This is a fun thread. My nick's origin is fairly boring - not as boring as it was on the other boards though. By the time I signed up on this board, my old one (my name) was taken, so I used my current e-mail name.
That name comes from one of the annoyances of being a junior (that is - my name is identical to my father's, with Jr. added at the end.) I normally answer to my middle name, while my father uses “our” first name. However, when dealing with doctor’s offices or other official instances like our recent home re-financing, I have to use my full name. Sometimes I don’t know by which name I should identify myself. Yes, it can be annoying.
After I finished grad school, my family was staying with my parents while I searched for a job. Since the atomic physics job market wasn’t the greatest, this took a while. My father was a prison chaplain at the time, so we would both receive phone calls from people who didn’t know us, and so didn’t know who to ask for. They generally had no idea whether they wanted Junior or Senior, so we began asking if they wanted Reverend Ward or Doctor Ward. That would usually settle the issue quickly.
So docward stuck as a way to differentiate myself from my father, and now I’m used to it. It is certainly better than any of the nicknames I picked up in the three high-schools I attended.
Frank (Who needs to be more creative in the nickname department)
