Posted by Robert Thompson on December 08, 2006 at 09:22:40 from 80.177.174.120 user robert.
In Reply to: Re: MISS RUTH was Re: MISS NANCY - Re: the 'people's sheep' factor (was UHT milk posted by Peter Ceresole on December 08, 2006 at 07:45:12:
And why are Clarkes all called "Nobby"?
According to "TheAnswerBank" -
"The word basically means 'posh'...ie belonging to the nobs...in the sense of well-dressed and so on. As best I recall, men who had jobs in offices, as 'clerks', were obviously seen as somehow 'grander' than brickies, dustmen or whatever. I believe that is how the nickname 'Nobby' came to be applied to them and, eventually, to anybody with the name, whatever their job. The spellings 'Clark(e)' are just variants on the job-title."