Initially, nicknames were given to people in the old days, when there were no last names, to emphasize some unique trait. In ancient societies, there were not many available names, so to distinguish people, they were given nicknames. Moreover, over time, it was the nicknames that turned into our last names - so in fact, today we still use them.
It's interesting that by last name, you can investigate exactly what specific feature one of your distant ancestors possessed. By the way, nicknames were often given in the opposite way, so a short person could well have, for example, the nickname "Long". Yes, sarcasm in the old days sometimes went off the scale.
In fact, the psychological effect of nicknames can be both positive and negative. For example, Alfred Kuranchie of Catholic University College of Ghana ten years ago specifically studied how the nicknames given to students affect their academic performance and learning process in general. "Identifying people with names other than their real names has the tendency to negatively or positively affect the bearers of fad names," claims Kuranchie.
"The respondents whose nicknames emanated from their personal features reported that they felt humiliated and embarrassed when their colleagues addressed them by such names. They intimated that because their classmates hilariously and comically scream and shout their nicknames when they contributed to discussions, whether they were right or wrong, they found it extremely difficult to participate fully in class," the researcher says.
"Similarly, those whose nicknames emanated from the mistakes they committed in class indicated that their class participation had been very minimal since then. They claimed that they abstained from class contributions in order to avoid more frosty nicknames," sums up Alfred Kuranchie.
As for sports, here nicknames often become a kind of part of the athlete's personal brand. Suffice it to recall, for example, Michael Jordan and the Air Jordan brand, created in collaboration with Nike. In any case, nicknames still remain with us - the main thing is that they are not offensive, but effective and beautiful.
