Did you somehow pick up a nickname that you can't shake? Is there a nickname of yours that you've grown to love? Is there one that you only give out to special people in your life? Do you find that you refer to friends and family by terms of affection or do you call them by their given names?

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

Answers

Ocasek and Keanue were common in college (a few people thouht I looked like Rick Ocasek, some thought Keanue Reeves... they stuck)

R-squared is a relatively new one. Strangely, multiple people began it about the same time, independently. It started as 'R-R', then got shortened to r-squared.

All of them are better than being called 'Monkey' or 'Pumpkin' by my grandmother while she was babysitting me at 7 years old, her leaning out the front door in a robe and curlers while I played with my friends down the street.. 'Monkey!!!!! Come on in Pumpkin! I've made you a nice sandwich! You can go and play with your little friends later!'

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

My father has always affectionately referred to me as "Girl" and, to my mom I will always and forever be Jackie-butt.

I'm not proud.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

At my college paper, we had a dry-erase board for the copy-edit process; when editing a story, we'd write our initials next to it.

Somehow the editorial types thought my initials (AG) sounded great as a strangled moan, just like in the end of Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail (aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhggggg...). And so through college I was called Ag -- my old college friends still call me that.

Sigh.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

My family, especially my dad, makes up names for everyone. My two cousins, Marc and Brandon, are "Johnny Fleagle and Herman", respectively. No one calls them anything but that. My next-door neighbor is "Sudsy-La-La" (she does not know that we call her this). With a last name like Kaczynski, I too have been nicknamed many things. Most recently, my roommates have been calling me "KK". My boyfriend is "Gooch" to almost everyone. My dad is "Ski" to some of his old friends. I could go on and on with the nicknames, but I won't!

Also, Pamie, about the Amanda thing. . . my parents were going to name me Heather, and I was obsessed with that name growing up. I thought it was beautiful, and it sounded like feather (I don't know what that had to do with it!). I named all of my dolls Heather.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

I came by the nickname 'Bert' as a result of being a Jr. and my father already being known as 'Al' of the Albert that we shared. I became comfortable with this split-sharing of a more formal name throughout my early years. In fact due to the lack of another Bert in my world, I became very found of the novelty of the nickname. Although it was not without its adolesence pain. In Philadelphia during the late 50's and early 60's there was a TV show called 'Bertie the Bunn-yup' This show provided all my young associates plenty of ammo for name calling; as is obvious. Ironically, I settled with my mate and partner who's father is also a Bert but from Berten, not Albert. So here I am full circle with family competition for the nickname.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

My name was supposed to be Paige. My mom loved that name until my uncle asked if my name was going to be "Paige One, Paige Two or Paige Three." So my aunt said Marci and Boom! I too named everything Paige. I use it as a handle sometimes. But Paige and my name are pretty uncommon, which is cool.

My nicknames are generally brat and bird. I am spoiled rotten and my brother thought I looked like a bird when I came home from the hospital. Twenty years after that day, I am still his little bird.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

My father started calling me "Al" the minute he saw me. My Mother was horrified that her Alabama daughter was going to grow up with this masculine nickname. For years she and my grandmother refused to call me Al. But they gave in - because they had to admit that it fit. Now, if I meet someone and am introduced as Allison and they start calling me "Allie," I know immediately that I will not like them. I think that they obviously don't know me or understand me at all if they are going to call me that. If someone starts calling me Al right off the bat - I know we will be friends.

I have to assign a nickname to everyone I know, either by shortening or lengthening their name. It is a curse, but I cannot help myself. Unfortunately (for them), my two best friends are named Holly and Sonya - names that do not lend themselves to nicknames. So I had to make up names for them based on their personalities or ethnic heritage. Petunia and Chica, respectively. They got over it.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

Being a Jennifer I've bounced between Jenn and JC. JC came up in college when there were 26 Jennifers in my class. I had had enought. But now I'm an adult and in a different place. I introduce myself as Jennifer, and I never let anyone call me Jenny. It makes me feel like a six-year old. And it was always Jenn (with two n's) I always thought that looked more like a real name.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

yeah, being a Jennifer is tough. I always wanted to have another name - any other name - but my attempts to make people call me Victoria only got me stuck with the moniker "JenNicki" (short for Jenn & Vicki I guess), always hollered ridiculingly across the hallways of school.

I too go by Jenn (*never* just one "n") which has been the cause of its share of amusement, as well ("Jen-nnnnnnnnn").

My mom loves to tell the story that when I was 3 or so, if someone would say "Hi Jenny!" I would always firmly say "FER" to complete my name PROPERLY.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

Ugh. I was given a nickname at birth. Martie. Martie Marie, if the the former wasn't bad enough. Do the Name Game with Martie, see what happens when you come to "F". That was what I had to deal with all through school.

I threw a fit when a friend of mine named her daughter Katie. "Name her Kaitlyn, name her Katherine, name her Katrina! For god's sake don't give her a nickname!"

People always ask me if my name is short for Martha. About four years ago a group of my friends got the brilliant idea to call me Mar. Bless their little hearts, I like that much better.

Oh yes, and my mother almost named me Theodora Daisy. No, I did not name any of my stuffed animals this. I had a teddy bear named Janice instead. I do believe I got the name from a character on Days of Our Lives when I was 3.

Anyways, living with a diminutive name sucks. I'm changing min

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

There's a certain shortened version of my real name (Dorothy is a web pseudonym, so I've never been called "Dorth Vader" thank the gods and little fishes) which I've become extremely proprietorial about. Luckily only a few people have ever used it spontaneously, and those who have personal permission to use it always call me by it.

Therefore, because of the level of intimacy which surrounds this nickname, I have a completely illogical response when someone uses it spontaneously, and have to beat myself back from thinking that they were somehow being deliberately intimate, when in reality they were simply too lazy to pronounce all the syllables.

--Dorothy Rothschild (dorothyr@spies.com)

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

Being a Justine can be a terrible thing. Justine is pronounced "Jus- teen" people! People call me Justin all the time, and I am like, "Hello! I'm a girl!!". Friends call me affectionately Neen, and Neeners. My mom calls me Pumpkin-eater, Juss, and Jussie, I don't really mind any of them. Hmph.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

one of my boyfriends used to call me megan-the-pagan, which fit, i guess, because of my interest in the occult. one i could live to forget but my friends will not let me is one i had in elementary school. my best friend's name was meghan so instead of being megan and meghan, she went by nay-nay (from her love of horses) so therefore i alternated between moo-moo and cowie-wowie. oh yeah. i like those cows.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

No one's ever been able to come up with a good nickname for *Lauren*. Some people tell me I should go by Mary Jane, since my middle initials are *MJ*, but *MJ* stands for *Marie Judith*, and Marie is more common of a name than Lauren. An ex of mine used to call me Loco Luna (Crazy Moon) when he realized he could rearrange the letters in my name, and someone once started calling me *Renny* in school, but that was short-lived. Didn't fit, I guess.

My grandma calls me *Lorelei*, and she is the only person in the world allowed to do so. My sister started calling me *Lo Lo* a few years back, and I just flat-out refuse to answer to that one. She used to call me *Ha Ha* when she was a baby. I'd rather she had stuck with that! I get called *Lori* and *Laura* a lot, which I'm not too fond off, but the one I hate the most is when people call me *Lorraine*. They're not bad names. I just don't want to be known by them!

My Amanda Story: My mother wanted to name me Amanda, which was something I never knew until I was in 3rd or 4th grade. By then, I had a nemesis in school - the school bully. Her name was Amanda. So I never got to like the name much. I don't know whatever happened to that girl. I managed to hold a grudge throughout high school, and promptly lost track of her after graduation.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

P.S. I nickname everyone, too! If I love you, I give you a nickname. I call Matt *Punkin*, which I'm sure he loves. My friend Laura is now known as *Beebo*, and my friend and coworker, Melody, is now known as *Melly*. If it rhymes, even better! My sister is *Smelly*, for *Smelly Kelly*, and Deanna (my other coworker) is *Deanna Banana*. My mother (Patricia) is *Patty Cake*, and her fiance (Bill) is *Trucker Willie*. Don't ask why. These silly thoughts just pop up sometimes...

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

Well, obviously I'm pretty fond of my nickname. I've been known in various parts of the world as Telvin for the past 6 years. It's actually a creation of my own. I don't know where it came from, exactly. I've always had a hard time coming up with names for the characters I write about, and one day Telvin was just there. When I signed up for a BBS for the first time, the friend who set me up asked me for a name, and out came Telvin. And 6 months later, everyone I knew called me that. I've had a few others. Ores (from Orestes). 3 years ago, I moved to the Bay area in CA, and for some reason everyone up there started calling me buB. Which could be worse.

I've always kind of liked my real name too. Actually, I had a close call myself when my parents named me. See, my dad is a fan of the Old West. He loves Westerns, but film and novel, and one of his big heroes was a gunslinger turned Lawyer named John Wesley Barton. So when my folks started talking about naming me, my dad wanted to name me Barton Wesley. Which horrified me 7 years later when I found out. Thankfully, my mom had a bit more taste, and went for Matthew. I've always rather liked Matthew. In school I went by Matt. At my first real job, I went by Matthew. Now I'm going by Matt again, but it's farily easily interchangeable.

As a last note...I know Jennifer is a really common name (Matthew is pretty common too, actually) but I've always loved it. I've always been real fond of it. Just thought I'd say something, since there've already been a couple of Jennifers posting.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

Sigh... Why ya gotta bring up the name thing? Okay -- I'm Omar. Just let your mind race a little. Yep, that's right. I had no childhood. Yep. That's me. Omar Quadaffi. (I was unfortunate enough to be a pre-teen during the whole US/Libya thing)< BR> As I grew into the man I am today (no snickering, please), I went through Oms, O., O.G. and finally "Omie," which some friends still call me today.
I also used to go by "Phluke" online, but that's totally unrelated.< P> I will say this -- I do like having an unusual name. At least people remember it.

Omar "Original Gallaga" G.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

I was apparently almost named "Katy", but was instead given a more formal name, "Kathleen". But I've always been "Katy". I will answer to Kate, and have been called Kato and Katrina. I refuse to answer to Kathy, and get annoyed when someone spells my name with an - ie instead of a -y.

As for "Jen"s, my college roommate was a Jennifer with the nickname "Ifer" because one year there were just too many Jennifers at camp. Of course, that morphed into "Treefer" the year that we labeled our door with a pine tree in place of the "I"...

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

My name is Kylee and I know someone is a good friend when they start calling me Ky. Here at college, my friends call me Kylee J after a bar called Wylie J's. I am also known as the little artiste, the little rabbit, "our fairy" and was once called Jack for an entire year by a guy friend. My dad calls me Babes and he used to call me Muffin. My moms nicknames for me are Lovey and Scarecrow (after the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz). I like having nicknames, and I like giving them too. If someone already goes by a nickname, I will sometimes lengthen their name. For example, my friend Chris has, and always will be Christopher to me. He says it makes him feel special because I am the only other one to call him that besides his mom. Anyway, I think that is it. Oh, yeah, when I was younger, I tried to get people to call me Pink Cloud. Hey, I was only three...

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

as a katie, a "real" katie at that (meaning its the name on my birth certificate), i take great offense to the person who tried to convince their friend to "not give their child a nickname." ha! its not a nickname, its a real name just like everyone elses, and noone should ever ever ever say anything else. its just mean, and to the girl who's offended by my 'ie' tough, i dislike your 'y,' although im sure its not a personal thing, talking about nicknames i hate, i totally hate kate and katherine, dont call me that, its not my name! its completly annoying, and brit, god i hate that nickname, and no im not telling the story, its much to long and horrible to explain, lets just say im not a baby with boobies, as miss pamie said. anyway, thats is

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

KATY M, I am with you!! My name is Katherine, but I have been Katy my entire life. I hate seeing my name spelled Katie, and I am NOT a Kathy. It has also always been impossible to fine personalized things with Katy on them. You know, those little bike liscence plates, and Keychains. Always Kathy and maybe Katie or Kate, but NO Katy. I get called Kate a good deal, but I decided to spell it Kayt for fun.

I was almost named Lelia [pronounced lee-lee-a, sort of] but that became my middle name. I have a really long name, and one day when my friend couldn't remember one of my middle names, she substituted it with Eugene, so alot of my friends still call me Katherine Eugene. I also get alot of Katy-did.

By the way, If any of you have seen Air Force One, you may have noticed that the Vice president, Glenn Close, was named Kathryn Bennett, which Is MY NAME!!!

Katy "Katherine Eugene" Bennett

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

Well, my mom wanted to name me (I'm not kidding): Patricia Antoinette Maria. It must have been the hormones. My dad put his foot down, thank god, and it became simply: Toni Lynn. Not TonY, which is the guy version and it annoys me when people don't even bother to copy it right. I can see them spelling it wrong -- I don't know any other female Toni's personally (I know they're out there, but it's not common), but copying it wrong? get a clue.

I feel for the guy who was called Monkey. So was I. (This by my dad.) He still does it, though everyone else values their life and knows not to use that. It's hard to have a nickname, though. Bony is out. Fo-foni (name game), yuk. T is usually it. A few good friends started calling me tone (long o, silent e) and I let them live, so I guess it's okay. But mostly, it's just Toni.

I've always liked the name Amanda. And Kaitlyn... now there's a name I loved and named everthing.

Oh, and I nickname just about everybody. It must be a deep south thing. Only one I couldn't come up with a nickname for is my husband. Another thing in common...

-- Anonymous, May 07, 1999

...once when i was in high school the bus driver greeted me one morning with a Becky Beth (my given names being Rebecca Elizabeth). i had worked very hard at hiding the Elizabeth my entire life until that bus driver coined the shortened version & employed it on a regular basis every morning in front of all the kids. i told my boyfriend that one evening while exchanging childhood stories, he thinks its cute (ick) & so i am now permanently stuck with it.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 1999

I really like my name-Lee. Short, sweet, and to the point. Mom was all for Lazarus; not my first choice. There were unofficial guidelines to go by in name choosing in our family. All my dad's brothers and sisters names started with L's; eight of them. My dad's name is Leslie(Les),mom's is Linda. You see where this is heading. In addition to the 'L' rule mom wanted biblical names. My brother is Luke; skywalker is not a bad nick,Luke-puke..not so good. So they named me Lee and acted like it was Levi; which in retrospect wouldn't have been so bad. I was always bigger than everybody else so the cruel nicknames were kept to a minimum. Of course some little runt fool would always eventually come across the ever popular Lee-pee. Then Luke-puke and Lee-pee would beat the feces out of said runt. I get criticised on the net sometimes for using my real name instead of a nick, but I have nothing to hide and it is simple. I have people ask me a lot if my name is Leroy. When was the last time you saw a huge nordic viking looking dude named Leroy? Whatever. Now if people think Lee isn't simple enough they usually call me Bigun' or some such. Also I get Kiefer a lot referring to my apparent likeness to Kiefer Sutherland. I have a hard time referring to people with their nicknames or familiar names because it does sound so personal. For instance, I have a hard time calling Pamie--well, Pamie. Since I don't really know her it just seems so presumptuous. I'm always afraid of offending someone by shortening their name into a familiar because as you can see by this forum people can get aggravated when you presume to much; understandably. But then some people don't like to be called by their given names also. Oh well.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 1999

Well, my last name being Schmeltzer, was always something friends latched onto, because my first name, Eric, is boring. So, to give me "character," my friends all called me Schmeltz in High School, and amazingly, my new friends in college began to call me that too, without me telling them to. So it stuck, most people call me Schmeltz. Sometimes they'll use the full "Schmeltzer" but when it's to make an announcment. Like if I walk into a party, someone will go...

"SCHMELLLLLLLLTZER!"

I don't mind it though, it kinda gives me that "party guy" rep when people talk about me when I'm not there. Like if someone talked to you about someone named "Schmeltz," you gotta think he's a pretty entertaining, fun guy....which I am, of course....

-- Anonymous, May 08, 1999

Oh, lord, nicknames. When I was in kindergarten, my classmates called me Wendy Skywalker. I didn't mind. In middle school, I had nicknames to go with my last name... Tightrope, Speed, Street, you name it. That's about the same time people called me Wednesday and Wendell. Don't ask. In high school, I was called Zoe, which was the name I chose for my French class. About the same time, I dyed my hair several different outlandish colors and earned the name of Tank Girl. (Again, don't ask.) My coworkers at my first job called me Wend-breaker, Wend-shield, Wend-mill, Wendylady, Trendy Wendy, Spendy Wendy, Bendy Wendy, and Wendy Bear. At work, I'm called The Admiral. My friend Bran started calling me Ophelia Bahama after he found out I have 4 middle names. My friend Mike called me Albino Spice when I bleached my hair.. and my grandmother has always called me Wen.

I know I'm forgetting some in that list.

I love having nicknames. When someone gives you a nickname, that's a sign that they care about you, that they feel comfortable enough around you to flip you some crap.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 1999

What I hate is when people add an ie to my name. Names like Johnie, Howie, Dougie, makes me think of kids in short pants. I am NOT a kid in short pants, and have been known to get violent if someone adds an IE to my name. My sister's boyfriend decided one day while watching tv that I looked the A&W root beer bear and since that day I have been called Bear. I refuse to wear orange sweaters for that very reason. This same boyfriend decided that since he was not comfortable calling my mother by her given name or her last name, decided on calling my mom Toots. My older sister's name is Avra, which becomes Avie, then Avra Cadabra, morphed into Avra Cadaver, then finally Cadaver. My younger sister's name is officially Jacquelyn, but she hates that and we call her Jacque or Jack. When she got sick, I started calling her Stinky Bottom, which became after one too many reading of the Mutts comics Schtink, then Schtinkie Pooh, then finally Pooh. If we watch too many pokemon cartoons she becomes Pickachu or Picka. For her birthday, I bought her an official jersey of our local football team with the name Schtink on the back and her birthday for her number. She couldn't figure out what the number 73 represented till I explained.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 1999

I, too, didn't like my name to be abbrieviated ... I was Jacquelyn, not Jacqueline, and definitely not Jackie, Jacki or Jacky.

I used to get seriously antsy if anyone called me Jackie, but I eventually gave up, as Jacquelyn is just too many syllables for the average teacher. I've been Jackie ever since, and my family are the only ones who call me Jacquelyn - it's sounds normal coming from them, but really weird and formal from anyone else. It also sounds seriously weird if my family call me Jackie.

Really good friends call me Jacq. My family calls me Jacq. Tristan calls me Jacq, or Jacquelyn if he's angry with me. He only calls me Jackie when he's referring to me and talking to somebody who doesn't know me very well. Tristan also has a huge selection of nicknames for me, but they're all so lovey-dovey and cute that I won't share many of them with you for fear of making you all ill. His latest is 'Prinny', which is short for Princess.

Of course, when I accepted that most of the world wanted to call me Jackie I never for a moment suspected I'd end up marrying somebody with the surname Collins.

Jackie Collins. It's quite a handle.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 1999

I don't know how freely I really want to admit this buuuuuut --

My mother always called me Teensie for the first 19 years of my life. I liked it. It was cute. I could handle it. No biggie.

Mothers come up with the darnest variations of nicknames, though.

Imagine my horror when the phone rings, my mother answers it, and yells that the phone is for me. I get on the phone.

It's my new beau.

"Hey...who's Twinkie?"

Oh...my...god. Must ....kill ...mom...must....do it ....soon.

But there's been other variations too. Twinkles. Twinkle bottoms. Twinkle butt.

Just when I was okay with being stuck with 'Teensie' for the rest of my life.

-- Chrissy welcome to my world

-- Anonymous, May 10, 1999

Hey Teensie--

It must be hard to read the Ya-Ya books, huh?

I was just thinking about how Eric gets all the nicknames in our relationship. We have a bunch for each other, but others only call me "pamie" or "pamie puss." Eric has E, money, hero, EJP, homes...

Eric calls me G, chicken, baby, baby doll, sweetie, shmoopie...

I should stop now before my monitor sugars over...

It's not that I'm looking for more nicknames, I just found it interesting. The last thing I want is a nickname for nickname's sake.

The worst nickname I ever got? "Encyclopedia Pam." That was created by a bunch of mean schoolkids who didn't like me because I was the new kid and smart. I stopped raising my hand in class after that one. (It's okay if you're laughing at the nickname. Everyone else does.)

-- Anonymous, May 10, 1999

I hate the name Christy, Christina, and especially Chris (what my mother has always called me...) I went by Frankie for 3 years in junior high and part of high school. I am not totally certain where it came from.. but it was better than Christy. After I ditched the Frankie I went back to Christy but decided Christey was much better just because it looked different... so that is what it is now forever. I am also called Bob by many many many people. That is what i prefer to be called acctually... it started as just calling all my friends bob because if i am talking about one and i cant think of their name i would fill it in with bob. and most of the time the person i am talking to know exactly who i was talking about.. well after i started hanging out with this group of guy friends.. they turned the bob on me...

this guy friends have great nicknames of their own... Kevin is Flo/Flo-bee/Flo-Bee Unit.. unknown origin... Jon is Beerman and Wells (alcoholic and his last name).... Sparky is sparky (i can't remember his real name hahahah) and spartacus.. origin has something to do with sparking a joint i believe... Vinnie is Vinchenzo because he is the italian of the group and we need to have a "Don" i guess. Carlos is Carleaky.. unknown origin... Nolan (R.I.P.) was Norel... unknown origin... and Chuck is chuckles among other names that i cant remember. So the group includes Bob, Flo, Wells, Sparky, Vinchenzo, Carleaky, Norel, and Chuckles.... or just bob for short for all of them. :)

-- Anonymous, May 10, 1999

The best nickname in my family is what my nephew (Miles) calls my niece (Olivia): Dedu. (Pronounced "dee-doo.") When he started talking, he couldn't pronounce Olivia to save his life, so that's what he called her. Unfortunately, when he was two, it sounded more like "Doo-doo" (to her mortification!), but hey, what'reyagonnado? He was two! Now the whole family calls her Dedu, or just Liv. I think she likes it.

My favorite nickname of all time was when my boyfriend in college started calling me Clyde. I don't know why he chose this particular moniker, but I loved it. Of course we broke up, so I lost the nickname, and I just can't seem to get anyone to call me that now. Oh well.

The one nickname I LOATHE is Lizzy. I will not answer to it, and if you call me that after I've asked you nicely not to, I will likely try to maim you in some way. (I have no logical explanation for this horrible revulsion; I just really detest that name.) I do, however, have a certain fondness for Lizard. Some boy started calling me that in the third grade, probably to be mean, but I liked it. I totally dug it when someone at work started calling me that again a few years ago, and it caught on like wildfire. Now everyone seems to call me that. I like spelling it like it's two words, a first and last name: Liz Ard. An old work buddy, Ashley, used to call me Giz (which I think was shortened from the one or two times she tried to call me Lizard Gizard, but that one just wouldn't take). So she became Smashley (since I thought she was a total lush!), and our other friend, Amy, was Mamie. I had a dear friend and sometime roommate in college named Pam (but not Pamie!), who I rudely, unforgivably, called Spam... which of course she turned on me: Sliz! (The grossest and funniest of all my nicknames.)

When I was a kid, until I was 14 or so, I was still going by Elizabeth, until I got a clue that it was too long, not to mention the fact that it didn't fit me, nor could people spell it. (This I found VERY odd.) So many names are variations of Elizabeth -- I could have been Libby, or Betsy, or Lisa, or Bess, or Liza, or goddess-knows-what-all, but I liked plain Liz. People who knew me when I was a kid still call me Elizabeth, and it never ceases to startle me. Because Elizabeth was a heck of a mouthful for a toddler, my little brother called me Cissy, which my dad still sometimes calls me. My family's friends for some reason called me Busy Beth, which I wasn't too fond of, but I was little and wasn't allowed to argue with grown-ups. Of course, when he got a little older, my bro started calling me Lizard Breath, but I didn't really mind it. Plus I gave him a ridiculous-sounding nickname which for his sake I won't mention here.

My friend and sometime boyfriend in college, John, was king of the nicknames. Both giving and wearing. I could write a book on the nicknames he has had over the years, and several volumes on what names he has given other people. He used to call me Buh, which was short for Liz Buh. This I loved, and to this day I still smile and feel all gooshy inside when I think of it.

One more that I can't believe I almost forgot is that one of my best friends and I call each other Bitch. It all started when we first met in college, playing softball, and were on opposing teams. (Mind you this was not organized at all; it started as Catch in the street and grew. We were never terribly serious -- one girl was bitching that she couldn't hold her glass of wine AND a cigarette in the outfield if she was wearing her glove!) I was playing first base, and she had just made a base hit. She tried to steal second, but the batter hit a pop fly and someone miraculously caught it, so I told her, "Back on the base, Bitch." It stuck. Now we don't think twice about calling each other that -- to the point where I hollered "Bitch" across a department store once without even realizing I had done it! Now it's evolved into Bitchetha and Bitchypoo (a la Witcheypoo from "H.R. Pufinstuf," the most psychedelic TV show of all time). I like to imagine us when we're in our 80's, still calling each other Bitch.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 1999

my folks called me noo-noo (why did they name me nadya if they can't pronounce it?) nana banana, sometimes nooonooo banooonooo. and lots of stuff like peaches and honey. my sister is loooooloo bell aka laila. my family is big on naming people after food products and/or adding lots of oooo's.

when my family does call me nadya, they alway say it naaaaaaaaaa-dyaaaaa in the most nasal and annoying way possible.

i have picked up the curse of cutesy nicknames, i seem to be unable to stop calling people sweetie, honey, catlet, and kytyn. which does occasionally create trouble.

when i was younger i also wanted to be called amanda, now that i'm older i want to be called alec. i think i have some isshoooos that i still need to deal with.

love

nadyalec

-- Anonymous, May 10, 1999

Of course my family calls me "Ricky". I hate it and keep trying to correct them (I feel that I'm just too big now to be called "Ricky"). Other people have tried calling me "Ricky" but I just ignore them until they address me by either "Ric" or "Ricardo".

When I was younger I used to go to a barber who would call me 'Ricky Ricardo". I thought that was pretty cool at the time (having never seen an episode of "I Love Lucy"). When I finally saw the show it ruined that nickname forever. I actually get quite furious and rude when called it now.

My favorite nickname is "Ric" (I tell people to pronounce it with a slightly softer "k" sound at the end since there is no letter k in my name.

Two of the best nicknames were given to me by two very different people:

My mother always calls me "Caro". At first I thought it was just a weird shortening of my name. She explained that it means dearest in Italian. Pretty sweet, huh?

My friend Mark decided that he was going to go a different route in giving me a nickname based on my full name. Instead of going with the first three letters he went with the last four "Ardo". He later shortened that to "Ard". I always liked this.

My sister's full name is Cynthia Rebecca. Before she was born my parents kept talking about how they were going to name their daughter "Rebecca" and call her "Becky" for short. They dreamed about their little Becky. Finally my mother had her daughter. While she was out of it afterwards my father named the child. My mom freaked out when she saw the first name "Cynthia". This is the name of an ex-girlfriend of my father. The name Cynthia had never been mentioned before my mom saw it on the birth certificate. My whole family calls my sister "Becky". We pretty much tend to forget that whole "Cynthia" part of her name (it was only ever used when our parents got mad at her. . .they would tend to yell our full names at us and totally get our attention that way. See what they would yell at the top of their lungs would be either Cynthia Rebecca Negron Rodriguez!!! or Ricardo Andres Negron Rodriguez!!!).

-- Anonymous, May 10, 1999

pamie -

I see you picked up on 'Teensie'. I have to admit I was shocked to see that you actually noticed that out of the thousands of forum entries so far. = )

Anyway, I can see why 'Encyclopedia Pam' would make you cringe. I think my nick name in school was 'The Book' for a while and I'd slowly make my way back to the rear of the room.

Shmoopie is the cutest nickname ever invented. Makes me all giddy every time. Christey -

I know how you feel about Chris, Christy, and Christina. Chris just sounds too much like a guys name - my boss calls me that and I cringe every time; Christy...I can't describe the bad taste in my mouth for that name; and Christina just seems too long or formal to me. I guess I'll never grow up in that sense. I hate saying it, too. Sounds weird. Chrissy just kinda stuck with me. I don't know.

Chrissy @ welcome to my world

-- Anonymous, May 10, 1999

Okay, if you read earlier some might relize this name appered in someone elses nickname story,it did .. The reason I hate Jacquelyn is simple, it was what my mom called me when she was mad, since then when someone calls me Jacquelyn. I get all defensive and think I did something wrong and dive for the first thing I can hide under. Online I have a differnt name and have been on local boards for a while. See my online name is BloodSong Vampire... So when meeting those same friends, in malls they will yell across the crowded mall "BLOOD" . Sometimes this happens not in the nicest area of town was really not always a good thing, got some instant looks around and me , I would duck around the closest pole. But I have been called by my online nic for so long people start forgeting what my real name is. Being called Blood in public is not really great but I have a friend who took my nick name (since I see no matter how short your nickname is they always try to warp it some way) and started calling me B.. it is the shortest of my nickname and probably the best and with Bear, I call him Bearnaise.. or Bearnaise sause

-- Anonymous, May 10, 1999

Honestly I don't care what you call me. I had a co-worker a few years back who called me nothing, but hey you for the entire time we worked together. As to anything else you can call me I am sure that I have been called it before, and probably deserved it.

I am a SCAdian (Society for Creative Anachronism). As a result, all of my friends have two names (or three or so depending on how many personas they have, Athelred is actually my persona's name). I have people I have known for years, and only know their SCA name. How would you like to be called Montesa, or something such like?

-Athelred

-- Anonymous, May 11, 1999

Chrissy- hahah yeah I don't think i have even heard my husband call me Christey.. i don't think i would like it if he did.. not many people address me by that name out loud.. only on paper and email. to say the name out loud is bad.. (which is why i am content with only the 'E' change in it.) anyhow.. as for people addressing me aloud, I go by Bob. Also sometimes.. old friends i run into from my BBS days.. ugh... call me Tristan and 0pal (god i hate that one) and Johnny Panic (what my husband knew me as) and Plastic Little... mainly Plastic Little and Tristan. which is better than what they call my husband.. hah. he has always been "WASP". HAHHAHA!

-- Anonymous, May 11, 1999

Once when I was hiring some people at work, I posted an ad. One applicant (who didn't make the interview stage) faxed in his resume, on which he spelled my last name Ucemmebug. One of my friends (a coworker) saw the fax, and soon everyone was calling me 'Uccemebug' or 'Uccema', pronouncing the 'cc' like 'ch'. It's been about two years now, and though I don't work there anymore, all my closest friends still do it.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 1999

yup, another jennifer. let's see... well, my mom always called me pumpkin when i was a kid. i'm not sure where that came from; my grandmother called my 'froggie' - but not in english, in slovenian. she called all kids that - i guess over there it's a commen term of endearment for children. then came 'sandy' (due to a Grease obsession) 'jen k.' due to a proliferation of jennifers in my school. (as a point of interest, i was named after the donovan song jennifer juniper) and then, the one that stuck, 'little jen'. you see, i'm about 5 feet tall, and very teeny. so whenever someone would say "hey, do you know jen?" and the other person would go "ummm, not sure" and then "you know, LITTLE jen" (always said while holding hand at about chest level) and then "OH YEAH! yeah i know little jen". it's not that bad really, but it does get on my nerves sometimes. certain people know how to say it so i feel about 5 years old. *sigh* and then a girlfriend of mine came up with tinypants. and i like that one. kinda cute, but kind of cool too. she's pretty much the only person who uses it; everyone else uses little jen. the funny thing is, my mother hates it when people call me 'jen'. she will actually correct my friends when they call the house if they ask for jen, she'll say no sorry, there's no jen, but we do have a jennifer. it's crazy. and the only people allowed to call me jenni, are the girl in highschool who started spelling it with an 'i', and my friends kids. but then it has to be auntie jenni. anyone else, watch out for a swift kick in the shins.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 1999

My mom deliberately gave my brother and me names that were hard to nickname, having detested hers (Gee-Gee). But people have gotten creative. I've been Hell, the Hellster, Helenie, Leener, Leener- Beener, and Stinky-Poo. But these were all generally pre-college; no one's called me anything but Helene for years. It's slightly depressing, because practically everyone I know has a teriffic nickname: Kat, Finn, Fer, Folk, Beaker, Foof, Jenizie, Rowan, Reb, Yomi, Mec, C, Woody, Skippy, and so on. My boyfriend and I are practically the only people in our group of friends without nicknames. I wanted to be "Robin" for a while, but got over that mercifully quickly. As for nicknames of endearment, I call my boyfriend "Sweetie" and he calls me "Love", and we leave it at that.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 1999

When I was born, the doctor who delivered me (and my brother and sis...an old family friend) started calling me Princess, and my dad picked it up. Ugh...it took me forever to get him to stop calling me by that trite term. My sister when she was a baby could not master "Marie", so she shortened it to Ree. The spelling was later altered when my three best friends started calling me Ri, the name by which I now go the most online. Of course, it got mutated into about fifty other fun combos, such as Ri-rah, Mi-mi, Rio, Rimi, and all kinds of other things which only my VERY closest friends are permitted to call me.

My mom developed the name Boo-Bug for me at a very early age, because she said I was her little bug, and when she would come into wake me up, her favorite thing to do was play peek-a-boo with me for a minute. So "Boo, Bug!" became Boo-bug. As I got older, I finaly convinced my family to drop the Boo for the most part, so now I'm just Bugs, or Bugsly if they want to be cute.

My brother's friends in school all knew me well, and during 6th and 7th grade they had a nickname craze. They renamed EVERYONE. The first creation they came up with was Mare-mare, which spread to my class. When the male half of my 8th grade class discovered I hated being called Mare-mare, they made it their practice to call me so constantly. Ugh. I got over it. Other nicknames mostly coincided with whatever name they were giving my brother at the time. When he was Luigi, I was Mario. When he was Homer, I was Marge. When he was Hercules, I was Peg (for Pegasus). None of them stuck, except for the rare occasion when one of his friends still calls me Mario.

My fiancee and I give everyone nicknames. My brother is most often Buckethead (when he is perturbing me) or Ma Bookie, Hutties (y'know...Hutts...like Jabba in Star Wars) for "my boy". My fiancee likes to do spoonerisms on things, so Ba Mookie is also common. When I was in 7th grade, my family was freinds with a family of Russian immigrants called the Denillajevs. (pronounced Dan-yeel-a-chef). My friend Danielle quickly became Daniellachev. Two of my closest friends were sisters, Jessica and Kyla...they soon became Jessiquack and Koala. Another friend became dubbed Miss America by my fiancee because of her cute looks and perky personality. She WILL were the tiara some day, I guarrantee it.

Umm....yeah, I'm gonna shut up, now that I've written like fifteen paragraphs.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 1999

I can't believe I forgot to mention one of my oldest nicknames.

Well, I can believe, because he's the only one in the world that calls me it. "He" being the guy who started it.

In the sixth grade I was walking back from class when my friend grabbed my arm and said, "I'm safe! Pam's the Boochie."

The "Boochie" referring to, of course, everyone's favorite game in 1986-- Boochie Tag, from Perfect Strangers. About five guys in my gifted class played Boochie Tag with each other between classes, and it was not uncommon for the next three years to have one of them holding on to my arm while chanting to the others, "Booooochie, boochie, boochie, boochie!"

This went on and included a horrible moment when the object of my love finally asked me to dance at a school function, and as I leaned into his shoulder thinking to myself, "I can't believe Tiffany's 'All This Time' will be our song," he whispered above my head to the boys on the gym bleachers, "Boooooooochie, boochie, boochie, boochie!"

So, if you're wondering who's the boochie in 1999, it's probably still me. Pass the boochie on the left hand side.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 1999

pamie, you've had an extremely weird life.

I'm one of those people who will make up nicknames for people as they get sucked into my world. lisa becomes leebee-leebee. james became superleroy for not a very good reason. karen became big head todd.

i have a plethora of nicknames. and the moniker i use today was started by my mom. TeKay is my creation for Thomas King. It's not the same as T.K. so all you initialists out there beware.

I too was called encyclopedia brown as a child. i liked it, because i liked his books. as well as fraggle. tomah layon (note the southern french accent). nilla, mamanilla, masternilla and cujo are current appellations as well.

I was called tommy and thumb as a child because i was a preemie and very small...i've sinceforth grown out of those names.

Please don't ever call me Tom or I shall dig your eyeballs out of their sockets.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 1999

Trudy "Poot" and Trudy "Cootie" have got to be the worst. When my sister and I would get into word fights, she would call me Trudy "Pootie" or Trudy "Doody." Her name is Kim, so I would get her back by calling her "Blimp." My sister is rather large, so she didn't like that too well. My favorites have been "Tooty Fruity" or Trudy "Fruit." I am a social worker in AR, and one day a client couldn't remember my name, so he told the operator, "Well, connect me with that fruity girl." My niece came up with one when she was 2yrs old that has REALLY stuck....Aint Jujy. Too cute, huh!?!

-- Anonymous, May 12, 1999

I have had various nicknames throughout mylife. Started off with Mandy , kept that until I was about 19, and clients kept mistaking me for the receptionist. Plus, Mandy Gaden just doesn't trip off the tongue well.

My grandmother refuses to call me anything other than Mandy. Everyone else calls me Amanda, but to my Nanna, I am was and ever will be Mandy.

She came over here, to NJ, for a visit and my USA wedding last July, and proceeded to callme Mandy in front of all and sundry. Jeff's Dad now picked this up and decided that it's a nickname only the intimates get to call me, and calls me it. It's not initimates, it's only the people I've given up trying to change.

From various friends I've had Manda, Amanda Panda, Amanda Rinetree, Amanda Huggenkiss.

My mother and grandmother were killers for nicknames when I was growing up. My grandmother called me 'Buggerlugs', and I have to say, Mandy is not so bad compared to that. My Mum called me Lucy Locket for a while (after the kids rhyme Lucy Locket lost her pocket). It got abbreviated to Loose, because I as a 3 year old stormed 'My names not looozy!'. This nickname died a sudden death when my mother rang up my workone day, arranging a lunch date, and called me Loose. This is not a nickname you care to have.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 1999

when i was in elementary school i was plagued with the name "monkey" because everyone swore i looked like one (so my nostrils flare a bit!) it bothered me a lot then but as i grew and 'matured', the boys wanted me to notice them like they noticed me, the name calling stopped

in high school i was very trendy and was always receiving compliments on my unique sense of style. i was dubbed DKNWhy or DK&Why? which fit not only for that reason but also because DKN are my initials...ironic isn't it?

my Mother has always called Nusia, it's an abbreviation of my real actual birth name which isn't American. when i was a little girl i adored it but as i grew i loathed being called that especially in front of my friends. that was just one of those adolescent phases though and now i don't mind it. i actually considered putting it on my license plate!

And yes, once i grow close or attached to a friend or companion i always latch on to a nickname or some sort of term of endearment to identify them with. sometimes it's just a simple variation of a spelling or even a different pronunciation, but i have thought of some totally whacked out strange names too!

-- Anonymous, May 13, 1999

Ok, before I start on my nicknames, I have to say to Omar - I always think "Oglalla" when I see your name, 'cause...well, look at your email address. That's kind of wierd too, 'cause (I think) the Oglalla's are some Native American tribe. Do you get that a lot Omar? Oh, and my honey's friend Omar, his name is Ogie. Where the "g" comes from I don't know.

Now for my nicknames. Whee. My father always called me "BooBoo", and to my mom I was RuggRatt and RaggMopp. Always spelled like that, because there's a little song that went with either of them and it involved spelling the name out. My mom also called me the usual assortment of 'mommy names' too, like sweetie and punkin and baby, but the special ones were the Rugg & Ragg ones. My little brother called me "Mal-lass-ya" for the longest time...He got stuck with "Nature Boy" for his dislike of clothing when he was a kiddo. In elementary school I was the super geek who was definetly on the bottom rung of the social ladder (I was so glad to move). So I was the "Cootie Queen". God, that was tramatizing. My real name is Melissa, so I got a lot of "Missy". Due to my utter geekdom, that was all too often turned into "Missy Pissy". Yick. Oh, and I HATE the name "missy". It's...dumb sounding. Like "Bunny" or "Poopsie" - blech. After I moved, I finally got away from people calling me "missy", which was a blessing. I went for a while without any real nicknames - until 8th grade. I moved again then, and I got all sorts of fun names. There was "Skeeter" - my friends thought I looked like the Muppet Babies character. Nowadays, if I am particularly hyper, they accuse me of "Skeetering Out". Hmm... There was "Mel", my personal favorite and one I use a LOT, even in work. So much better than that "missy" horror. That got morphed into "Melvin" or "Melvina" by my CLOSE friends. I like it..it's not a normal name for a girl. My honey calls me "Boopie" (is that too cute or WHAT?) and "Sunshine" and "Princess" and "Thumper". He's too cute. I call myself "MellieBee". My name, Melissa, means 'honey bee' in Greek. There's even a nice myth associated with the name. And my last name starts with a "B". See, MellieBee...makes sense. And it's cute. My honey's nicknames are "Muffin" (as in Stud...long story), and "Powder" (he looks like the Powder character from the movie..poor pale man), and "Babu" and "Powie" and "Keggers" and even sometimes "Fruity Booty". He's adorable. I love my Muffy. Oh, that's another one - "Muffy".

As for Jenifers... I sometimes visit the JenniCam website (www.jennicam.org - I think), and I always mentally nickname her "Jennica". I'm a fruity booty myself...hahaha

HIYA AG....how's tricks?

MellieBee (Don't go to my website for a few days, I'm too busy at work to update until at least Monday) (But if you really wanna go and just read the archives until I can update again....http://members.tripod.com/MellieBee )

-- Anonymous, May 13, 1999

My dad calls me Stas. For those of you who don't speak Polish, Stas is short for Stanley. My name is not Stanley, but I am a big Polish boy. It's sort of like calling an Irish guy "Mick" as a generic name

-- Anonymous, May 13, 1999

The only person that has ever called me a nickname is my dad. He calls me sugar foot, which is hard to answer to when you're a grown man. He calls my brother Leroy, which isn't great, but...better.

Since I've been in Texas, some people call me El Jeffe, which means the boss in Spanish, I think. If they knew that my dad calls me sugar foot, they'd never call me El Jeffe again.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 1999

My mother insists on calling me Dennie even though I've gone by the name Nis for almost two years now. I was born Denise and shortened it to Nis, I always hated Dennie it reminded me of the resturant. I was telling my mother that next year once I get it changed to Nis legally, she HAS to start calling me that, but of course being a mother, she refuses. No one but my mother and father still use my old name, but back in 8th grade by best friend picked up calling me Dennie and tormented me with it, pronouncing it on purpose with a Forrest Gump accent. Needless to say those were the times I wished to kill her most.

I have too many other nicknames that I hate, usually given to me by family. Embarrassing names that I wouldn't EVER want getting into the hands of friends, especially male friends. I shudder to think of the humiliation.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 1999

aggie, as nicknames go, is pretty harmless. short for agatha (only teachers and parents when they're mad call me that), i don't mind it a whole lot. my family calls me agga bagga. good friends usually call me ags. that's how i know someone is going to be around for the long run - like you, pamie, they don't have to be told that ags is the affectionate version of my name.

i had a friend, once, who called me gaggie. it never stuck and we don't speak anymore. i'm glad on both accounts - perhaps the nickname was reflective of the friendship.

my boyfriend calls me girl, and another friend at school calls me sweet girl. i like them both.

my favorite nicknames that I'VE given are to my friend lucie, who i call goose, and to a sarah, who became fergie in our senior english class and never looked back. lucie gets her nickname from a couple i used to babysit for - they called THEIR daughter lucy "lucy goose" and when i met MY lucie, i started doing that. it got shortened to goose working on a theatre production two months after i met her. fergie was one of four sarahs in that class, and our teacher always got four answers to "sarah." finally, he said, "alright, SOMEONE has to be fergie so i can eliminate all these voices," and sarah volunteered and it just seems to suit her ...

i like nicknames. good nicknames mean someone loves you.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 1999

I used to babysitt for a girl named Erika but she had problems pronouncing that and it came out like Geeka, and it stuck. My niece is Claudia which I always shortened to Clyde or Clydie. But my nicknames have never been very good my mom calls me twinkie, cupcake, and kumkwait(I know I spelled that wrong) so I am convinced she wanted a grocery store not a child. And my father used to call me squirt or half pint but then I grew taller than him so they didn't stick.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 1999

I've been kinda wondering, pamie, is it "PAY-mee" or "PAH-mee"?

Anyway, waaaay back in high school (1991-ish) I'd picked up the name "Pato." It was bestowed upon me by several bully types who figured I walked like a duck. It got translated into Spanish because, for some reason I can't fathom, they had taken to watching that show "Duck Tales" in Spanish ("Pato Aventures" or somesuch). Well, not unlike other oppressed types, I took the name meant to ridicule me and made it my own. My friends and teachers started calling me that, and they did it out of familiarity and affection. I even put it on my HS letter jacket. When I came to college back in '94 I was at a loss as to what I should have for an email login name, so I just typed in my old high school nickname. Few people call me that now, in favor of just my last name, or any combination of the words "Monkey," "Stinky," "Sleepy," "Britches," or "Nuts" (i.e., "Yo yo Monkey-nuts! What's goin' on, Stinkybritches?") Why this is, I don't know, and I don't really mind. But someday I figure someone's got to call me by my first name. :)

-- Anonymous, May 16, 1999

My father had a distant cousin who was named Laurie, and they didn't get along very much, so when I was three and asked, "Why can't I be called Laurie, daddy?" He said, "Because that isn't your name. Why change your name?" So early on, I learned that Laurie was ugly, and would have no such nickname. So I created my own new name. Abbalulah. I was my own imaginary friend. My father discouraged it, saying I would develop a "split personality." Well, 13 years later, I'm only one person. Once my school found out about Abbalulah, that's all I was called. It was pathetic. I was named Laura Belle from my Social Studies teacher, Lola from my Spanish teacher, and BIT [Bitch In Training] from my cousin, who is CH [Chief Hooch] BITCH...get it? Anyway, this past winter, I injured my ankel so bad I had a terrible limp. For two straight months I was called "Gimpy." Thankfully that's worn off. If anyone calls me Laurie, I have to tell them stright out, I am Laura. And I guess that's how it's gonna be.

When I was about 10, my dad said that they were going to name me Michelle, and now I'm thankful that they didn't, because I know about 5 Michelles, and all of them are overweight.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 1999

The one nickname that has stuck with me since I was born is Trey. My full name is Dixon Cartwright III. My dad got Trey from the III. I don't have a middle name. And when I was little I thought it sucked cause everytime I would tell somebody that I didn't have a middle name they'd look at me like I was a freak or just plain ignorant. One time when I changed schools in 6th grade I tried having everyone call me by my real name. You have no idea how many variations off the word "dick" I've been called... Damn, 6th graders are imaginative little punks. I got tired of that kinda quick, so it was back to Trey. The bad thing is that somehow the U.S. government learned of my little "alias" but they didn't figure out that I'm the same person. They must think I'm a twin or something. Everytime I get something from the army to try to get me to join their ranks (just so I can learn valuable skills such as VCR repair, of course) I get two. One pamphlet and free pencil marked "Go Navy" for Trey Cartwright and one pamphlet and free pencil marked "Go Navy" for Dixon Cartwright. There's no way in hell you could get me to join now. More recently, since I started college, I've been given the names "Trey-dog" and "Smartass" by my friends. I wonder if the army will start sending stuff to Smartass Cartwright now.

--Trey

-- Anonymous, May 17, 1999

It's "pah-me." Like Pammy, but without that silly "y."

"Pay-me" is only said when you're really in the south, like how they call a "pen" a "pien."

-- Anonymous, May 17, 1999

Well, it's not so much a nickname as an annoying phrase. "Romeo + Juliet". Yeah. I made people call me Julie up until I was about 15 and everyone except middle-aged men had outgrown the need to make that joke over and over again. But I picked up 2 annoying nicknames in the process: Julie (which my parents and all of my relatives won't stop calling me) and Jules, which old friends that I knew in Junior High (and my parents) can't seem to get over. Another friend of mine called me Olivia Neutron-Bomb for a while (my middle name's Olivia), and this guy named Troy used to call me Blondie just to annoy me, because I would invariably be unable to restrain myself from arguing that he was blonder than I was (Which he WAS) and hence had no business calling me Blondie.

In college I picked up Julio (my friend Angela was Bob, and my friend Leah was briefly Hank, but hers never caught on like Julio and Bob). Also I had a friend who called me "Ett", because I got so tired of people mishearing me when we were introduced and calling me Julie or Julia or Julian that I told him he could call me Et if he wanted, as long as he got the damn Et on the end of my name.

One of the wierdest was a mutual nickname in which an ex-boyfriend of mine and I called each other "Boo". I don't know how it started, but we ceased referring to each other by our actual names after a while. It was cute, then it was fine, and then I just wanted to make sure he remembered what my damn name was.

My mom is "Decie", although her actual name is Virginia. They tried to give her the same nickname as her namesake grandmother, which was "Jinxie" -- but fortunately my mother couldn't pronounce it. And she's been known as Decie to EVERYONE ever since.

My stepdad is "Joebe", because his name is Joe and his last name starts with B. Somewhere along the line my mother and I started calling him Joebe, and now everyone calls him that.

We're a very nickname-y family. They also frequently refer to me as The Kid, in addition to the annoying Jules.

My boyfriend has the unnickname-y Matthew/Matt -- but I call him Boy. In conversation he is The Boy.

Man that was a long post. Sorry!

-- Anonymous, May 17, 1999

oh, and last week i was talking to a friend from home on the phone and she called me "schmoopie." i'm not sure where it came from, but i thought it was funny and have barely been able to resist calling everyone at school schmoopie. what a dumb word.

-- Anonymous, May 22, 1999

My grandma bought me a subscription to Reader's Digest and for some reason they took my first name, Emilie, and made it into Elilie. A few friends saw this and it's passed around like wildfire. Thank you, Reader's Digest, for butchering my name!

-- Anonymous, May 31, 1999

schmoopie comes from an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and his girlfriend call each other schmoopie. Then George got jealous andstarted calling HIS girlfriend (the one that died licking envelopes for their wedding) by some nickname, just to be as cool as Jerry and SHE thought it was really romantic. Anyway, thought you might like to know. I really am not one of those Seinfeld freaks, either, I just know this for some reason...

-- Anonymous, May 31, 1999

Since "Maggie Andrews" is a pseudonym in itself, it'll seem kind of odd to give you my nicknames, but oh, well. My father calls me "Meem" all the time. Whether he's giving a lecture, yelling, talking normally or whatever, it's always "Meem." That's pretty much the only real nickname I have, although my boyfriend has been particularly taken to calling me "Porn Star," "Butt Monkey," and "Ass Pony." His nickname is "Chode." Do not ask. I don't want to explain it. I asked once and I was sorry I did.

My aunt is a total freak when it comes to names. She calls her 8-year-old son (whose name is Ben) Cheesy Bear, Chief, Buffalo-Boy, Hooper, Hoover, and Mr. Muffly. Poor kid.

Her middle child, 14-year-old Emily, is Emmy-Lou, Em, Lillian, Lilly-Lee, Lilly-Lou, and Eunice.

18-year-old Anna is, simply, "Beaver".

Other names include her cousin Doug's nickname of "Houser", her mother is "Annie-Bop", she calls her husband Phil "Jungle" (don't ask either -- I don't know), and her own nickname is, appropriately, "Mommy Mouse."

-- Anonymous, June 15, 1999

Guys' nicknames in my boyfriend's (Chode's) fraternity house include Beer Muscles, Hammer, Beamore (his name is Brian Moore = B + Moore), McThrust (I made that one up), Shooty, Boof (no one I know, not even his girlfriend, calls him by his real name of Keith), Prozak, Marquita (his name is Mark Ita), File (his last name is Fiehel), and Jizzo (James Rizzo).

-- Anonymous, June 15, 1999

This is fun

My friends Heather, Liz, Christine, and I all call each other "Gilbert" from the movie "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" We also came with up with the nicknames "Kathy and Helga" for these two hoochie-flops named Katherine and Heidi.

Katherine's boyfriend Dennis has been called "Zennis" by us for as long as I can remember. Heather and I secretly call him "Hot Legs".

Another nickname that I find hilarious is the one given to this guy named Brian Evans. Having that last name, his friends immediately associated it with Bob Evans Restaurant, therefore calling him "Bob." Bob stuck. No one calls him Brian. I love it. He even looks like a Bob. It just kills me. I'm an idiot.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 1999

Just one more.

My boyfriend and I were looking through his baby book last night. He called his grandma "Bugga". It was so cute. He wrote her a little letter when he was about 5 or 6 and it said

Dear Bugga

We are in the new house
And it has paint
The new phon nummber is 555-5555
And the new adres is 39457 W. Hedgewood
TRAVIS.

Awww... way to go, Chode.

P.S. I don't call him "Chode." We call each other "Honey" mostly, and that's about it. I think I've called him Shmoopie once or twice.

-- Anonymous, June 15, 1999

Oh, come on now. No fair teasing like that, why is your boyfriend's nickname Chode?

-- Anonymous, June 16, 1999

I know what chode (or choad) means. I just have got to know HOW he got this nickname. HOW!? HOW!?

Trey Parker and Matt Stone's (South Park guy's) first live action movie 'Orgazmo' has a character called Choader boy. Hilarious stuff.

So what I'm wondering is...do You know how he got this nickname?

-- Anonymous, June 17, 1999

See, he has a real tendency toward calling everything "chode"... I think one of his friends at college said it and he just sort of adopted as his own little catch phrase. It's quite cute, actually... we were listening to Ricky Martin the other day on the radio and when Ricky said, "...livin' la vida loca," Travis dubbed over it, singing, "Livin' la vida choder." Underneath his picture on his fraternity's annual composite, it says "Clam Choder." He's so creative. :)

And now you know.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 1999

I am the GREAT CHODER. That is right....CHODER (for all you uneducated type, a choder is the space between a male's paper-thin ballsack and his "out" door) I am and was aware of this when given this nickname. The name originated at school. I had a friend who said it alot, and I picked it up and used the term alot more. The name stuck as friends began to call me "Chode". I have gone on to bigger and better things. I am DJ Chode, owner of Club Chode. My email address....well is self-explanatory. Many are unaware of the true meaning of the term, so the name has stuck. That is HOW I got the name for all you inquiring minds. Thank you for your time and patience. CHODE

-- Anonymous, June 18, 1999

Ok Travis...I can't contain myself anymore...hehehe...that may very well be..ummm...the technical meaning of chode. But I am refering to the commonly accepted slang meaning of the word. Never heard it?...ok..how can I say this delicately. It refers to the...ummm...regenerative fluid originating in the...uhhh...prostate gland...yeah, thats it. Don't kill the messenger.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 1999

here's a nickname story for you.

When my brother and I were little he recieved one of those beanie hats with a propeller on top. very cool. My mom was always making up stories for us and when geoff wore his propeller he became "Super Geoff" and got to go on killer adventures. after a while i stopped being entertained and got jealous. i might not have the cool hat but i wanted a hero name and some adventures, dammit. One day, driving on a trip i began pestering my mom in the middle of a super geoff trilogy. I became so obnoxious about it that my mother finally aquiesced." Fine, honey. you can be his side kick" "yeah!"saysI. "Stupid Jessica" says she. Needless to say my protests could not be heard above my brother's exuberant chant"Stupid Jessica! Ha!Ha!Ha! Stupid Jessica!" I was actually pretty funny in the stories so i didn't mind too much after a while. but thank god it only lasted the trip. jesse

-- Anonymous, August 05, 1999

long dead topic, but i know a pair of freshman roommates at my school whose names are hannah and maureen, and they go by nana (think about the sound of the second syllable of hannah repeated twice) and mo. absolutely wonderful girls with very distinctive nicknames. i know five hannahs on campus, so the fact that one of them has a great nickname to distinguish her makes me happy.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 1999

Oh, this brings back so many memories, and I wanna contribute even though it's so late in the morning and this topic's long dead.

First off, my last name's been a small curse. I always have to spell it out since there are more common spellings (Lilly, Lily). Occasionally I've felt that it's way too girly (because it sounds like a flower), but then I get over it. And sometimes I *feel* pretty girly and like feeling that way. Yeah, I'm really in touch with my feminine side!

In elementary school, my name often got mutated to "Lilleypad" by jerks. (I was the big nerd in school.) I hated it and thought it was the height of cruelty, and I still cringe to hear it (I never do anymore, thankfully), but now it really doesn't seem *so* terrible. At least compared to what I've read here. ;)

Some people I know just call me "Lilley" rather than Jason. It's distinctive I guess, but it sounds so impersonal.

A few times a girl in college called me "Tiger" (for Tiger Lilley, of course)! I liked that girl! But the name didn't stick. My family teased me about that one, but now "tigerlilly" is my brother's email address.

My brother's given name is Joshua, which I lengthen to "Joshuwaddy" sometimes to tick him off. :) He doesn't even like Joshua; he goes by Josh.

I've always liked my first name, though it's a bit common. Naturally I'm sometimes called Jay, particularly by by family. My grandma calls me "Jaybird" fairly often. Bleh. Aren't grandmas great?

I'm often reminded I was almost named "Cody" at birth. I'm not sure I would have liked that. A few years later, a cousin of mine was born, and he got it. Kinda like a hand-me-down name!

Naturally, my ex-girlfriend and I had pet names for each other, like "swee'pea" and "kewpie". For some reason I labelled her "gupi". It's pronounced like "goopy", but I always think of it as "gupi". It's just a couple of random syllables I put together and liked. I don't really think she's goopy! :)

I won't give you her real name, but suffice it to say that her last name is Thai and has 13 letters. You can imagine her hardship!

She and I also have on-line names. Mine is "Lingo" because I'm a linguistics student. I made that up and like it a lot. Hers is "Optrae" (don't ask), which was never comfortable with me because of that "ae". But at one point we were on-line so much (long-distance relationship) that we started thinking of each other as Lingo and Optrae in real life!

A couple of other friends I know: Hex. He got that name when we started playing Hearts in college. Our rule was that you had to have a card-playing nickname to write on the scoresheet. He chose "Hex". It was the only card-playing nick that stuck. Even now, most of my college friends refer to him as "Hex" rather than Mark.

Finally, I've got a friend whose name is Baris Kabak (he's Turkish). One day a few months ago he prepared a presentation for class and used a spell-checker. He didn't notice the spell-checker changed his name to "Barrios Kabuki" until he got to class! Now we all call him that.

Oh, and I always pronounce Pamie as "pay-me". It's stuck in my head that way now.

Ok, I'll shut up now!

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2000

Hey, Jason, glad you posted here, because I had been thinking about it, but didn't want to be the first nerd to do it since September. ;) (Not that there's anything wrong with being a nerd!)

OK, so I couldn't get anybody to call me "Clyde" in college... now I have a new one I want to try to get people to call me. We rented "Desert Blue" the other night (not bad), and Christina Ricci's character's first name was Elizabeth, same as me, but her friends all called her "Eli". How cool is that? Now how in the hell do I, at 37, get people to start calling me something else? Ha. Fat chance. It'd be like my brother-in-law, Chuck, suddenly wanting to go by Charles at 45! Oh, well. Maybe next lifetime.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2000

we call my little cousin joshua "shue" instead of "josh". he adores it. but then, he adores most attention from our family, as everyone is at least 8 years older than he is.

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2000

I never had really interesting nicknames. I was named Cynthia but have always been a Cindy. My mom liked to call me Lou from Cindy Lou (not my middle name). Later, Magoo was added to Lou just because it rhymed. So I answered to either Lou or Magoo and will still answer to Lou before I'd ever answer to Cynthia.

I married into a doozy of a last name though... Niespodzianski. If you ever want to say "surprise" in Polish, learn to pronounce that name. If I use the translation, I have a ready-made porn name, Cindy Surprise.

People always ask me why I took that name and didn't keep my maiden name. For one, I get asked all kinds of questions about it, so it's a great conversation piece. People remember me better. "You're the person with that really long last name!" It also satisfies my competitive nature. I only met one person with a longer last name (hyphens don't count).

The name also generates a lot of nicknames: Nez, Ski, Alphabet, Encyclopedia, A to Z, and others I can't remember.

So glad I'm not the only one reading really old forums!

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2000

My full name is Pamela. I've been Pam and Pammie (yeah, 2 M's) to friends and family for years. I went through a phase for several years, where I insisted on being 'Pamela.' It really pissed me off when strangers (like phone solicitors) shortened it to 'Pam.' My husband must have told his family about that, because they always make an effort to refer to me as 'Pamela,' though the nicknames don't really bother me anymore.

For a very brief time, my younger sister called me 'Pamie-poo.' I think that lasted until I threatened to throttle her.

I get Spam, Spammy, and sPamela a lot.

My husband calls me a variety of nicknames, including chiggun, pie of sweetness (instead of sweetie pie) and Snorlax ('cause I like to sleep a lot).

Dale is actually my husband's middle name. He's Arthur Jr. To avoid confusion, his mom just called him Dale. My nicknames for him are beefy chiggun (childhood story), sugar plum (I don't know HOW I started that), and Jigglypuff. The last (and my Snorlax) started after he went to Dallas and stayed at his uncle's a few months ago. His younger cousin got hold of his mobile phone and changed the greeting to Jigglypuff. It was still like that when he got home and I picked up his phone and saw it.

Also, when he calls me Pammie, I tend to respond with Daley, and Pamela gets him Dalela.

My sister's name is Phaedra. Nicknames for her are Phae, Phae Wray, Phage, and Buhny (she's got a thing for rabbits, including a tattoo).

When I was in highschool, a classmate of my sister called her Figaro and me Panama.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2000

Rounding out the "Pamela" nicknames (as I've received all of the above), "Pamie-poo" is a very common one. My family likes, however, "Pamie-puss." So sexy.

I've also gotten "Pamula," "Pamster," "Pamita," "Pama-lama-ding-dong," and "Pama-bama."

I don't know why some of you insist on pronouncing it "Pay-me" either.

word on the "spam" nicks as well.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2000

Okay, I'll jump in, since I somehow missed this thread at its inception.

My parents wanted me to have a name that no one could make a nickname out of. Lisa sounds simple enough, right? But, once a person knows me for a while, they inevitably start to call me Lis. Is Lisa really so long that you have to drop a syllable? I don't mind though, it lets me know that I am liked. I don't think anyone who thinks I'm a bitch would call me Lis.

My parents later killed the reason for my name, and gave me a nickname anyway: Muckle. It was so horrible. They said it came from some old movie that had a character named Mr. Muckle in it, but I don't really see what he would have had in common with a 6 year old girl.I had to insist when I turned 10 that they cease calling me Muckle, because it was just too embarassing.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2000

Oh, how could I have forgotten Pamster, as Dale called me that just last night??

And, uh, another favorite nickname of his for me is....

Squishy.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2000

Argh, I'm sorry for spamming the board, but every time I submit a post, I remember something else. Two more cute-n-cuddly nicknames from Dale- Paminator and Paminatrix. And, some friends used to callWerePam, back when I used to be in bad moods all the time.me W

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2000

Well.. I like my name, Jeremy. My Dad wanted to call me David - the name he wanted his entire life but my Mom wouldn't have it.

Middle Name... Boyd? Don't ask, I have no idea.. its been in my family for at least a few generations and I'll probablly pass it on to my children heh..

Nick names, I've recently picked up "Jer" but my whole family just calls me "J" which was started by my sister when I was about 6.

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002