My father was officially James Godfrey Fulford. He couldn't be called Jim because that was his father and grandfather. His mother called him Godfrey but one of his aunts took umbrage at the name and decided that she would call him by an abbreviation of her surname which was Dennison. Somehow he became Denis which was what everyone called him for the rest of his life except for my mother who called him Den. susan ----- Original Message ----- From: Caroline Gurney <[email protected]> Date: Friday, June 8, 2012 1:01 pm Subject: Re: [SOG-UK] baptismal names To: [email protected] > On 8 June 2012 17:09, Julia Riley > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I'm sure we all have at least one example of this - two of my > mother's> cousins married men who had been baptised John. One > was always known as Dick > > and the other as Pete. And no, they weren't their middle names > or nicknames, > > they had just 'always been called that' for reasons lost in > the midst of > > time... I don't think they knew themselves how it had happened. > > There is usually family logic behind these types of nicknames. My > father was officially Geoffrey Cyril. As the youngest of six he was > always eager to keep up with his older siblings, which led to his > parents calling him "Little Billy Beaver" because he "beavered away". > As a result, he was known as "Bill" to his family for the rest > of his > life. > > Caroline Gurney > www.carosfamily.com >   > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SOG-UK- > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >