The origins of nicknames

www.boardgamescritic.com

Sometimes nicknames are acquired by accident.

At my first newspaper job right out of college, one of my fellow reporters was a nice guy named Rick Velotta. Well, once a typesetter made a mistake and his byline came out “Rock Velotta.”

Eventually, people stopped calling him “Rock.” But as I recall, it took awhile.

A few years later, after I had moved a couple of times, I was playing the board game “Risk” with some colleagues. One of the people playing was a fine fellow named Steve Sherretta. He was the business editor at the paper where we worked.

At some point, in the heat of game-playing, I called him “Stu.”

I have no idea why. He had never been called that in his life. And I didn’t even know a Stu at that time.

But that one stuck. Steve became Stu. He didn’t seem to mind, which was fortunate.

I have every confidence that those still in touch with him call him that to this day.