coffee name

This one has been around for a while but I have just caught up with it, thanks to Narelda Jacobs, the presenter of 10 Network News.  We were discussing some of the words that Macquarie Dictionary is considering for inclusion in the dictionary — you can see them posted as April words on their website — when Narelda commented that she had a coffee name.  It was Nelly.

When a busy barista in a crowded and noisy coffee shop asks your name, it can be counterproductive to offer one that is unusual or long or hard to spell, so people often adopt shortened versions of their real name, initials, or completely different names entirely. Narelda is not exactly difficult but it is unusual and could be turned into Narelle which is more common.  The barista could make the effort to get it right and waste time that could have been more usefully spent making coffees. So Nelly solves the problem.

I suppose I haven’t encountered coffee name because my name, Sue, is common, short and easy to yell from the back of the crowd. It hasn’t been a problem for me.