wilsongray.com

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Mar 8, 2006, at 10:42 AM, Page Stephens wrote:

> ... By the way one of the things which I have noticed among my
> friends of my
> generation -- I am 62 -- is that many of my friends from my
> childhood whom
> we used to call Bob and Dick now tell me to call them Robert and
> Richard.
>
> Is this a general trend or just peculiar to the people from southern
> Illinois of my generation?
>
> I do know that my friends in my hometown from the generation before us
> still call themselves Bob or Dick and not Robert or Richard but I
> do not
> know if this is peculiar to this area of the US or not...

for several decades now, many gay men in their 20s and 30s have moved
from (childhood) nicknames to full names -- Bob to Robert, Steve to
Steven, etc.  this continues to happen, as far as i can see.

meanwhile, my (straight) stepson moved in his 20s to using Kit rather
than Christopher for essentially all purposes except ones where his
legal name was important.

arnold

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