GAIL WHITE Playing the name game appears to be just a male thing

Why can't men just call one another by the names given to them by their parents at birth?
I have a friend named Tracy. Her parents gave her that name the day she was born. When I talk to her, I call her Tracy.
I also have a friend named Tina. Her parents actually named her Christina at birth. But early on, Christina was shortened to Tina -- certainly no stretch of the imagination as to the connection of the two.
My husband has a friend named Paul. When he talks with him, he calls him Big Billy. Actually, it's more like "MmmBiiiig Billaaay" as he rolls the words off his tongue.
"Why do you call him that?" I asked one day.
My husband looked at me like I was the strange one.
Big Billy has a friend whom my husband and I have gotten to know. His name is Boogs.
While I found Big Billy to be an odd name for Paul, I thought "Boogs" was positively unacceptable and offensive.
"What's his real name?" I insisted on knowing after I had to address this man as Boogs one day.
"That is his name," my husband said nonchalantly.
"That cannot be his name," I persisted.
Mr. Boogs
"Well it is. ... It's his last name," Pat said unconvincingly. Now we were getting somewhere. He was simply addressing this friend by his last name. But there was something in my husband's voice that I questioned.
"His last name is Boogs?"
"Well, something like that," Pat admitted.
I had to ask the next question, even though I already knew the answer he would give me. "What's his first name?"
"I don't know!" Pat said, highly irritated. "Boogs! It's Boogs! That's what his name is!"
I asked Boogs myself. His parents bestowed upon him the lovely name of Daniel.
The thing that baffles me the most is that my husband has never even considered asking what this nice, kind man's name is. He answers to Boogs so that's what Pat calls him.
Kind of like Larry Bird.
Big Billy, Boogs and Pat have another friend called Larry Bird. The first time my husband talked about him I was amazed that someone had the same name as the great basketball player.
If he looks like a Bird ...
The first time I met this man, I was astounded at his resemblance to the famous Larry Bird.
"He even looks like Larry Bird," I whispered in amazement to my husband.
"That's not his real name," Pat informed me. "They call him Larry Bird because he looks like Larry Bird."
His real name is Frank but he answers to Larry Bird and, rumor has it, has signed a few autographs as such.
Larry (Frank) has a brother named Arnold. Everyone calls him Arnie. Go figure.
Big Billy has a brother named Craig.
On the spot
When Craig calls, I know immediately it is him because my husband will respond to the call, "What's up-spot?"
For 15 years I have listened to this exchange between Craig and Pat. I don't ask about it because I know I won't get an answer that makes any sense to my female mind.
I have internally analyzed it, however.
I have concluded that spot is not Craig's nickname. He does not answer to spot and he uses the term back at my husband.
"How about a game of golf-spot?"
To which my husband will respond, "You got time-spot?"
I have never heard Craig or Pat "spot" anybody else. But every sentence in the first five minutes of a phone call will end with the word. Then, they seem to get bored with "spot" themselves and drop it -- until the next call.
I thought it was just an odd set of friends my husband hangs out with until my son came home from school talking about Gooch, Rambo, Spoon and B-house.
My son's name? Blue.
I asked him, "What's up with that-spot?"
gwhite@vindy.com