Ter[ence|ry]
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/03/terencery/
My name is confusing. I don't mean that people constantly misspell it, but that no-one seems to know what I'm called. Let me explain.
British parents have this weird habit of giving their children long formal names which are routinely shortened to a diminutive version. Alfred becomes Alf, Barbara becomes Babs, Christopher becomes Chris - all the way down to the Ts where Terence becomes Terry.
And so, for most of my childhood, I was Terry0 to all who knew me.
There was a brief dalliance in my teenage years where I went by Tezza. A name I have no regrets about using but, sadly, appear to have grown out of.
So I was Terry until I entered the workforce. An overzealous IT admin ignored my "preferred name" on a new-joiners' form and, in a fit of bureaucratic inflexibility, renamed me "Terence". To my surprise, I liked it. It was my nom de guerre.
"Terence" had KPIs and EOY targets. "Terry" got to play games and drink beer.
While "Terence" sat in meetings, nodded sagely, and tried to make wise interjections - "Terry" pissed about, danced like an idiot, and said silly things on stage.
Over the years, as was inevitable, my two personalities merged. I said sillier things at work and tried a quarterly review of our OKRs with my wife1.
I was Terry to friends and Terence to work colleagues. Like a fool, I crossed the streams and became friends with my colleagues. So some knew me as Terry and some as Terence. Confusion reigned.
Last year, I stopped working. I wondered what that would do to my identity. Who am I when I can't answer the question "What do you do for a living?"? But, so it seems, my identity is more fragile than I realised. When people ask my name, I don't really know how to respond.
WHO AM I?
Personal Brand is (sadly) a Whole Thing™. Although I'm not planning an imminent return to the workforce, I want to keep things consistent online2. That's all staying as "Terence" or @edent.
So I've slowly been re-introducing myself as Terry in social spaces. Some people take to it, some find it disturbingly over-familiar, some people still call me Trevor.
Hi! I'm Terry. Who are you?
Except, of course, when I'd been naughty and my parents summoned me by using my full formal name including middle names. ↩︎
I was put on a Performance Improvement Plan. Which was fair. ↩︎
I completely sympathise with people who get married and don't want to take their spouse's name lest it sever all association with their hard-won professional achievements. ↩︎
New preprint 
blog! “Ter[ence|ry]”
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