ABSTRACT
WHEN WE GET to know someone or something really well we sometimes use a special name, a nickname. A nickname is really a name over and above the name that something or someone already carries. The original meaning of sur-name (from the French word surnom) implies a renaming, the placement of a second name above or on top (sur) the first name.1 With the nickname we indicate our special relation to something or someone. We make our world knowable by giving names, assigning labels to them. But nicknames and proper names serve a special function. They (re)name the often more subjectively felt meanings of our relations with others.
