Serendipity.

Or else, in a more parsimonious term, an 'aha moment'.

My aha moment?!

I LIKE TO MAKE PEOPLE'S NAME, SHORT on purpose!!

For instance, starting with the family.

Heng Li -> Heng.
We Li -> Wesley -> Wes.
Mommy -> Mom.
Daddy -> Dad.

And mine too, Ai.

Okay lah, so these are the very common ones...

Now, moving on to the list of friends:
More famous ones to start off with,

Michael Wan -> Mike
Kevin Saw -> Kev
Betsy -> Betz
Wei Wen -> Wen / Smurf
Benjamin -> Ben / Ben-the-goalie
Poh Choo -> PC
Seu Foong -> Seu
Min Huei -> Min

And when I can't find a substitute for a shorter version of the name, I go directly for surnames because they are a whole lot shorter, for instance;

Cheam Hui Ying -> Cheam
Sharon Kong -> Kong
Goh Chun Feng -> Goh
Chuah Boon Woei -> Chuah
Chai Min Huei -> Chai

And when surnames don't do, I sometimes prefer to create my own versions.

Priscilla -> Lala
(I think I was the first to start her calling Lala. Maybe not. But secara vividly, I think I was the "pioneer" lah)

I also used to have crews whom I named really rather funnily.

Bulatttt & Gemukkk.
* Well, I didn't really name them lah, they were 'introduced' by that so I just stucked to it considering it was so much easier than to call them by their crazy long names.

Names like Mandy cannot get any shorter unless I call her Man from now onwards which really, doesn't make much sense to me.

Or like Ivy (though I sometimes still like to include surnames). So it becomes, Ivy Choong and Mandy Kok. Or the classic, best of the bunch, Mike One.

How did my aha moment come to me? I have no slightest clue.