In Amsterdam you get a nickname, especially if you have a good Dutch name, such as Hans, Piet, Gerard, of which there are many. But so did the English, the Petes, Pauls and Johns. The first Piet, Henk or John was lucky. He just stayed Piet, Henk or John but the next …… you had Dick Telegraaf and Dick Hilton. You had Jan Lint, Jan NOS and Jantje plu.
The nicknames were often based on the work but not always. You had Kees Motor, Leo Lood (Leo was a plumber, which is loodgieter in Dutch) but also Leo van Betty (girlfriend). Sometimes it was a corruption of the name, Harry became Harm, Klaas became Kalaas. And sometimes appearance played a role; Jan Lint, for example, was very thin.
Comparisons provided names. When a second Linda came you got big Linda and little Linda. Pretty daft because big Linda was not big, little Linda was just smaller. There was a second Jet so you had blonde Jet and dark Jet.
Some people even had two names. Frans was called Frans Feijenoord but also François because he was called that in the eatery where we had worked.
Those nicknames were usually worn with pride. They were on the letters and postcards and hardly anyone knew the real (last) name.