Doesn't it embarass you to call Richards “Dick”?

Some nicknames emerge as rhymes. There’s a strong tradition of [rhyming slang](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang) in English: - Richard/Ricard => Rich/Rick => Dick - William => Will => Bill - Robert => Rob => Bob “Dick” now feels very dated for many speakers, though it’s still in use, and it can be a source of jokes. But generally, we’re able to get past it if it’s someone’s name.

It's very common for words have multiple unrelated meanings, so it's normal to me.

wait till you find out about "Fanny" as a name Or what "Trump" means here in the UK

Robin: My name’ s Richard Grayson, but all the kids at the orphanage call me Dick. Batman: Well, children can be cruel. \-The Lego Batman Movie

No. That’s my uncle’s name. I’m not embarrassed to call him by his name.

i don't think anyone under the age of 60 uses that nickname anymore

As a native speaker, it's my understanding that the nickname "Dick" preceded using "dick" as a lurid synonym. I'm not well versed in the transformation, but [people](https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/how-did-dick-become-short-for-richard) have written about this before. The slang simply evolved in a really unfortunate way.

My father was called Dick. When people accidentally called him Richard he always corrected them to "Dick" because he preferred it. There are many words that have different meanings in different contexts. You just hear the word in its context, understand it as intended and don't consider all the other possible meanings. You wouldn't be able to understand anything if you ignored the context and had to think through all the other possible meanings. Life is too short for that. NSFW alternate meanings for words are only going to occur to you if your mind is already thinking about these subjects, like, for example, if you are a young teenager.

There was a tradition in England of swapping letters to create rhyming nicknames. It’s how William becomes Bill, Robert becomes Bob, Richard is doubly weird because it goes Rick then Dick. I call people what they want to be called, I’m not going to assume a Richard wants to be called Dick, but if that’s what he wants I don’t care about other meanings. EYA. Several names are slang for genitalia that at some point what are you going to do.

It works out great though if he is, in fact, a dick.

I haven't known any Richards who went by "Dick" since the 70s.

My father in law is a Dick in every sense of the word. I love being able to say 'Okay, Dick' when he's really getting on my nerves.

Yes

It's funny when you make jokes about it, but it's not really something anyone thinks about when we're just talking to or about a person.

You would never call someone Dick if they hadn’t introduced themselves / been introduced to you as Dick. So it’s just their name. The fact that it has other meanings in English is irrelevant. Do you plan to be embarrassed every time you speak to a Chinese person called Dong?

We treat it the same way we treat anything with multiple meanings: we rely on context. In formal/polite contexts no one is going to assume that “dick” refers to anyone other than a Richard (or, in rare situations, a police detective or private investigator). If you mean someone named Richard, you wouldn’t call them “Dick” unless they introduced themselves that way - the same goes for not calling a James “Jim” or “Jimmy”.

I wouldn't call anyone Dick unless he introduced himself that way. You should know that the name was here first. Dick became the term for male genitals (and later for an unpleasant person) precisely because it was a very common male name. 

My grandfather went by Dick. When he went into memory care assisted living, none of the caregivers were comfortable calling him that. It would have been nice if they could have used his preferred name while he gradually lost so much else of his identity, but I could understand their discomfort.

No it was my father's name

If you can think of a better nickname for the birthday boy at his Showbiz Pizza party, I'd love to hear it!

Dick was a very common nickname for Richard long before it took on its negative connotations. It's adoption as vulgar or derogatory slang was gradual, and in response it gradually became less popular as a nickname until it just disappeared. I haven't personally met anybody who goes by Dick that was born before about 1950. It's just normal for older men, though, because it's just what they go by.

How do you get Dick from Richard? Well, you ask him nicely of course.

Well, no. It's a fine upstanding name, with a solid and proud history. It is something that any man should be proud to be associated with.

We also have people named "John", "Johnson", and "Fanny" so it's not a huge deal. 

as a young native english speaker… yes. yes it does.

"'Do not touch Willy.' Heh heh, good advice."

I wish my *actual* name was Dick vs. people just calling me it.

I think a lot of people will make jokes and children will giggle at it, but most people stop caring after a moment and behave normally

Not at all. A rooster can be a cock. A puss is a kitty. That's their name. 

I never call a "Richard" a "Dick", unless he's earned it.

I call Richards Dick to embarrass them, not me. Me being embarrassed is a persistent state, so

No, because most people are mature and don’t think of “penis” when it’s said in the context of a name

😆

No. It doesn’t embarrass me. I don’t think of it as the same thing. If I meet a person named Dick that doesn’t bring the slang term dick to my mind. It’s like the female name Sue (short for Susan) doesn’t make me think of sue (a legal action). These words live separately in my mind. The same way Two, Too and To…. Or Their, They’re or There…. Or One, Won…. They sound virtually the same but they live in different pockets of my brain.

I have never in my life called a person names Richard “Dick”. The few Richards I’ve met have all either preferred to be called “Richie” or just gone by their unabbreviated name. I think Dick as a nickname for Richard was more common back in the day, just as the name Richard itself used to be more common.

lol When I was born they wanted to name me 'Richard' and I would have been the Third. My mom said no way, "we already have enough Dicks around here" So, my youngest brother was born to a different mother and even though he's a young millennial he loves to go by 'Dick' and 90% of the time when he introduces himself he says it with the inflection one might use when insulting someone so it totally sounds like a pejorative. He loves it.

They don’t have to go by Dick, there’s plenty of Richards that don’t go by Dick. It’s generally an older men thing

My name is Richard, and depending on whom I'm meeting, I've opted for various of the iterations in the past. To be honest, I prefer Dick the most. As a gay man, that's very low hanging fruit though. Yes, I realize there are multiple entendres in there. Due to these reasons, although I like that version the most, I seldom if ever have used it with people. Rick is my next favorite; I absolutely loathe the name Richard. I even prefer like, Reichert and Rickard or Ryszard to Richard. Those just make me seem moonbatty and extra AF though. Like when gay guys are always "Thom", or "Bradlee" or "Greggori" or "Timotheé Chalamet." I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm just jealous of his name. Most of the time I'll use Rick or my initials. But , I do wish I were brave enough and society were evolved enough I could use Dick without the connotations.

I had an (adult) student once whose name was Robert Dick. When I called the class roll, I would usually just call surnames only and it was always hard to be the only mature adult in the room when I called out DICK 🤣

I’ll be honest, not a common nickname, but at least for me if I know someone who goes by it and introduces himself as that, it doesn’t feel awkward or mean at all. That’s just a nickname that people named Richard could have, in my head. I think my love of Batman and Robin as a kid helped lol

This, from a novel published in 1817: ‘He had, in fact, though his sisters were now doing all they could for him, by calling him “poor Richard,” been nothing better than a thick-headed, unfeeling, unprofitable Dick Musgrove, who had never done anything to entitle himself to more than the abbreviation of his name, living or dead.’ By the apparently prim and proper Jane Austen.

It doesn’t feel weird at all, because it’s a common enough name from older generations that we basically treat the name “Dick” and the genital “dick” as completely separate things. Unless we’re making a joke, but even then it feels more like word play than just the same word. Note that if that’s someone’s name, and that’s how they introduce themself, it’s disrespectful to treat it as if it were a swear-word or to treat it like you’re afraid to say it. Try to treat it like a homophone.

People that are nicknamed Dick call themselves that. There's a good chance that they prefer it over Richard since Richard maybe sounds too formal. Nobody calls a person named Richard Dick without knowing if they go by that name themselves

Dick’s an old nickname, you’re not gonna hear it, or even the name Richard below the age of 50. It didn’t have the same connotations in the past as it does now.

I have never met a Richard who goes by Dick. I think that nickname has sort of fallen out of common use. The only Richard I know doesn't shorten his name at all. And the only other one I've ever known went by Ricky

If it's someone's name, no, not really. The name has been around much longer than the genital meaning. Of course, the name has become much less common in recent decades, and people do joke about it, but it's far from the worst name I've heard.

I've only known one guy named Dick. In my experience, there are two kinds of assholes. Assholes tend to be loud and mean and gruff and don't have any social filters, and you know exactly where you stand with them. Never going to sugar coat it. But there are some assholes who have a heart of gold under it, and others who are just plain mean. Dick was an asshole, but he was a likeable asshole. Good guy.

When we were teenagers our mother was pregnant. My brother and I were suggesting names for it. Our last name was Hickey. We wanted Richard Richard Hickey. So we could call him Rickey Dickey Hickey. We said no one would ever forget his name. Mom was not impressed.

Easy, the same way we can refer to balls in sports without making a joke every time. That's not to say people don't make jokes, it's just that all the jokes have been worn out by now.

I call annoying people “Richard” because they are a big …

It’s very rare nowadays. It’s mainly a nickname from older generations, I think even the boomers are too young. I imagine that during Dick Van Dyke’s youth, it didn’t have as many negative connotations.

I only say Dick van Dyke’s name with respect, personally

There was even an American football player named Dick Butkus (dick butt-kiss)

I knew a guy named Richard Wack. He loved to make the joke about it.

Let's put it this way: I won't ever call someone "Dick" unless they introduce themselves to me that way, or they tell me they prefer it. But it's becoming a less-common first name, so in practice, I almost never run into anyone named Richard. It might be a problem once every two or three years: you've spent more time in your post worrying about it than I have in years!

I call all of my coworkers dicks to their faces all day so

No, I am not 15.

My niece and nephew have an Uncle Dick. They can't get over it but they're 7 and 10.

Very old fashioned now

It's an uncommon nickname now, but the nickname predates the vulgar term. It was also used to refer to detectives (ages ago), and an British food "Spotted Dick". At one hospital on England, the catering staff rebranded the name to "Spotted Richard" because of comments they were getting about it. That said, aside from immature kids no one really bats an eye at the nickname.

Not at all embarrassing. I've known it as a person's name my whole life and words having multiple meanings is completely unremarkable. My brain doesn't confuse or combine the crude meaning with the nickname meaning. I wouldn't name a kid Dick today because of the newish, crude meaning, but I've had older coworkers named Dick who got the nickname when it was still innocuous.  But I did for a while have that problem with the name of a Japanese woman I met a few years ago. Her name resembles an English word you would *never* call a person. Not a crude word, but a word you'd use to avoid saying something crude. But it's her name, so after asking around to make sure I hadn't misheard, I called her by her name and within a few days got completely used to it. 

It does. Luckily I don't know anyone in real life who uses that nickname (I know a Richie instead) so I don't have to deal with it. But if I have to talk about a celebrity called that, I will only say their full name, and I'll say it quickly as if it's all one word lol. 

Omg it comes from Richard??? All this time I’d been thinking you guys had just run out of ideas for names lmao. Jokes apart, I’ve never met anyone called Dick, so I’ve luckily never had to say it out loud. However, whenever I’m reading and a Dick character pops up I feel kinda normal at first, but weirded out the more I think about it lol.

Also normal to me. But, I have known a few Richards and none of them went by Dick. I would never call them Dick if it wasn't their understood nickname. But back in the 1990s, I worked with a guy named "Dicky". I thought it was strange, but I think he told me it was a name of his great or great-great grandafter.

My grandpa's name is Richard and everyone used to call him Dick. His brothers still call him "Lil dickie" (which was his nickname before the rapper existed. Back in the day it didn't have the negative connotations. Now he goes by Rick with everyone outside of family. Meanings of words change quick in English. Hell, my mom's middle name is Gay...it aged poorly.

The history of the word "guy" is also fascinating. It was basically not a word at all until 5 Nov 1605, when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up parliament. Then, it became an insult, then slowly became a masc-leaning generic term.

90%+ of the people who go by "Dick" will be older than 50

The nickname came long before the dirty euphemism. But regardless, almost nobody named Richard goes by "Dick" anymore, probably anyone using that nickname is at least 60+ years old.

In English, there are so many slang terms for “penis” and so many more potential ones. If we really started worrying about it, there would be no language left to use.

"Rik" is closer to the name, but it's not "literally in the name" given that "Richard" doesn't have a k in it, and the pronunciation is also different. It's also usually spelled Rick. Occasionally Ric, but I've never seen a Rik.

The only time it’s truly embarrassed me is when a supervisor introduced Professor Dick Eaton (yes, pronounced eatin’). It took everything in me not to burst out laughing at this poor older gentleman