Ok It's 2 in the morning here and I can't sleep so having a nightcap....and was thinking about nick names.
It will probably get lost in the translation but...
I don't know if it's a big thing in America, but in the UK and Wales in particular, they tend to give most people a nick name. The reason is that the predominant Welsh surnames are Jones, Thomas, Davies and Evans, and a popular Christian name is Dafydd (David),usually shortened to Dai.
As there tends to be more than one person in the town with the same surname at least, they usually qualify any reference to one of them by his occupation. For example: Thomas the Post (Postman), Evans the Milk (milkman), Jones the Window (window cleaner) etc etc.
Now as window cleaners use a Chamois (pronounced over here as 'Shammy') leather cloths in their trade I heard of a Window cleaner who was called Dai Davies and his nickname was 'Shammy' Davies.
When his son left the army and joined the business he was called.........
yup.............. 'Shammy Davies Junior'
And a bloke with one tooth in the middle of his top gum was called 'Central (h)eating'...
Another guy who was a carpet fitter is known as 'Hall, stairs and landing'
My parents being Welsh and living there had an entry in their phone book for the stables who supplied good manure. He was down as Davies the sh*t !
Anyone else know of appropriate funny nicknames ?
