When I was in 7th or 8th grade some girls in class were fans of the media-promoted band The Monkees. The girls nicknamed themselves after one of the four members of the band.
Perhaps it matters whether this chosen name was used by classmates, vs faculty. In this case, mostly classmates.
Not sure it matters, but:
a) U.S. vs U.K. - "private school" doesn't mean the same thing.
b) In this case the private school was a Steiner school.
I don't recall having read it, but I gather many a European immigrant to the U.S. entered Ellis Island as Außergewöhnliche, Merkzeichen, or schwerbehindertenausweis,
but crossed the harbor to the mainland as Brown, Jones, or Smith.
A further mystery to me, if so, was it by high-level immigration policy decision, or merely by arbitrary decision of the civil servant behind the counter granting entry?
"A boy named Sue"?
I'm not certain of the details, might have been in the Burt Reynolds movie Gator, it might have been the actor Ted Cassidy (played "Lurch" in The Addams Family) but ...
the line I recall, Gator asked the hulking character - why do they call you that ? -
The reply: "Because I tell 'em to." in menacing basso profundo.
