How SMU head coach Sonny Dykes got his nickname

Everyone knows the new SMU head coach as Sonny Dykes. It's the name he's gone by for his 48 years.

Only, his first name is actually Daniel.

While talking with ESPN personalities Chris Fowler and Lee Corso at the Doak Walker Award ceremony on Friday, Dykes revealed how the Sonny moniker came to be.

"It's a little strange. My dad, Spike, that's even stranger," Dykes said of his first name. "The funny thing was, my mother wanted to name me Daniel and my dad insisted that I be called Sonny. My dad, until he passed, swore that Sonny was on my birth certificate. I said, 'You know what, it's not. It's Daniel.'"

So while his mother, Sharon, did not see her name choice go to much use, Dykes and his wife…