Daisy: I used to know a man named Michael Hunt, he was known as Mike, honestly that's true, he had a real hang up about it
My aunt used to teach a young man from a religious family with the same surname. They called him Isaac.
True story.
ShelleyS: Should Cilla Black change her surname? Oh and my friend has an uncle Paki (pet name for Patrick in Ireland) Welcome to our lovely multi-cultural society :)
It's all about context, as has already been demonstrated:
Matyjasz: A word in itself, and here I mean any word, is not offensive but the intentions can be. The word "murzyn" for me is a neutral word, however it can be used as a derogatory word if the person who uses it will have the intentions to offend. Let’s take the word Paki for example. For a person from the US it’s just a short form of the word Pakistani. Nothing insulting about that. The situation is totally different in the UK where the word Paki is commonly known as a very racist term. It’s all about intentions.
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