I just had to do a hard reset as my phone suddenly lost the web access (removed junkware this time so not a total loss). I re-installed MS voice command, and went to set up my contacts and noticed there was no entry for a nickname. Odd- it was there before, and it was nice to dial with vcommand by just saying the nickname. Any ideas on why this field is missing in my contacts now?

Are you expanding the Name field by clicking on the arrow at the right? This normally expands to reveal Title, First, Middle, Last, Nickname, Suffix.