William Clark gave nicknames to Sacagawea ("Janey") and Jean Baptiste
Charbanneau ("Little Pomp" or "Pompey").  Is there any record of
Clark's slave, York, referred to by a nickname?  I'm wondering about
the possibility of a "real" sounding name, not just "my servant" or
"my boy".  Earlier claims of York's first name being Ben have been
discredited.

HI,
Did York have to have any other name?  This site shows that Geo.
Washington's slaves had only one name, with the exceptions of Tom
Nokes and Tom Davis, obviously to differentiate between them, as with
Jack and Jack-long at Dogue Farm.

http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/slavery/diaries/house.html

And here is nice site on the subject, that says that slaves were
seldom given surnames (and much else on the topic):

http://www.afrolumens.org/slavery/names.html

It also mentions "novelty names", Napoleon, et al.  A slave could very
well at the time of the revolution have been named after the Duke of
York, son of G III and heir - by name at least - to properties in
America, kind of like thumbing your nose at the Crown every time you
called your slave.
The nickname(s) for Jean Baptiste falls in this category too.  Giving
an English nickname to the Indian girl could have been politer than
misspronouncing her real name.  (tourist guides in China give
themselves a name from the European Language they speak, and some
people, when introduced to a junior foreigner with whom they will
spend some time, will say:  "I'll call you Ernie", instead of
"Wilhelm-Ernst").
I doubt that York had any other name.

That's it?  That's what I get for $__?  Some slacker does a couple of
basic Web searches to find tangentially related trivia . . .  How
impressive!  My question was whether there is "any record" of Clark
referring to his slave by any name other than York.  It was my mistake
to phrase the question in yes/no format and I accept that a possible
answer is "No", but my assumption was that experts would be contacted
and/or Clark's journals and letters would be searched (you know, the
only "records" of Clark's communications that exist!).  I am very
unsatisfied and do not plan to use Google Answers again.

marcadamianut,

Please note that the comment posted above was free of charge. Myoarin
is a frequent and well-respected user of Google Answers who posts
information that he hopes will be of use; he receives no compensation,
since he is not a Google Answers Researcher.

Your account will only be billed if and when an official answer to
your question is posted by a Google Answers Researcher. Up to that
point, all you owe is the fifty-cent listing fee. Comments cost you
nothing.

~pinkfreud, Google Answers Researcher

Oh, no, I feel like such a jerk.  I apologize profusely for my lack of
understanding and personally to myoarin.  The information provided was
interesting and helpful in understanding the historical and cultural
context; my impression of the information being inadequate was simply
based on a rash assumption that it was the final and "official" answer
from the Google service.  I retract my previous comment from 15 Apr
2005 15:03 PDT.  Again, I apologize.

Apologies accepted.  No harm done  :-)   (and thanks Pinky, have a good weekend!)

I wonder now who gave Sacagawea her nickname of Janey, and why: 
sister, wife, girlfriend?

Expedition members first met Sacagawea at the Mandan Indian villages
during the winter of 1804-1805 and the name "Janey" is used in Clark's
journal entry from November 24, 1805 (I'm not aware of the name
appearing elsewhere in the journals, but I'm also not a scholar on the
subject and it certainly may appear elsewhere).

The nickname was obviously given by some member of the expedition
sometime during 1805 and I assume it was Clark himself.  I, too, would
be interested to learn of any inspiration for the name.

Clark is usually credited with providing the baby's nickname ("Pomp"
"Pompy" or "Pompey") and that along with my assumption that he is
responsible for "Janey" has made me wonder whether he, like our
current president, was particularly fond of giving people nicknames. 
Since York was his family's slave and his personal companion since
childhood, this was the impetus for my curiosity and original question
about whether he may have ever given York a nickname.

Hey, thanks, that was interesting. 
Since Clark and York grew up together, it would seem likely from the
sites that York was just "York", raising the question of how he named
Clark.  But as a good servant, he didn't have to, only speaking when
he was spoken to.  (As, by court protocol, one does not address the
Queen or a king,  waiting for them to initiate the conversation.)
Well bred servants can be more aware of and sticklers for social
conventions than their "superiors".
When I was 6 y/o in the Deep South and spent a couple of weeks with
neighbors, who had an old negro housekeeper (probably born in the
1880s or 90s), she insisted on asking how I should be addressed.  The
wife asked me, and somehow we agreed on "Mr." with my first name. 
This is in the late 1940s! That was a common way then for younger
people to address closer friends of their parents, and may still be.
I think the wife probably suggested this with understanding for her
old servant's expectations.  I certainly didn't, but didn't think much
about it either, though I have obviously remembered.  The couple's
son, when he returned from the Air Force, "graduated" in her
vocabulary from "Baby" to "Mr. Baby".

Still interested?  There was another "darky", probably even older than
the housekeeper, who drove by occasionally with his horse and wagon
and was known as "Uncle ..." (I forgot the name).  Uncle as a term of
respect  - can't call him mister, that's reserved for whites, 6 y/o
and up!!  Did the housekeeper pronounce it "massa"?  Wouldn't have
been noticed; we all talked like that :-)