A chip off the ol' block.

I did not know this either.

This feels to me like a dubious retconning, similar to saying that "shit" stands for "ship high in transit". The replies are full of counterexamples, including famous ones, like Harry/Skip/Chip Caray.

Small piece of data that seems to confirm at least part of this: When I was little, one of my friends was named after his father and grandfather. His family nickname was "Trois" (french for three). When he was a little older, the nickname switched to "Trip." The origin/ meaning of those didn't dawn on me until much later.

Huh. My grandmother went by Skip, but because she skipped a lot as a kid 🤷🏻‍♀️

Our son is occasionally called Skip, specifically because he is named after my dad, after whom I am not named. But, honestly, Skip seemed a bit condescending to us, so we mostly go with his first name.

I had always heard this about Trip (ie “The Third) had never heard the other two.

I grew up with a friend named Chip and my parents would always ask me what his dad was like. Years later when I was a teenager I asked them why they always had that question about him and they explained the Chip off the ol' block to me.

I'd heard "Trey" in place of "Trip". Wikipedia says:

Trey is a given name, as well as a nickname for people with the name suffix III

My brother is a Trey, and it was a couple of decades before I found out why we called him that. Nobody tells the third kid anything.