Indeed. I am of an age such that the idea of censoring names, for well-meaning effect or otherwise, nauseates me. In my youth the "dreaded n-word" was in common use, but I was brought up to avoid the word by a very proper Southern grandmother (a survivor of radical Reconstruction) who insisted only white trash would say "nigger" and that no member of her family would use it. The first time she heard me use it, she washed out my mouth with laundry soap -- an experience I assure you one does not want to repeat. She even taught me an alternative "counting rhyme" to replace the ubiquitous "eeny, meeny, mynee, moe".
"She even taught me an alternative "counting rhyme" to replace the ubiquitous "eeny, meeny, mynee, moe"."
I led (and probably continue to lead) a sheltered life. I never even HEARD the "offensive" version of that rhyme until I was an adult. We always caught "tigers" by the toe when I was a kid.