Hello and welcome to Real Easy English.
We're back with another conversation in Easy English to help you learn.
I'm Phil.
And I'm Georgie.
You can find a video version of this podcast with subtitles so you can read along.
Hi.
How are you, Georgie?
I'm very well, thank you, Phil.
How are you?
I'm good.
I'm very good.
Today, we're going to talk all about names.
We're going to talk about our names... and where they come from.
Ooh, it's an interesting topic.
Phil, what's the story behind your name?
Were you named after anyone or anything?
I don't know, if I'm honest.
I don't know why I have my name.
OK.
Yeah, I wish I had a better story for my name.
But my parents had friends that had a dog called Georgia and they liked that name.
And so they decided to call me Georgia, which might be the first time people are hearing that my name is.
My real name is Georgia, not Georgie.
So I guess I was named after a dog.
So your name is Philip, but lots of people call you Phil, which is a nickname.
So a nickname is an informal name given to you by friends and family, which is often a shortened version.
Like Phil,
Yes.
Yeah.
Often it's a shortened name.
In my case, that's the only one that's ever stuck that people have ever called me.
But you can also sometimes have like a jokey, fun name.
That might not be anything to do with your real name, but your friends call you that.
Lots of people have them at school or in your family.
Do you have any nicknames, Georgie?
Yes, I have a nickname that my dad calls me, which is Billy, short for Silly Billy, because I do lots of stupid things.
I'm getting the feeling, do you like that nickname or...?
I think it's quite funny.
It's quite sweet.
I don't mind it that much.
As long as it's only my dad that calls me Billy, it's okay.
Do you like your name?
I've never thought about it a lot, so I think I do.
It's not an unusual name.
It might be, I don't know.
It might be difficult to have an unusual name, but I don't think it's too common either.
It's not like everyone has it.
Yeah.
I think that's perfect for a name.
I like that.
So Phil, have you ever had to name something like a child or a pet and was it difficult?
I had to name two people, two children.
For my daughter, my wife was very keen on the name that we gave my daughter.
So she said that was easy for me.
That's fine.
For my son, I really wanted a name that worked in English and in Spanish and wasn't too different.
And there's not actually that many boys' names that work easily in both languages or that I could think of.
Yeah, because your wife is from Argentina, so you needed a name that worked in both.
OK, Georgie, have you ever had to name something like a pet or someone?
Well actually, my parents are getting a dog in a couple of weeks and we're thinking about names right now.
So it's quite a relevant question.
It is difficult, isn't it?
Because you have to think of a name that you're going to like for a long time, that you're not going to get bored of because you use it so much.
Yeah, I guess with dog's names you don't want to have something that's too common, because when you call your dog the whole park will come running to you.
Yeah, exactly.
We're trying to think of something a little bit more unusual and fun.
OK, let's recap the vocabulary we heard during the conversation, starting with nickname, which is an informal name used by family and friends.
We can use name as a verb, which means to give someone a name.
For example, my parents named me Georgie.
If you're named after something or someone, you're given the same name as them because of them.
For example, Georgie was named after a dog called Georgia.
I was.
Your name might be common, which means lots of people have the same name.
Or your name might be unusual and that means that not many people have the same name.
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English.
Test what you've learnt with the worksheet on our website.
We'll be back next week with more Easy English.
Goodbye for now.
Bye.
