Why does everyone in england have a nickname ...

DH gave my oldest a nickname, but not a rhyming one. He has nicknames for all his brothers and his sister too. I never paid much attention, just thought it was something in his family.

I don't know that it's just a UK thing though. At my office we have nicknames for a bunch of people we work with. My favorite one is one of the bindery guys. His nickname is Norton because he acts just like Norton from the Honeymooners

The nicknames I like are the ones where the person is called by their profession.  They specifically do this in the village where my husband grew up in Devon.  I'm not sure if they do it everywhere. For example, the carpet layer is called Vic the Carpet.

I like that too! The shoe repair man here is called Dai the Boot! 

I'm still in the US and we do nicknames here. My sister is Lis the Fleece.

I don't really know anyone that has a nickname here, but I know a lot of people (including myself) that have nicknames in America. 

Where I grew up in the US EVERYbody had a nickname.  I went to school with Beaners, Buddies, Bucks, Bubbas, a Dooper, a Nanny, a Punk.  I know people named Squeek and Pip and Chick and Squirrel and Chippie.

At a place I worked for years, a group of us were really close and we'd call each other by last name or initials, like I was called KD by some.  And I always end being called Kimmy or Kimba, whever I've worked, which are my family nicknames, even when I hadn't mentioned that to anyone.  I guess nicknames are kind of common wherever.

I had fun reading this older thread. It got me thinking about all the funny nicknames we gave eachother as kids. I'm tall and very fair with dark hair, so I was nicknamed 'Morticia' of the 'Addams' Family' all through middle school. I also remember the variations of Jennifer-Jenn, Jenny, J, etc. A few of my former clients from my days working in social services nicknamed me 'Wonder bread', which was a compliment

The landrover crew that we know have started to call my husband "tackleberry" ( police academy )  He always chuckles about it...

One of my clients calls me "Sturdy Girl" but then I do call him "Trigger" ( from only fools & horses ) 

A few of my assorted nicknames, past & present:

Paulie - First used by my parents.  Derivation obvious, I think!

Coxy - A schoolboy nickname, shortened form of my last name.

Sparky - Mostly used by one particular friend these days to help avoid confusion as his son is also named Paul.  Common enough nickname for anyone involved in electrical work.

Strowger - A nickname given to me by fellow workmates when I first joined British Telecom upon leaving school because of my enthusiasm for telephone switching systems.  Derived from Kansas City undertaker Almon B. Strowger who came up with the basic idea for a popular switching system which was to bear his name for next century.

Man, I've lived here for the better part of a decade and I don't have a nickname - I wish I did!!!  I mentioned earlier (in a separate thread) that at my workplace, people add "y" to people's surnames to create their nicknames, but my surname already ends in the letter "y" so I feel cheated! 

My maiden name also ends in "y" (which is actually irrelevant to the next bit) and when I was in the US, someone once called me by my surname as my nickname, and it was pretty cool the way he said it (anyone else saying it might have sounded boring so I didn't try to get it to catch on with anyone else).

People do know that "Wallis" (as in Wallis Simpson) was one of her surnames?  (Did she become a "Windsor", does anyone know?)

I've only been aware of the "z" nicknames (Baz and Gazza), the surname-by-guys-together, and the shortened ones (Bev, Kev). The only ones I had referred to my height (Shorty, Titch) and only two people have used two different abbreviations of my name, one an affectionate "baby talk" kind, the other liked to call me just the first syllable. Aside from those, I've never had a nickname that stuck universally with everyone who knew me.

People just call me Ash. But in the US, only my nearest and dearest ever called me Ash, none of my workmates ever did but in the UK I get everyone calling me Ash, even those who I've not known long. I used to get a bit funny about it, like they didn't know me long enough to use my shortened name, but now I kind of like it.

With regards to rhyming names, we have a girl in our office we call Dizzy Lizzy as her name is Liz and she's a bit of a ditz.