Well Sharon talking about names. . .Mum and Dad could not decide or agree on a name for me out of three, which were, Pricilla, Penelope and Michelle.  They put the names in a hat and pulled out Michelle.  All I am thankful for is that I ended up with Michelle.

My family have names for me as in Shell, Shelly and I was always called puss in boots or puss by my mum who still calls me that.  At school and through my working life people have tried to shorten my name to Mich (hate it with a passion) or they try and call me the names my family call me and I wouldn't respond unless they called me Michelle.

Now I find in my 50's people are starting to call me Shelly again and this time I have been okay with it but would not intentionally call myself that 

Michelle (Shelly)

When we named our kids we were hoping they wouldn't have their names shortened. Huh. Dreaming. Ian added an 'i' ; Stephen became Steve; Simon became Sime, Lachlan became Lacho, and Erin became Ez. When she was in High School it was a big thing to make all the girls names end with 'z'. So Rachel became Raz, Belinda became Bez, etc etc. I might note that we, the parents, still call our kids by the names we gave them. Our latest grandchild has been named 'Micah' but his parents are already calling him, Mikey. Why bother naming? And it goes back a long way. My mother-in-law's brothers had names like Verdun Douglas (he got Mick), Earle Thomas (Pat - because he was born on 17th March), Arthur Benet Lovell(Ben), Harry King (King), and her name was Olga May and she got Polly.

My uncles were named William called Bill, Hector called Hec, and Clyde Ernest who was called Pete. Aunt was Olive and only ever called Bid. My dad was Robert called Bob.
My uncle on my mums side was called Hilton only ever known as Cuddy.
My sister Betsy I call B and my other sister Lois gets Lolo by her family.

My mother was funny when she was complaining about me to whoever.................. it depended who she was talking to, to my kids she would call me your mother, to my brothers she would call me your sister, to my friends she would call me your friend, to the ladies at her church, she would say that daughter of mine......lol lol ...another reason I miss her terribly..

At work often i am called "Uncle Pete" mostly i exspect because of my age compared to those of my work mates lends itself to an advisory role, lately more and more clients are calling me by that nick as well. My ex when she sometimes calls usually calls me " Pete dont hang up" with her i always live up to my name. My brother calls me " professor" and has done so for the last thirty years all because he can never win at a friendly game of poker, i am the proud owner of hundred of one and two cent pieces. All that is good but there is a sad story about name too in my life. My oldest daughter i adopted from Korea 24 years ago. When my ex and i busted up they moved to Queensland and i lost contact with her for ten years but happily one day out of the blue she rang me and asked if she could move back to S.A. and move in with me. We are now as close and loving as any family should be however for some reason she refuses to call me by any name at all to my face. its pretty odd, no Dad no Peter, just Hi or a hug. To my other kids she calls me Peter and to her friends she uses Dad but never any name when talking to me. Odd hey?