Who uses the phone book these days, right? The people of Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia do! And not only are their names printed, but so are their nicknames. If you’re looking to call Carrots, Lettuce Leaf, Moose, Diesel, or Hose, they’re all in there. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Phone Book Nicknames”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
A few hundred miles off the east coast of Australia, there’s this beautiful little place. It’s called Norfolk Island. And it’s just 13 miles square. There are only 2,000 people who live there. Most of them are descendants of British sailors and Polynesians. And when you look at photos of the place, Grant, the place is just gorgeous. It’s this typical South Pacific paradise. So that’s enough to make you envious right there.
But there’s one other thing that makes me really wistful the more I read about this place. And maybe it gives you a little insight into their culture. A lot of people on this island go by nicknames. And in fact, the island’s phone book includes them. You can go online, Grant, and look at this because there, for example, lots of Buffetts on Norfolk Island. But if you want Darlene Buffett, you go looking for Dar Busy Bee. Dar Busy Bee. Dar Busy Bee.
There’s a guy whose nickname is Carrots. There’s another guy named Lettuce Leaf. There’s Pumpkin and Wiggy and Pinky and Pixie and Moose and Sluggy and Diesel and Boo and Hose and Pusswa. I don’t know about those last two. Do people use these or is this the person who put together the phone book took it upon themselves to assign nicknames? I don’t know. I mean, I guess if you have that small a population, maybe there are lots and lots of people with the same name. Or maybe you just know people by their nicknames. But there was something about that that just made me wistful. I wish I had my nickname in the phone book.
What’s your nickname? Which one would it be? Probably be Big. I think I told you about that. Yeah, and you’re Gertie, right? Yeah, my little sister said if I’d have been a girl, I’d have been called Gertrude, so she called me Gertie for a long time. And Big for me was short for Big Moth, which everybody called me in college. But I don’t know. There’s something kind of lovely about that.
Yeah, there definitely is. Nicknames have a special place. They provide social glue. Good stuff. You can find it online. We’ll link to it from our website. And in the meantime, you can call us with your questions about language, 877-929-9673, or send them an email to words@waywordradio.org.
