Language is evolving doesn’t absolve you from misusing someone’s name. I get that some names get a commonly used shortcut, like Robert becomes Bob, but would you keep calling Robert Bob, even if Robert had asked you not to? Would you insist on using Bob, in the name of linguistic evolution?
Here’s the great thing about toys: they can’t ask me to call them anything. I can get a Buzz Lightyear doll and call it Woody. I can build a Millennium Falcon out of plastic blocks and call it the Serenity. Since they are toys I own and not sentient beings, I am not offending them.
Language is evolving doesn’t absolve you from misusing someone’s name. I get that some names get a commonly used shortcut, like Robert becomes Bob, but would you keep calling Robert Bob, even if Robert had asked you not to? Would you insist on using Bob, in the name of linguistic evolution?
Here’s the great thing about toys: they can’t ask me to call them anything. I can get a Buzz Lightyear doll and call it Woody. I can build a Millennium Falcon out of plastic blocks and call it the Serenity. Since they are toys I own and not sentient beings, I am not offending them.