I found out fairly late in life that my uncle Svetik went by Steve in the army and at his job. I didn't find out until his funeral that Svetik was a nickname for a longer name with only a few letters in common. And Babushka's second husband Arkady was called Mike out in the world, which I found out when I introduced him to my friend Mike at a holiday dinner and he said "oh, my name is Mike, too" and the whole family went "bwuh?"

Niece~ma, Calli

My dads family had a lot of boys with the same names, so Big Mike and so on. I’m occasionally annoyed my name is so unique but it definitely is!

My family seems to have as little desire/energy to go Christmas shopping as I do. We are just giving presents to the pets.

I have two uncles that were Uncle Nicknames and then to find out they were known in later life jobs as real name and I can call them real name, but never Uncle real name. Butch and Skip ftr, Charles and Joe.

Calli, I hope your niece is okay. Was she feeling ill, or was she tested due to work/contact tracing?

My cousin's wife is back at work after having had it. She isolated in her room, and my cousin and the kids who are still at home didn't contract it, which is great.

My father's family was country - from rural Tennessee. They got ... inventive ... with some of the names. My aunts Willie Martha May and Myrtle Dew and uncles who died young named Harmon Woodrow (which is pretty reasonable) and Claude Oppolous. My grandmother Roxy Ludella (called Della) and grandfather Harvey called Dick.

I guess we're kind of an identity crisis built in.

In other news, have you seen the Contact Tracys?

Helth ~ma to your niece, Calli.

It works for a dozen+ years before you have to figure something else out.

Middle K? Special K?

My mom had an uncle named Uncle Son. His parents, apparently, gave him an actual name and then just called him Son. They had other kids with actual names that they used. But not Uncle Son. It's a little, uh, odd to think about.

My grandfather had a brother they all call Unky because he was so much older than his younger siblings (12 kids). So he was known to everyone as Unky eventually.

Was she feeling ill, or was she tested due to work/contact tracing?

My niece is a teacher and has to get tested on the regular.