As many of you, dear readers, probably know, I go by the name “Coté.” Most people who meet me for the first time don’t know this, and they favor calling me “Mike.” Now, before the big name switch over (back in the FX days), I used to go by “Michael” (my first name). I’ve never gone by “Mike.”
35,226 Michael’s Agree…
Oddly enough, and pointing to the reason I go by Coté instead of Michael, my uncle’s name is Mike. So, you see, Mike was never an option in the family ’cause then there’d be two of us. To make it worse, I’m a junior, so my dad’s name is Michael. And, since Michael was the most popular first name in the 70′s, in any room full of Americans, you’re likely to find a few Michael’s.
That’s why I go by Coté: there aren’t many of those running around…used as the “first name” that is.
Name Meta-info
As I’ve pointed out to a couple people, all this leads to some interesting meta-info you can get from what people call me:
- People who call me Michael are generally people I’ve known all my life like people who’ve known since junior high or high school, or my family. They started out calling me that, and they don’t really call me by our last name. That’d be kind of weird, not to mention, confusing.
- People who call me Mike either (a.) don’t know me, or, (b.) are named Mason Carroll or Kim Skotak (the one who’s my wife). Kim does it ’cause it’d seem kind of weird, I’m told, to call me by my last name. I have no idea where Mason picked it up. It must be some West coast thing.
- Interestingly, most people who don’t know me don’t call me Michael. There must be some assumption — or unconscious drive for verbal efficiency — that the short hand of Mike is what most Michael’s go by.
oh yeah i forgot to say – i really dont like being called jim. nope i dont like it. and americans always want to default to that. scottish people though – they are allowed to call me jim or jimmy.
you know what – i fucking hate the way bullshit blogger wont remember my identity unless i sign up for their service
yeah. my son is screwed. we called him james. my dad’s name was james antone-so he is called tony. strangely his dad was also antone, called tony. i am james julian, and my folks expected me to be known as julian. that worked til i went to an american school and got called Julie-ann. end of julian. i became james and my dad is tony. my son – i reckon he’ll be known as farrell. but who knows what choices he will make. maybe he will just be known as Governor. if he becomes a Governor he could become Governor Governor. then we’d be at Catch 22…
When I was in college a friend of mine refused to believe Michael was automatically shortened to Mike by virtually everyone. For a while he only called me Michael (not Klobe like most of my other friends) and refused to use pronouns. He was shocked to find even after using Michael fifteen times in 30 seconds people still called me Mike.