The case for/against the name Ric

[Sacred Knight]

At its base I have absolutely no problem with the idea of attempting to ease him into a new nickname. As long as it still was short for Richard, I wouldn't mind at all. If it took it took if it didn't it didn't. Thing is, they comically blew ANY chance it had though (and even I admit the chance of it sticking otherwise still would have been small) completely and utterly by making it attached to this dumb gritty amnesia storyline.

The way to try it on for size would have been to do it with as little fanfare whatsoever within the narrative, imo.

[Badou]

Ric was a stupid approach to try and change his name to something more "contemporary". If that was their reasoning for why they did it then they should have just called him Richard. It is his name and just have him and characters start to use that more rather than try and come up with Ric. No need to make it more complicated than that. A character that has been in publication for 80 years suddenly going by a a name he never has before is never going to work, especially when the content of the story is absolute garbage.

It is just more cases of DC not understanding their own property and doing things that make no sense.

[Ascended]

But "Ric" is modern and cool and hip!

For 1984.

[Arnoldoaad]

I have not read anything of this storyline past the first chapter so I wont coment on the quality of the character but the only good thing that was to rename Dick, not because Ric better but because it completely separates him from anything and everything related with Nightwing, Dick is effectively dead while Ric is going around and it also works on the other way aswell so when Ric is over it pretty much will have no impact on Dick.

[PwrdOn]

But "Ric" is modern and cool and hip!

For 1984.

[The Red Monk]

When did "Dick" stop being acceptable for modern fans anyway? People still use it today in the real world. If your only justification for changing it is "haha, penis reference", then the problem isn't with the nickname, it's with you.

[Vakanai]

When did "Dick" stop being acceptable for modern fans anyway? People still use it today in the real world. If your only justification for changing it is "haha, penis reference", then the problem isn't with the nickname, it's with you.

No one under a certain age still uses it in the real world. I've never met anyone under 40/45 called Dick. Since we're supposed to believe the character is in his 20s it's definitely a bit odd. Basically the only reason he's called Dick is because he's always been called Dick. It's the same reason why the trunks keep coming back for Batman and Superman, because fans hate change even if that means leaving things stuck in the 30s despite making little to no in universe modern age sense.

Personally I think instead of a big, horridly received story they should have just slowly and quietly phased out the Dick name with no fanfare.

[Tzigone]

Personally I think instead of a big, horridly received story they should have just slowly and quietly phased out the Dick name with no fanfare.

Didn't they already try with "Richard" a while ago?

[Vakanai]

Didn't they already try with "Richard" a while ago?

1. Richard is never likely to stick just because it's 1) kind of long 2) personal opinion here, but Richard kind of has an awkward mouth feel for a name. Bruce, Clark, Diana, Hal or Guy or John or Kyle, Barry or Wally, J'onn, Vic - just going off your standard JL line up most names are either one or two syllables long (Diana being the sole exception). Richard does fall into the two syllables group, however all the other names in that group roll off the tongue better, like Barry or Wally, and all are no more than five letters long vs Richard's seven, which is less for writers/typists to write and saves page space. You really need a shorter, catchier name like Rich, Rick, Richie, Ricky, or anything other than Richard to have even a snowball's chance.

2. You have to try much, much harder to shake off the nostalgia and wants of fans who have been reading the books for most of their lives. You need a top down unbroken command like "no more Dick!" that is in effect for a decade. Basically all of Didio's tenure so far should have had a no Dick name rule. After enough years have passed people will get over it. Anything less than a solid five years with absolutely no use of the Dick name isn't really trying, it's just kind of a lame half try lip service to the idea of a name change.

[Uncanny Mutie]

"Dick" is definitely old, outdated, and a name that people under 45 don't go by anymore. But names like HAL, WALLY, and LOIS are even worse in that regard.

DC is an 80 year old company, so many of their main characters have names that were popular and common 80 years ago. That's just part of many of DC's oldest, most popular characters having been around for almost a century now. It is what it is. True, it can be weird when you stop to think about it in modern context, but it shouldn't stop anyone from enjoying the stories.

[Vakanai]

"Dick" is old, outdated, and a name that people until 45 don't go by anymore. But names like HAL and LOIS are even worse in that regard.

Not really worse - true no one is named Lois any more, and I'm not even sure if anyone ever has been named Hal, it's seriously a name I've never seen/heard outside of comic books with the character in them. But people can choose to give their kids old fashioned names, especially in cases where the child is named after a grandparent or old aunt or uncle or something. If I ever have a daughter for example I want to give her the name of my recently deceased aunt as a way to honor her. You really can't pick your name. But nobody is going to name their kid Dick because they know that name will have their kids teased, and no one is going to let the nickname Dick fly if they're younger than a certain generation.

[Tzigone]

Not really worse - true no one is named Lois any more, and I'm not even sure if anyone ever has been named Hal, it's seriously a name I've never seen/heard outside of comic books with the character in them. But people can choose to give their kids old fashioned names, especially in cases where the child is named after a grandparent or old aunt or uncle or something. If I ever have a daughter for example I want to give her the name of my recently deceased aunt as a way to honor her. You really can't pick your name. But nobody is going to name their kid Dick because they know that name will have their kids teased, and no one is going to let the nickname Dick fly if they're younger than a certain generation.

Hal is a nickname for Harold (or Henry, but in Hal Jordan's case, it's Harold).

Edit: Like Dick, Hal as a name itself shows up in the social security list of names itself (far less popular than the longer version) in the top 1000. Dick fell out of the top 1000 in 1968 and Hal in 1975.

[Vakanai]

Hal is a nickname for Harold (or Henry, but in Hal Jordan's case, it's Harold).

Ah. Did not know that. To be fair I don't know if I've ever even met a Harold, much less one who went by Hal. Thanks!

[Citizen Kane]

Dick Grayson is what everybody knows him by, so what the hell is the point of changing it outside of the wants of a few squeamish man-children?

[Jim Kelly]

Well if comic book fans are upset about it, then they only have themselves to blame. It's like fans getting embarassed by trunks--so DC has to change the costumes because their readers are peeing themselves with laughter. Now DC has to change the Dick name because fans are too upset by boners.

I don't find the name Ric so bad. Funny thing, I made up lots of ideas for Batman characters when I was young and one of these was a kid named Ric who was supposed to be a younger Robin-type character.

The name Ric isn't bad, but I can understand why readers are upset by the plot that goes along with it. However, if fans are too juvenile to accept that someone can be called Dick, then that forces DC's hand.