I've been toying with the idea of asking people around me to refer to me as "Overton" rather than "Aaron." I like my last name better than my first anyway. I wonder if it would stick? Or just seem ridiculous?
My grandfather was always called Overton, even by my grandmother. She explained to me recently that she had met him at work where everyone was referred to by their last names rather than their first names. Even after they got married, she thought of him as Overton and just kept with it.
Think of the other examples: Wasn't it cool in the movie, "Aliens," that everyone called the heroine Ripley, her last name? On the TV series, "Alias," don't you like that Sid's romantic interest is called Vaughan rather than Michael? How about "The X-Files," with Scully and Mulder? No apparent lack of intimacy, but so much more interesting than "Dana and Fox."
My readers on this list are mostly the people that know me best, mostly. (Another little "Aliens" reference, there.) What do you think?
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5 comments:
Not unreasonable. My mother (your grandmother) occasionally forgets and calls me Overton, but it isn't common for me. I was originally called A.L., the good old Texas-ism of going by initials. In elementary school, I was probably called Aaron until I stopped responding to it and announced -- loundly, I am told -- that my name was Lewis and if you, dear leader, want my attention, address me that way. I guess there was a general brouhaha, but I've been Lewis ever since.
Except ...
in graduate school, while going through another pre-mid-life crisis, I was known as Lewis to the Business school and my MBA friends, and to the Music department and my musician friends as Aaron. This worked well enough to keep the two lives separate until the class 5 tornado took out the next town down the road and we couldn't find one of our trombonists. Or when a musician friend with lukemia had a crisis and came looking for me at the B-school.
Maybe I'll go back to A.L. Two can play this game.
You can pick whatever you want, I'm still going to call you, "Dad."
I get called "Sip" most of the time. It's a shortened version of my surname. Overton is a cool last name. Go for it!
would i be incorrect in guessing that you have never been given a nickname, or at least not one you liked?
I haven't but I always wished I had. I occasionally get 'ShirlGirl' or 'shurwee' and 'Spider girl' had a short run, but nothing really that ever stuck. My supervisor calls me 'Shir' but thats just irritating.
I thought in the past of going by another name, but it just seemed less cool if you pick it then if it picks you. My sister knows a couple of people who go by a made up name and I think they are douche bags (of course, one of them chose 'Thorn Firelight' so maybe that doesnt count!)
The main problem here is the part of getting people to call you by the last name. It means you will have to actually tell everyone who knows you 'from now on, call me Overton' and that will sound douchy. Also, if it doesn't catch on, you will have to throw a fit ("I said call me Overton, guys! I mean it!") and that could be worse! But, if you get past the douchiness then eventually maybe it will stick, and then it may be what you go by forever... until you get bored of it and start going, 'ok, call me aaron again!'
the point is, obviously i have deep rooted psychological issues with never having been given a nickname.
The only nicknames I've had were "Aar" (because people in New York are capable of shortening just about anything) and "WarpEyes," which was a self-designation for online stuff that became well-known enough in a particular community that a few people just called me that.
"Aar" always just sounded ridiculous to me, but I didn't mind it.
Being called Overton isn't an entirely foreign thing, although all the people that call me that are children. Some other children, particularly well raised, do call me Mr. Overton, which is very close.
Would you consider "Some people call me Overton, which I like, so you can feel free to use that as well," avoid the "douchiness" you so eloquently describe?
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