I've noticed this happen at my local store and have wondered if there are other examples of this happening.

Everyone at the store we play X-Wing at refers to the B-Wing pilot Keyan Farlander as "Kanye" and every player there knows who you're referring to what you say Kanye is in your build. Does your store have nicknames for a pilot or two that people? descriptive ones that are more a description of the build don't count (eg. Rage Tycho), nor do Meta terms (eg. U-Boat).

We used to call Poe the Police. A friend of ours in the X-Wing group is a cop, and him and i flew Poe a whole bunch at the time, so it just happened and then stuck.

Now we don't. Because flying Poe isn't really a smart idea anymore.

We all call Palob "Pablo Hidalgo," a nonsensical name that we made up ourselves an no one else has thought of.

My home group refers to Jake Farell as "Jake...from State Farm."

Gemmer Sojan is "Gem and the Holograms."

And I always think "Brahe" when I say Tycho, but I haven't tried to push that on the rest of the group.

We all call Palob "Pablo Hidalgo," a nonsensical name that we made up ourselves an no one else has thought of.

There's one guy we call "Spud Gun" (if you give him a potato, he'll show you why) and there's another guy who everyone calls "Martin", even though we all know his name is Dave. He gets so angry with us.

Pony, Khorn,Crabs, Toilet seats, Pancakes...

Not for a pilot, but for a ship, the imperial Shuttle is the official "Metal Boxes" of the FLGS, as someone came in with one that had the wings broken off and one of the guys at the 40k table did the rant.

'Janky Jake' is pretty well understood at my local. I've heard Zuckuss referred to on more than a few occasions as 'Suck Ass'... Which is apt, I think.

My brother calls Turr Phennir 'That ******* you can never use again' after I used his ability to dodge out of his last ships arc repeatedly for about ten minutes.

My home group refers to Jake Farell as "Jake...from State Farm."

Gemmer Sojan is "Gem and the Holograms."

And I always think "Brahe" when I say Tycho, but I haven't tried to push that on the rest of the group.

You need to paint the nose of his ship silver. Or copper.

The Palpshuttle is universally called the Palpamobile in my area.

Sleezy McRegen: Corran

I have an Academy Pilot in my current tournament list who I affectionately reffer to as "Jerk Face". Jerk Face gets all up in people's face and is a total jerk. Simples.

N'Dru has turned into Andrew. Dengar has somehow turned into Dengypoos

Torkil Mux pronounced backwards is "Scum lick rot."

Heh, I was playing a friend a little while ago and Carnor Jax was really giving it to me bad, so I started teasing him with Carnor aliases:
Carnor Jerks

C**klord Jax

Corny Jack

Crumby Jockstrap

...and so on and so forth.

My friend and I call the BTL-A4 Stresshog "The Honey Badger" because he don't care about stress. Or actions. Is the name more apt for Tycho Celchu? Probably, but neither of us has flown him yet.

Me and my brother call Decimators "Decies."

only nickname ive heard that isnt list specific is Carnor simply being called a d*** lol people really hate him

Jake is only ever to be referred to as "Jake the snake"

Soontir - Šunkir (basically Ham-ir)

Myself I call Tycho "Jake" all game when someone unexpectedly brings a weird Tycho build instead of a PTL / VI Jake. Goddamn meta.

Palpmobile is pretty common.

I call RAC "Cherry Berry."

One of my friends was trying to make viable Imperial Firespray lists with Kath Scarlet, but he would use the Shuttle model, because it has rear-facing guns. We called this setup "Captain Kenny," just making up an Imperial officer with a heavily-modified Lambda-shuttle.

The same friend had a 120-point list with Miranda, Horton, Poe, and a Bandit Z-95. He called it "Miranda's Threesome." It was a mean list, I never was able to beat it.

Wedgie, Bo Bo Fett, Puke Skybarfer, Numbskull, Vadester, Soontypoo, Palps, Col Meatgrinder, inquisy, Tychu Chechu, dace bonehead, Palob galob, and probably a bunch I can't remember.

I call Poe for Pope since he's rebels last hope. Dash is called Dash ahhha (Flash ahaaa).

Local names in Sweden.

Stressbot = R2-A3.

Jumpmaster = toiletlocks, Jumpy.

Inky = Inquisitor.