What's in a Name?

TB of Year 31 asked about the name of Ding Dong (screen name) an actor here in the Philippines. In her comment she told me that calling someone "Ding Dong" in their country is an insult, while here in the Philippines it's a common nick name.

Since TB's husband is half Filipino, I would like to give her a few hints how the people of the Pearl of the Orient give nicknames to their children. If you are a natural born citizen, who grew up here, it would be easy for you to guess the real name of a person by just hearing their nicknames which are basically extracted from one of the syllables of their names and then uttering it twice( how many times did I used the word name?). To give you some examples, look at the list below:

Real Name                               Nicknames
                                  Rural                               Urban                                                     
1. Rebecca.............Beck-beck......................Becky....Becca
2. Lauren................Ren-ren. ....................... Lena
3. Gladis.................Des-des. .......................Des, Glads
4. Jennifer...............Jeng-jeng or jeng............Jenny or Jen
5. Dominic............ .Ding-dong......................Dom or Nick
6. Myra..................Mye-mye.......................Myra
7. Kristine..............Tin-tin........................... .Kris or Tin

Rural nicknames were commonly applied to young girls and boys and these nicknames changes while they grew up switching from rural to urban or making reducing the 2 syllable rural to one syllable like Jhen-jhen to Jhen, Tin-tin to Tin,  and so on.

As a matter of fact, I myself was being called Sey-sey when I was a kid, but now, it's only SEY and I kinda like it. Only people who knew me well call me that way, but others still calls me Roselle.

Crazy nicknames they may seem but that's what makes us unique, natural and creative.