'Nickname' occurs once as a noun (RoJ 2.1.12) and twice as a verb, both times in similar syntactic environments and in a context of erotic indignation. In Love's Labor's Lost the Princess rebukes the King for blaming her eyes for his oath breaking:
349 You nickname virtue; vice you should have spoke,
350 For virtue's office never breaks men's troth.
(LLL 5.2.349)
Hamlet is more violent in his encounter with Ophelia:
144 You jig and amble, and you [lisp,] you nickname
145 God's creatures and make your wantonness
146 [your] ignorance. (Ham.3.1.144-146)
17 September 1999