexual connotations. To the members of Fishtoft Youth and Couever Coaching teams I was known by Midget, again because of my lack of height, Jerry as one half of Tom and Jerry, two roving fullbacks who liked to kick the opposition. As I got older the nicknames fell by the wayside a little until I got to University where I bestowed with the nickname 'Magic'. Now the reason behind this is quite unique and the origins are known only to a select few, but now I can confess that it's not for any love of dressing like Gandalf and telling people they shall not pass. It's actually because when I get annoyed my voice goes up an octave or two and it made me sound a lot like Paul Daniels who's catchphrase was "That's Magic!"  This stuck with me with a select few people, mainly the Hibbert Street Posse and even today to them I am The Magic Man, which is I think is possibly the best nickname I've had, when I tell people the reason it does lose it's shine quite dramatically doesn't it?

So what's in a name or more relevant to the nicknames that we give to people. I have known people for literally decades and never known there birth given name, it's a bit like Trigger in Only Fools and Horses when he keeps calling Rodney, Dave. Ferret, Pinky, Duesky are three people I've shared many nights out with but for a million pounds I wouldn't be able to tell you there actual names and now it's been so long that I've known them that long that I don't feel as though I can ask them.

There are those that we shorten like Ash instead of Ashley, Kev instead of Kevin. We can also slide into this category of not very imaginative nicknames the ones that are born out of necessity, we had two James's in our group so we called them by there surnames Kelly and Swain. Chris Patchett became Patch, There were Roberts shortened to Bob. We have Geordie Jo, so called to separate her from Tall Jo, Welsh Emma because there was Brummie Emma. You get the point with these ones don't you?

Now this is where we slightly go weird and in some cases downright offensive. There was a girl we nicknamed Gravy, because she'd go with anything. Pinko because any time the weather changed outside he would turn bright pink. Boots because the first day we all met at University decided to say ah fuck boots as we walked past the shop, I wonder if he regrets that after 20+ years. Psycho because well she was a bit on the crazy side. Afghan is one I don't think I can do justice and needs a full blog entry to do it full justice. 

Then there are the ones where I don't know how they originated and frankly I'm a little scared to ask why now like Vicky who was dubbed Thundercat, Jon was given the moniker Sinbad, Martin was Ewok, Ian became Lucy, Craig is known as Crow and the weirdest one that I know is Alister who has been known as Jesus for the past 25 plus years. 

Now back to the original question what is in a name?  They can be loving, they can be funny, they can be hateful and everything in between all I know is it really pisses me off when my name is spelt wrong but I don't see that changing any time soon. To try and solve this question I've just googled what does my name mean (what did we do before google?) According to www.meaningofthename.com/brendan:

The name Brendan is usually given to a Boy. And we are pleased to let you know that we found the meaning of your name, Prince. The origin of the name lies in Gaelic. Brendan is pronounced as BREN-dan

I like the way that they say it's usually given to a boy, talk about hedging your bets! I also knew it had Irish origins and I'm glad they tell you how to pronounce it as well, I'm sure that everyone out there would find this useful. Though even people I've known and worked with for years still get it wrong so maybe there's no hope for people. I don't really know what the point of this post was, a little nostalgia, a little being bored and thinking that when I started this could be fun, who knows, but thanks for reading!