The Changing Role of Nicknames: A Study of Politicians

Stanley Lieberson, Cathy Kenny
2007 Names  
Recent decades have witnessed a remarkable expansion in the usage of informal forms of people's names (Marty for Martin, Viki for Victoria). After analyzing the likely social causes for this change, we evaluate our theory by studying the naming practices of politicians over the past 100 years. During the last century or so, there has been a broad and sweeping change from formality to informality in much of the Western world. And-to the degree that Western practices are copied elsewhere-in
more » ... g degrees it occurs in other nations as well. This shift affects manners, clothing, style, tastes, the overt use of class distinctions, recreational activities, social interaction, and behavior at work. In the United States, for example, compare what we now wear at home while relaxing with old photos from a time when families spent an evening listening to the radio (men wearing a jacket, white shirt, and tie; women with dresses and heels) or compare proper attire for the beach now with the past, or old pictures of spectators at a sporting event, or college students in class or the dining hall. Or compare the background photographers choose for posing a newly married couple with those used for our parents or grandparents (Lieberson, 2000) . Given the social basis of naming behavior, it is not surprising to find a similar decline in the use of formal names. Newspaper reporters are far more likely to use a nickname in their byline now than they did before World War Two. And it is striking how often television anchors and reporters use their nicknames in identifying themselves. As for the sports
doi:10.1179/nam.2007.55.4.317 fatcat:ffizz5budzcrtkfojgfajb2ani