My name is Murray Wenzel. But my friends call me Muz, Muzza, Wenz or even Moon. Yes, I have lots of nicknames (昵称). But in Australia, where I am from, that’s quite___1___.

In fact, most men in Australia call their friends something other than their ___2___ names. It is part of our culture to ___3___ or make up names for those we know and love. For example, one of my friends is called Alex, but we call him Al. ___4___is named Jayson, but everyone knows him as Jase. In Australia most men called William are ___5___ Bill, while Jeremy is Jez, James is Jim and Joseph is Joey.

Sometimes we use the person’s ___6___ in his or her nickname, like my friend Karl Schussig who we call Schuzza.

Sometimes we join them together, like my friend Troy Cassels being called TC.

And we sometimes ___7___ a new name for our friends. My friend Nathan’s nickname is “Prez”, ___8___ when we first met he joked that I should call him “Mr President”.

Even more interesting is when we are given opposite nicknames. For example, a man with red hair will be known as Bluey, and a ___9___ man will be called Shorty.

Most of my friends call me Muz, but those who I play football with call me Moon. So, I have different names ___10___ who I am talking to.