Nicknames

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Exchange between me and two of my colleagues on a minor point of nomenclature in a draft paper – the current text refers to Zeljko Raznjatovic “Arkan”.

Me:
Jon,
 
the only point that jumped out at me when I reread the paper this morning was in footnote 8 where I think we should stick to standard English usage, Zeljko “Arkan” Raznjatovic.
 
Nicholas

Jon:
Nicholas, I don’t have the text before me but I think I put “Arkan” in parenthesis and after the true name because he was generally known simply as “Arkan”, rather than Arkan Raznjatovic. James?
 
— Jon

Me:
Jon,

While that’s perfectly true, we still write Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson, don’t we, if it’s a nickname? (Though I’ll agree that we don’t write H.H. “Saki” Munro.)

Nicholas

James:
Why don’t we refer to Arkan as “Fergie”?
Me:
Because he was married to Ceca, not Prince Andrew??????

One thought on “Nicknames”

  1. Never heard that police song before – I guess it was a stuart copeland experiment. Drummers!

    Thanks for the links. The Beatles and Pink floyd were actually the least interesting.

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