Ethnographers, sociolinguists and workplace writers belong here. Roast comics do not get the last word.
People
- Richard D. Alford 20th c. · United States — Naming ethnography
Placed nicknames inside identity systems.
- Erving Goffman 1922–1982 · Canada / U.S. — Address and face
Why a nickname can land as honour or as attack.
- Deborah Tannen b. 1945 · United States — Conversational style
How informal address marks solidarity and hierarchy.
- Jane Pilcher b. 1964 · United Kingdom — Names in interaction
Given names and nicknames doing gender and age.
- Stanley Lieberson 1933–2018 · United States — Short forms in files
When a nickname becomes the legal given name, it still fashions.
- Platform policy teams 2010s– · Global — Display-name rules
The new unofficial registrars.
The expert question is always: who had the power to name?