What's My Name Again?

There's one thing in particular that, for me, fuels an instant dislike of someone. A self-imposed nickname. Example:

"Hi, I'm Dobbo, nice to meet you."
"Excuse me? Gobbo?"
"Dobbo - my surname's Dobson, but everyone calls me Dobbo."

Well, not strictly true -people only call you Dobbo because you insist on introducing yourself as that, in an effort to make yourself sound more interesting. Most likely you're ashamed of being someone ordinary like Keith or Colin, and are well aware that your 'personality' is so weak that you need something to divert attention away from it.

The side effect of this is to impose non-names on other people. These days I can just about cope with being referred to as 'mate', but I cringe at 'pal', 'fella', 'big man', 'geezer' and especially 'son'. My parents probably thought long and hard about what name to give me - at least call me something derived from that, and not something a market trader would shout at me from across the street.