From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishnicknamenick‧name /ˈnɪkneɪm/ ●○○ noun [countable] NAME OF A PERSONa name given to someone, especially by their friends or family, that is not their real name and is often connected with what they look like or something they have donenickname for We had nicknames for all the teachers. Stephen earned himself the nickname Hawkeye.► see thesaurus at name —nickname verb [transitive] She was nicknamed Sunny because of her happy nature.
Examples from the Corpus
nickname• A nickname can mark just one incident in the life of the person concerned.• At school, her nickname was Carrots because of her red hair.• Symphony No. 88 has always been a favourite and rightly so, as well as the Oxford, helped by its nickname.• My father, on the other hand, could not be so easily summed up in a single paternal nickname.• After his exploits the Northerns side adopted the nickname.• Johnson earned the nickname "Magic" while still in high school.• She got the nickname "Sis" because her brother couldn't pronounce her name when they were kids.• His fondness for rings had already earned him the nickname Ringo.• His black cloak earned him the nickname ''Dracula''.• But my classmates gave me the nickname Einstein, so presumably they saw signs of something better.• Torme never objected to the velvet part of the nickname.• The nickname was a contemporary one, a means of distinguishing this Charles from other Carolingians with the same name.• Many of these men became local characters, if only remembered for their nicknames and their prowess in drinking.Origin nickname (1400-1500) an ekename, mistaken for a nekename, from eke “also” ((11-19 centuries)) (from Old English eac) + name 