This makes me think of my Korean-American coworker who only goes by one name at work, and my impression of Korean names is that all siblings would have half their first name be the same, like Sung Ho and Sung Jee, so basically the same thing as Mary Alice, Mary Catherine, etc. I guess going by Mary/Sung out in the world isn't confusing, but it still feels funny.

That's true in China too. Not just siblings, but cousins, and everyone of the same generation with the same family name. So, for instance, Biyi is Biyi, while her cousin is Bichang. Ryan's Chinese name is Fang Youren, his cousin - Bichang's daughter - is Fang Youxin. And so on.

Those first characters - Jia for her dad, Bi for herself, You for Ryan - are part of an entire poem, which then gets written out within the family over the generations.

Ooh, that is extremely cool

Lisah - the same grandfather that had Unky also has an Sis.

My grandmother was Babe as the baby of the family. She was really a Marjorie, her mother was also a Marjorie but called Treasure. There was also a Margaret, but she went by Marg.

My mom had an uncle named Uncle Son.

My grandfather and brothers only ever called their sister "Sis" and so she was Aunt Sis to her many nieces and nephews and their kids.

I have an Aunt Sis, too! Same reason.

My grandmother was Babe as the baby of the family.

My grandpa called my grandma "Babe," but she (justifiably) hated it because it was a reference to Paul Bunyan's blue ox, Babe. (She was in no way ox-like, and in fact was a babe in the hot-stuff sense of the word. My grandpa was just an alcoholic jackass.)

Cindy, I'm so sorry to hear about your son and your cousin. That's a lot! I hope your son is doing well.

Now I feel like my family is maybe deficient in nicknames. My grandpa did change his name to his nickname - Weed. No, really. His birth name was Guido and he was born near Weed, CA. His brother Reno was born when the family lived in Reno. I don’t know all his siblings names and nicknames, though, we never saw much of that side of the family.

I'm going to go back and meara later, but for now just this:

My grandmother had a niece named after her, and they just called them Big and Little [Name] if it was ever relevant. So that's fun!

My grandmother was insistent on naming my mom, her first daughter, after her, but she also had many, many insecurities verging on pathologies around her own body and how people saw her. So first the rest of the family called the two of them Big Mem and Little Mem, but she refused to be Big; Old Mem and Young Mem got exactly one trial balloon, shot down fast and hard. So then she decreed that her daughter, although named after her, was never to be called by the same name, but would be known as Sunny, because "she looks like a fat little [outdated word for Inuit] sitting in the snow." Which was, naturally, just fabulous for her daughter's insecurities around her own body and how people saw her.

When I came along, my mom saw to it that I got my very own name and that's the name I was called, by everyone.

Family!

My condolences about your cousin, Cindy.

I had an Uncle Buddy (really Johnny) courtesy of my oldest cousin on that side, who also named all the grandparents before he could really pronounce things. So our mutual grandmother was known as Mamoo to just about everyone, including adults she met long after said cousin grew up. (She got off easy though, his other grandmother—Katie—was similarly branded "Ka-ka" for life.)

As proof that my brain hates me, I've been earwormed all day with a snippet of what I'm fairly sure is a Dave Matthews Band song. But being a Dave Matthews Band song, there are no lyrics distinct enough to stick in my mind so I could Google and track them down, and I've discovered in trying to find it that every damn Dave Matthews Band song sounds just like every OTHER Dave Matthews Band song.

I have come across a great many unconventional names while researching my genealogy.

At one family reunion I met some cousins whose father's name was R O [Lastname]. Those were not initials, those were his first and middle names. As they put it, "R O was all the name he ever had. R O was his legal name. He named himself 'Roger Olen' [Lastname] for purposes of enlistment when he turned 18."

I never found anyone who knew any of the backstory.