[Closed] I always call him Richard but his name is Martin

I knew my gran's first name as Marion.

Aged 38 I went to the dementia care home and asked for Marion Wright. I was told there was no Marion, but there was a Christina Wright.

Transpires that as well as hiding she was a scouser behind a posh accent (funny when she forgot with the dementia) she had also used another name all her life. All the family knew, but no-one thought to ever tell any of the grandkids....

Is it your subconscious calling him dick ?

my neighbours where i grew up was an elderly couple called Jack and Kath.

I only found out at his funeral that he wasn't called Jack, but really John.

I could understand if it was an odd name, or for the purposes of shortening it down, but really?

We used to call our neighbours Edwards and Tubbs because of their similarity to the League of Gentleman characters, problem is it became so normal that I no longer remember what his real name is.

Alright Dave!

Many years ago, a friend's mum started work at a new place, and was introduced to "Warren."  For months she talked to Warren, until one day she had to email him and couldn't find him in the staff directory.

She asked him why, to which Warren replied, "my name's not Warren, it's Dave."

"Oh," she says, "why do they call you Warren then?"

"It's short for 'Warren Uglybastard..."

We used to have a guy working for us called Adrian. Adrian to everyone but his dad who always called him Andy. In over 20 years I've never heard him called by his actual name by his dad.

Someone at work has been calling me Roger for the last 3 years... Roger I ain't.!!

OP, earlier today:

"my neighbours where i grew up was an elderly couple called Jack and Kath.

I only found out at his funeral that he wasn’t called Jack, but really John.

I could understand if it was an odd name, or for the purposes of shortening it down, but really?"

Believe it or not, 'Jack' is sometimes 'short' for John - lord knows why. 'Jack Ryan' of the films / books is actually John.

My Gran was always 'Babs' - she hated her first name which was Ethel, because it was an old Ladies name even when she was young. We always thought, and was told it was because her middle name was Barbara, even my Granddad called her Barbara when he was annoyed with her - but it wasn't - it was actually a nickname and short for Ali Baba because her Dad was an Arab.

Oddly a lot of people called my Granddad 'Frank' when his name was Roy, we don't know why, but it was something to do with his boxing days apparently.

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Oh, and my first name isn't really my first name, it's my middle name - some odd Welsh thing. </span>

My Grandfather was known as Bill, despite his actual name being the far more memorable Zbigniew Maksymilian Stanislaw Kowalski.

In 45 years I’ve hardly been called by my actual name, it’s not unusual.

Yours Funsponge.

I’m waitng for the obvious pun.

Bugger, someone has already done the Dave joke.

In 45 years I’ve hardly been called by my actual name, it’s not unusual.

Go on, I'll bite.  Are you called Tom Jones?

Oooh!

/crosses off Tom Jones pun bingo.

Jack instead of John is pretty common?

Had a similar thing - only at the funeral did several people learn that my grandfather Jack was actually Jonathan.

My former uni flatmate was called Adrian, except when his father phoned once asking for Colin. Nope, no Colin here, must be wrong number. 5 seconds later, phone rings again...

Yup it is.

Lad I worked with in my first job we called Stan, his parents called him Bert..

Poor lads name was actually Chris?

Never did find out why the multiple names

My wifes great aunt is known to everyone as Nell. her real name is Helen. she hates being called Nell, but everyone has been calling her Nell for so long they can't break the habit....

Often middle names are used for forenames, my mother uses hers.

Used to hang around with two Paul's, anyway one eventual started getting called Pete as it was felt that it was too difficult and confusing to have two Paul's.

Nothing unusual there, nicknames are common, the weird bit for me was when even his own family started calling him Pete.

Drac

Subscriber

In 45 years I’ve hardly been called by my actual name, [B]it’s not unusual[/B].

Neighbour told me years ago their new son was called Homer.  I thought that was rather bizarre, they are Asian, but hey ho, I called him Homer for about 12 years until one day he turned round to me and said "My name is Omar".  That was a bit embarrassing....

A mate did a full tour of Afghanistan calling one of his troop Gwaar only to find out that the guy was only called that because he was ginger. He was mortified.

Your middle name is not?

Very good. (-:

It could be worse.  Chorlton of "and the Wheelies" fame is named after where he was made.  Which was Chorlton Cum Hardy.

My friend Helen started a new job with a local authority. Arrived on her first day to be greeted with a name badge, email account and business cards calling her Jennifer. Press releases had been sent out too.

So she just went with it

that was in the late 90s and several jobs later, personally and professionally she’s still Jennifer.

[Jack], the commonest pet-name for John, has caused a good deal of difficulty owing to the natural assumption that it must be derived from the French Jacques and should therefore logically represent James rather than John. The problem was cleared up by E. W. B. Nicholson in a little book entitled The Pedigree of Jack and of Various Allied Names (1892). He showed that there is no recorded instance of Jack, Jak, Jacke, or Jakke ever being used to represent Jacques or James, and that no statement in favor of the French connexion has been produced from any early writer. He then proceeded to elucidate and illustrate with examples the development of Johannes [the standard Latin nominative form] to Jehan [the standard Old and Middle French oblique form] and Jan [the standard Middle Dutch form], whence, by addition of the common suffix -kin [a uniquely English suffix], we get Jankin, which as a result of French nasalization becomes Jackin [this is the same nasalization that gets us Harry from Henry], and was finally shortened to Jack. There was a similar development from Jon to Jock (the Scottish form of the name).

Apparently....

I've always called my mum, mum, apparently he actual name is Elizabeth, but everyone calls her Jill.

No wonder I'm confused

When on holiday as a kid,I changed my name to Allan.

Still have no idea why I picked Allan 🙂

Friends northern family had a baby named Ellen. turned out 8 years later she was 'elen, or Helen to southerners!

We have a 95 year old neighbour who walks by every day. We met him at a neighbourhood Christmas drinks thing one year, and the wife told me he's called Frank. So every time we saw him we'd say "Hi Frank!", chat a bit and so on. He didn't always seem very chatty, but we figured it's an age thing.

Weirdly we saw another neighbour giving him a lift one day, and say "bye Bill!" as he got out of the car. Asking about it later, it turned out his name is Dr Bill Frank, so he'd been raging the whole time we'd called him Frank.

When i first met my wife's aunties, they were introduced as "my Auntie Muff and Auntie Buff", cue a little s**** from me, apparently Muff was because she really stubborn as a child after Muffin the Mule, she couldn't explain why her sister is called Buff, apart from it must rhyme. Her nan is also called Fairy........Norfolk ways..

My sister works for a small opera company in London, when she went for the interview recently the hugely eccentric lady that runs it has insisted she must be called Louise, even though her name is Claire because there is already a clare working there, even her emails come with Claire on...

Your middle name is not?

Once worked in a team for a few years that contained five Daves, the boss to save on confusion started to call them all by their surnames. My sterling effort was to call everyone on the team including the boss (a Craig) Dave, saved on mental effort and also really wound the boss up.

"Is it your subconscious calling him dick ?"

I once worked with a bloke called Brian Dix. A visitor who had been before once said, "Is that chap Brian still working here? Brian ... Cox, wasn't it?". What was she thinking.

A while back, in a set of Chambers in Middle Temple, the Head Clerk decided that to match the social pedigree of the clients, the junior clerks ought to have posher names than those they arrived with, so Lee became Sebastian, Nathan Jeremy and so on. Amusingly at the time, Radio 1 line-up appeared to have a similar skew - Seb Fontaine, Judge Jules, Tim Westwood...

I think his name is Mark, but we all call him Billy. His parents now also call him Billy.

they were introduced as “my Auntie Muff and Auntie Buff”... Her nan is also called Fairy…

Fairy Nuff?

I used to work with a Norn' Irish lass called Ursula.

We would regularly get calls asking for Ashleigh.

My mate Huey's real name is Adrian. He became Huey after a big drinking session at Uni over 25 years ago. No one calls him Adrian.

EDIT: John F Kennedy was known as Jack. As above, it's really not a recent thing.

DOUBLE EDIT: I discovered yesterday that there is someone in our large organisation whose real name is Wing Man. No, really. They must be great on a night out...

I was named after my grandfather (Martin), although everyone refered to him as Mark, didn't find out until we were (brother, brother in law uncles and I) lowering the coffin and there's my name on the brass plate!

A friend of a friend (who’s now become a friend)  is called George. We were at a party a few months back and another one of my mates, Trigger style, kept calling him Dave. Instead of correcting him I pointed out the truism that every Dave needs a prefix, so I christened him ‘Crazy Dave’. He’s a lovely bloke, but he’s a school headmaster and so couldn’t be less ‘Crazy’

To my immense gratification this has properly stuck. It’s what everyone now calls him. Even his wife now calls him Crazy Dave.

In fact its my birthday today and I got a card signed from Angie and Crazy Dave. This makes me immeasurably happy 😀

Best one i think i've heard was from one of our old field agents (insurance adjuster that goes out and interviews people for a statement).

We went to a caravan to see a family of travellers. He asked the lady her name and he heard "with an e".

He thought he had misheard and she had said something like Claire but "with an e"

So he asked her again her name and she said "with an e", he asked her how she spelt it.

"Y-V-O-N-N-E...."

My mum always uses the name Jennie but she's actually called Miriam. Just to add to the confusion my dad and I both have the same name (Alan) but he called me George and I call him Sid - no idea why though?

Chap in my class at school was called Rode , pronounced Rhod e , which we all knew . The teacher called him road for the entire time I was there , and no one corrected her ever ..

It's a thing.

I discovered on the day of my grandmother's funeral that her name was Frances. Apparently she hated it. Likewise, my uncle Bert was actually called Lawrence, but he hated that too. I would imagine he'd prefer Lawrence to Frances though.

I have several different names depending on where I am and who I am talking to. Sometimes I get confused...

I know/knew a guy called Dave. Now I’ve not seen Dave in years. But the other night saw him in a bar with a group of people. Alright Dave! Says I, passing on the way to the bar. Only to be greeted by a nonchalant raise of the eyebrows by him, and the stink-eye from the rest of his group...

I think nothing of it until later when I ask some people about him, but no one knows who the hell I’m talking about. Took a while for the penny to drop: but it turns out that ‘Dave’ isn’t called Dave at all - his name is Reuben.

Now back when I knew him, Dave/Reuben was a purveyor of party supplies. A smart move; he’d introduced himself to everyone he met (including me) on the club/rave scene as ‘Dave’. So naturally, I knew him as Dave.

Apparently, Dave later completely lost the plot. Which culminated him wiping out about four cars whilst out of his gourd on booze and gak.

After a short spell in prison for dealing cocaine, and crashing his car whilst out of his gourd on booze and gak - Dave detoxed, cleaned up his act and once again became ‘Reuben’.

Reuben now hangs out with a wholesome group of friends who’ve all got his back, and look upon anyone who calls Reuben ‘Dave’ with suspicion and disdain. As by doing so, they’ve outed themselves as a ‘wrong-un’ and part of ‘that old crowd’ that Reuben/Dave needs to keep away from.

I was listening to the radio, I think, where someone was talking about introducing his partner to The Edge from U2. She remained silent for the whole conversation because she couldn't work out who this person was that she thought was called Reg.

I used to work with a Norn’ Irish lass called Ursula.

When my daughter was about 6 or 8, she made friends with a Northern Irish girl on a campsite we were staying at. She ended up being invited to tea, so we thought we'd go and meet Gee-Anne's parents. Turned out she was called Jane.

An ex colleague prison officer is called Bob but everyone calls him 'Wild Thing' cos he's horizontal & never gets exited about anything. EVER.

My grandad was always called Ern, his name was Thomas, middle name William. I have no idea.

I had a job on a hotel narrow boat when I was 18, and one of the guests was a lady called Normandie, but I kept calling her Holland by mistake!

Everyone has known me as and called me Binners since I was at school. I’m 48. I reckon there are people who I’ve known for years who haven’t a clue what my actual ‘proper’ name is

it doesn’t really matter, does it? It’s just a name

Some people call me Maurice.

I am not known by my real name, most of my closest friends haven’t a clue what my actual name is.

I also have a colleague who is called Theresa, however when I was trying to put some overtime in for her she’s not on the system. It turns out her name is Gayle.

I work with a guy called Philip for, ohh, about five years. he left and got a job down south. His emails were all signed James...

I’ve relatives called Madge and Jeck. Jeck = John, but Madge? PS they are both in the eighties. And from Rhynie 🙂

a mates (now ex) wife all the time she was married him only ever knew me as TT. His name is Phil but everybody called home Bobby or Bobster... a mutual friend I only found out his name is Craig after knowing him for probably the better part of a decade as Colt...

I had a friend called Rob but everyone called him Brian, because he looked like a Brian. This caused some confusion on one occasion when a mutual friend rang up for Brian and his parents told him there was no-one there with that name.

I always call him Richard but his name is Martin

Livin' la Vida Loca?

A friend at college was called Pied. Or name, but whatever....*

Used to go clubbing and hang around a fair bit. Would always introduce him to others as Pied.

Turns out his name was Richard. Pied, was in fact Pea-head. He was a decent sized fella with a really small head.

*.... Pied was part of a group where one guy's name was Edge, not The Edge, but just Edge. Honestly think to this day that it really was his name.

I knew this girl everybody called Bob - it turned out her real name was Kate.

My mum is called Doreen. One Xmas, my mates family sent us a card but my mate couldn't remember my mums name and guessed it was Hazel so the card came and Mum is now Hazel.

Mate who's  family sent the card, his Mum is Trish so my mum sent a card back and, taking the Micky, called her Brenda. That's stuck as well.

Pub we used to go in had 2 micks, so one got renamed Bert.

I've nicknamed a couple of neighbours up the street Patrick and Pippa as they are just like Victor Meldrews neighbours in one foot in the grave and I proper have to think what their real names are.

another neighbour is a bit of a Del Boy, always pulling some stunt to get some quick cash, he is nicknamed Shifty. Again, I proper have to think of his real name.

My brother in law is Ryan, but I’ve always known him as Bob or Bobby. It’s jusf because Mrs F likes the name Bob so stared calling him it and it has stuck. I used to work with a guy called Diesel. Never did find out his real name.

Some good stories 🙂

I'd like to think there was an acceptable reason that I always call Martin, Richard but there really isn't. Strangely one of my newer students who's called Phil, I accidentally referred to as Richard the other day too.

Who the bleedin hell is this Richard and why does everyone look like him?. 🙂

My grandmother always went by the name of Betty even though her real name was Margaret. The reason being was she was given the name by her nanny (she grew up in a house with servants) who thought Margaret was too much of an adult name for a baby.

Couple more I've remembered.

A lad I've known years is called Hightower. Years after meeting him I found out his name is Chris. No one calls him Chris.

I worked with a bloke called Spoon. Never found out his real name. Apparently it was because he couldn't help opening his his Gob at work and stirring what other people had said.

Two guys we cycle with are named Richard but call themselves Lee.

One of them is also called nev the rev after his ability to crash grasstrack bikes.

Spoon 🥄!

We had new deputy head at school whose face was inverted.... His chin and forehead stuck out further than his nose, so we nicknamed him Spoon. Whenever you saw him in the corridor you'd shout "Spoon" and then hide. It got to the point where in assembly we were informed that calling people, and especially staff, wasn't nice.

A few weeks later in German class and the new deputy sticks his head through the door to talk to the teacher. My mate sits there and shouts "Löffel!" at the top of his voice....

Unfortunately for him the deputy spoke German!

I had a housemate who was called Adam by everyone except his mum, who used his real real name Gary (which made it interesting when she phoned up to speak to him)

I never call my husband by his real name. I always call him Flossie

I found out a few months ago that one of the blokes that had worked at my uncles garage for years wasn't really named Henry, he was named Richard, but they already had a Richard so they tried a few names out until Henry stuck.

Funny thing was, he said he struggled when his family called him Richard because he was so used to having 'Henry' shouted across the forecourt

Her name was Magill, and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy

My Mother in law was Welsh.  Her name was Gwenllian, known to everybody as Wyn.

My Father in law applied for a passport for her.  He obviously thought Wyn wasn't formal enough, so her passport came back in the name of Winnifred, which was her official name ever since

I am something of a serial renamer...

25 years ago I had a girlfriend called Camilla... My mate also found a girl called Camilla. I decided that in order to avoid confusion, I would start calling her Ellen. People still call her that, she still hates it.

I my old town, there was a kid called Tommy. He was always scruffy and caked in mud, so i renamed him Dirty Harry. 30 years later, even his mom calls him Harry.

I have a friend whose father had been calle Åge for 50 years. Real name Ronnie.

But then again, where I come from everyone has a nickname, my real name is Anders,  people call me Kalle.