"a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name.

It is not interchangeable with a term called "short-for". It can also be the familiar or truncated form of the proper name, which may sometimes be used simply for convenience (e.g. "Bobby", "Bob", "Rob", or "Bert" for the name Robert).

The term hypocoristic is used to refer to a nickname of affection between those in love or with a close emotional bond, compared with a term of endearment. The term diminutive name refers to nicknames that convey smallness, hence something regarded with affection or familiarity (e.g., referring to children), or contempt.

The distinction between the two is often blurred. It is a form of endearment and amusement. As a concept, it is distinct from both pseudonym and stage name, and also from a title (for example, City of Fountains), although there may be overlap in these concepts.

John Hamilton McWhorter V (1965– ) is an American linguist and political commentator. He is the author of a number of books on language and on race relations. His research specialties are how creole languages form and how language grammars change as the result of sociohistorical phenomena.

McWhorter was born and raised in Philadelphia. He attended Friends Select School in Philadelphia, and after tenth grade was accepted to Simon's Rock College, where he earned an A.A. degree. Later, he attended Rutgers University and received a B.A. in French in 1985. He received a master's degree in American Studies from New York University and a Ph.D. in linguistics in 1993 from Stanford University.

After graduation McWhorter was an associate professor of linguistics at Cornell University from 1993 to 1995 before taking up a position as associate professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1995 until 2003. He left that position to become a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. From 2006 to 2008 he was a columnist for the New York Sun. He is Contributing Editor at The New Republic and The Root.com, writes a biweekly column at The New York Daily News and also writes regularly for Rupert Murdoch's The Daily. Since 2008, he has been a lecturer in linguistics, American Studies, and the Core Curriculum at Columbia University.

Anthony Mackie (born September 23, 1979) is an American actor. He has been featured in feature films, television series and Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, including Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Drowning Crow, McReele, A Soldier's Play, and Talk, by Carl Hancock Rux, for which he won an Obie Award in 2002.

In 2002, he was featured in Eminem's debut film, 8 Mile, playing Papa Doc, a member of Leaders of the Free World. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards for his role in The Hurt Locker. This is Mackie's second ISA nomination, the first coming for his work in 2003 in Brother to Brother, where he was nominated for Best Actor. Also in 2009, Mackie portrayed rapper Tupac Shakur in the film Notorious. He appears in the 2011 Matt Damon film The Adjustment Bureau where he plays Harry Mitchell, a sympathetic member of a shadowy supernatural group that controls human destiny.

Mackie was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Martha G. and Willie Mackie. He attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and graduated from the high school drama program at the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA) in 1997. He later graduated from the Juilliard School's Drama Division as a member of Group 30 (1997–2001), which also included actors Tracie Thoms and Lee Pace.

James Poyser (born January 31,) in Sheffield, England is a multi-Grammy winning songwriter, musician and multi-platinum producer.

Poyser has written and produced songs for various legendary and award-winning artists including Erykah Badu, Mariah Carey, John Legend, Lauryn Hill, Common, Anthony Hamilton, D'Angelo, The Roots, and Keyshia Cole.

During his career, Poyser has toured, and played live with such distinctive artists as Jay-Z, The Roots, Erykah Badu, and Aretha Franklin. An active session musician, he has contributed to the works of Adele, Norah Jones, Eric Clapton, Joss Stone, Ziggy Marley, Macy Gray and Femi Kuti.