When I was an undergraduate, the student health services were officially known as the University Health Services, and unofficially but almost universally called "DUH" (pronounced as the three letters, not "duh") for their previous name. This information was in the freshman orientation materials, so we would know what the older students, faculty, and staff were talking about. (It also had the effect of perpetuating the nickname: I don't think anyone called it "UHS" in conversation.)
On a larger scale: after half a century, the city government gave in and put the "Sixth Avenue" signs back up in Manhattan, on the street that they had renamed "Avenue of the Americas" in the 1930s, because locals never really accepted the change, and tourists were getting lost when they got directions that included Sixth Avenue. And "Sixth Avenue is between Seventh and Fifth" is relatively obvious. (There are now pairs of signs, one with each name.)
By the time I was there, there had been two new additions since the New Block and they were working on a third, but... it had the nickname, and the nickname stuck. Because that's how people work. But the problem is - as observed with cons and with your Manhattan example, it only works if everyone is in on it.
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access_fandom2012-09-06 11:28 pm
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When I was an undergraduate, the student health services were officially known as the University Health Services, and unofficially but almost universally called "DUH" (pronounced as the three letters, not "duh") for their previous name. This information was in the freshman orientation materials, so we would know what the older students, faculty, and staff were talking about. (It also had the effect of perpetuating the nickname: I don't think anyone called it "UHS" in conversation.)
On a larger scale: after half a century, the city government gave in and put the "Sixth Avenue" signs back up in Manhattan, on the street that they had renamed "Avenue of the Americas" in the 1930s, because locals never really accepted the change, and tourists were getting lost when they got directions that included Sixth Avenue. And "Sixth Avenue is between Seventh and Fifth" is relatively obvious. (There are now pairs of signs, one with each name.)
no subject