As a teacher, it helps to be ‘in the know’ about social ‘faux-pas’. Some things are said in Australian classrooms that are never used in Canadian classrooms, such as “rubber” and “nice as” (which sounds like “nice ass” in the Aussie accent!).

As a teacher, and a sportsperson, I’m also big on nicknames as terms of endearment. So here are a few ways Australians make nicknames:

1) Add an “O” to the end of a name that ends in “n”
Eg.  Wayne –> ” Wayno”
Eg. 2.  Jon –> “Jono”

2) Add an “azza” to the end of a name that has a strong  “r”:

Eg. 1.  Gary –> “Gazza” (This is the well known name for Geelong’s Gary Ablett)
Eg. 2.  Aaron –> “Azza”

3) Add an “ooey” to the end of a name ending in any other consonent”

Eg.1.  Riewoldt –> “Rooey”  (The well-known nickname of St. Kilda Saint’s –the favourites for the AFL premiership flag this year– Captain (and star forward) Nick.  He’s a legend. He’s my favourite. He’s good with kids. He kicked 6 goals last week. They’ve just got to beat Collingwood on Sunday. Go Saints!

Anyway, I’m sure that’s the rule. But, I can’t think of a Second Example — can anyone else?

As you can see, most of these nicknames are built around footy. But I live in Melbourne, and that is our culture.

 So, now you know what to you call your kids, without insulting them.