Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/134350
The Art of Manliness Continued nicknames for athletes abounded: Lou "The Iron Horse" Gehrig, Harold "The Galloping Ghost" Grange, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Karl "The Mailman" Malone, William "The Refrigerator" Perry, and so on. Boxers have always been some of the most nicknamed athletes — pugilist John L. Sullivan (who graces the AoM masthead) had half a dozen monikers or more, including "The Prizefighting Caesar,""The Hercules of the Ring,""The Boston Strongboy," and my favorite,"His Fistic Highness." Sports nicknames linger on today, but have been in decline since their golden age in the 1920s, when childhood nicknames were more common, and colorful journalists sought to punch up their writing by christening athletes who had made it to adulthood without one.Today's athletes lack the intimacy and accessibility that allowed nicknames to thrive, and because all nicknames are bestowed by others and thus lie outside the control of the named, modern athletes often eschew them in favor of stricter management of their "personal brand." As the name implies, these nicknames are used to refer to someone — not to address them directly.You wouldn't have gone up to Mr. Gehrig and said,"Hey Iron Horse, how's it going?" Private nickname JOBS for TEAMS Also known as a love-name, or petname, these names are typically used between lovers only when they are alone (or by couples who are impervious to the eye-rolls of their friends). Think "Sweetie Pie" or "Honey Buns." Private nicknames give couples a sense of intimacy, as they are names known and used only by each other, which helps create a little pocket and hedge against the outside world. | 18 JobsForTeams0613_manliness.indd 2 Public nickname A public nickname is one that is often given to a person in his childhood by family or friends, and which he carries with him everywhere he goes — it has a achieved a near permanent status.The person may introduce themselves to new people with the nickname, and friends and associates may not even know the person's real name. For example, Kate's uncle's real name is James, but as a kid his brother started calling him "Fuzz," because his neck hair grew back so quickly after haircuts. His dad worked with a not-sobright guy who morphed Fuzz into "Buzz." Friends and family found that so funny they all started using it.Today, he's Buzz to pretty much everybody and introduces himself that way. Public nicknames differ from diminutives, which represent variations on one's given name: Bobby=Robert, Smith=Smitty. True nicknames are complete departures from the root of one's real name. Generic These are less personal, off-the-cuff nicknames that are given to those who fit certain categories."Doc" for a doctor, "Shorty" for a vertically-challenged individual,"Paddy" for an Irishman, and so on. Group nicknames. At last we come to the type of nickname that we will be focusing on today.These nicknames are bestowed on members of a group by each other, and only used within the group. It's the difference between Winston Churchill being called "The British Bulldog" by the public, and his being known as "Copperknob" (for his red hair) among his childhood chums at the all-boys Harrow School. Group nicknames are an almost exclusively masculine domain, and their purpose and function among men will now be explored. www.jobsforteams.com 5/7/13 11:07 AM