Kuri, aka Kristen at mediatinker.com, wondered about nicknames.

What nicknames have you collected?

“Collected” is right. Once someone’s given you a nickname, it tends to attach itself to you forever.

For example, my given name is Virginia, and my hair is red. Those two facts generated a dizzying array of not-very-original nicknames (with one or two startling exceptions).

Also, nicknames tend to be context-sensitive – family-childhood nicknames often don’t survive your childhood, but occasionally they do. Sometimes you find yourself saddled with (or stuck with) a new nickname when something about you changes, or when you make a change from living at home to living on your own.

I decided to make a list of all the nicknames I know in my immediate family – these are all on my side of the family, because David’s family has almost no nicknames).

The Name Game

Me:

• Bug
• Sarah Maude (out-of-sorts name)
• Gin
• Buginia (pronounced “bug-jin’ya”
• Ginnery-buggery-boo

(My apologies to all British people for that)

• Mrs. Magillicuddy (or was I Mrs. Hand, and Mom Mrs. Magillicuddy?)
• Gina (pronounced “jin’-a” not “jean’-a”
• Ginger
• Gin-Gin
• Uncle Fweabag (I wuv you Uncle Fweabag! I wuvuIwuvuIwuvu!)
• Poodle
• Old Carrot-Bottom (may that kid rot in aitch-e-double-toothpicks)
• Nig-Nig (don’t be alarmed, it’s just backwards)
• A nickname derived from a Monty Python sketch that is not work-safe
• Mrs. Premise (see above, this one is work-safe)
• Gingela (pronounced “ginge’-ela”
• Virginia Elaine! (when in deep shit)
• RED57

Alert readers may have figured out my Internet/AOHell nick

• Ginny Binny Bo Binny Banana Fanna Fo Finny, Me My Mo Minny, etc./li>

My mom: (her first name is Marella)

• Malella Poptop
• Lella
• Murph
• Mommy-Wommy (my nickname for her)
• Murpheola Flapdoodle
• Murpheola Stocknottle
• Relish (my youth group friends called her this – from “Marella-ish”)
• Grimiss (a grandma name – Heather and her kids use it)
• Beegee (a grandma name – Raeanne and her kids use it)
• Grama, Gramma (I think Holly and Syd use this one most)

My dad: (his first name was Paul)

• Red (probably a lot more in this vein way back when)
• Pop (Mom called him this, almost always)
• Duggan
• Crampaw! (Raeanne called him this, it was a grandpa name)

My niece Raeanne: (she and her mom Marcia lived with us for a few years)

• Ranny
• Sarah Maude (out-of-sorts name)
• Sarah Bernhardt (drama queen name)
• Potsy (she’s gonna kill me dead)
• Potsy-poo (hallelujah, dead again)
• Uncle Fweabag (I wuv you Uncle Fweabag! I wuvuIwuvuIwuvu!)
• Ranny Banny Bo Banny Banana Fanna Fo Fanny, Me My Mo Manny

My sister Marcia: (pronounced “marsh’-a”)

• Tim
• Sarah Maude
• Timmy (this or Tim is the usual moniker in the family)
• Tim-Tim
• Probably a whole bunch more I don’t know about
• Marcia Timetra! (deep shit name)

My brother-in-law Frank:

• Frank (:giggle: he gets off pretty lightly in the nickname stakes)
• Frank-o (I’m probably the only person that calls him Frank-o)

My sister Teresa:

• Tootsie-Pop
• Tootie
• Tudy (this is her usual moniker in the family)
• Tudy-poot
• ‘Tude (possibly as in “attitude?”
• Tuders
• 2D
• 3D
• Sistie Elder
• Teresa Jane (when in deep shit)

My niece Holly:

• Hollister Crumdahl, etc. (many variations on this theme)
• Holly Bolly
• Holly Bolly Bo Bolly Banana Fanna Fo Folly, Me My Mo Molly, etc

My niece Heather:

• Head
• Heddah
• Bone

My niece Sydnee:

• Syd
• Syddernee
• Glick
• Syd-Glick
• Squid
• Squiddly
• Little Shit
• D.T. or D.A. (stands for Disaster Time or Area)

Phew. That’s a lot of nicknames. I decided in the interest of space, time, and all eternity to omit great-nieces, great-nephews, and first and second cousins or we’d never get through this.

I was talking to my mom just now – the only member of my family not on the phone or surfing the net, apparently – and she had to stop and think about some of these names. Her friends thought she had 6 kids or more, because she uses at least two and usually 3 different nicknames for us in conversation with her friends. I’m not sure, but I think that she chooses which nickname to used based on context – if she’s talking about my sister Teresa’s very early childhood, she calls her Tudy or Tudy-poot, but if she’s thinking of some escapade of her wilder adult years, she might call her Tuders or ‘Tude.

Those of us that were “kids” and not toddlers during the Vietnam War era got stuck with the “Name Game” versions of our names. Good thing nobody in the family was named Chuck, like that guy in the Bob Hope USO tour show. Suddenly, every grunt in Vietnam was named Chuck. Or Fo-Charles. Heh.

Same with me. If Mom’s telling an embarassing story about, oh, potty-training and fashion faux pas (two subjects that were closely related in my toddling days) I’m “Bug” or “Bug-ginia.” A late childhood tale from my tomboy days spent wading in the creek and dragging salvaged junk home means I’ll be called “Ginnery-buggery-boo” in the telling. British readers, if any, please disregard that last nickname. My mom doesn’t know it’s offensive, so let’s not tell her.

Some nicknames are unique to just one pair of people. Raeanne and I were watching cartoons one day in 1975 or 1976, and got hysterical laughing at an episode of “The Oddball Couple” – the Odd Couple knockoff with the fussy cat and the sloppy dog. There was this little nephew character that kept wrapping himself around Fleabag’s leg and saying “Oh, uncle Fweabag, Iwuvyou, Iwuvyou, Iwuvyou!!” He would do this clinging thing every time it looked like he was going to be dragged off to the orphanage or something. This became our signature “goodbye” joke, and we still call each other “Uncle Fweabag.” The rest of the family looks on in some confusion when we do it -that’s how intense the nickname thing is with us. They weren’t watching cartoons with us that day, so they don’t get it. The reason I can date this one is because the cartoon series ran from September 1975 to September 1976. Jeez. I was in my senior year of high school. Ancient history.

A lot of my nicks are post-childhood and definitely not family-given. As a redhead I had my share of unfriendly and unflattering handles, and it took a while to shed them. Friends in high school were permitted to call me “Gin-gin,” though, and that one cropped up again years later and morphed under the influence of… recreational chemicals (Alcohol! We were drunk in college a lot!). Monty Python supplied a couple of nicknames, one of which is too tasteless to say or write anywhere. A couple of spectacularly bad hair days supplied other nicknames… thank God “Poodle” didn’t stick as a nick, but fortunately the perm grew out. People called me Lucy for a while then, too. It was the bouffant thing, I think.

I asked David about nicknames on his side of the family, and there were just three – some grandma/grandpa type nicknames, and one for his cousin Randi that didn’t stay the course. They’re just not nicknamers on his side, I guess.

And then there’s pet nicknames. Not cute ickle nicknames for your loved ones, but the names of your pets. That’s fodder for another post – I think I could explain how Beebee got her name, but Mindy Dawn Banacious and Thaddeus Augustus Feline Fer Surrre’s names grow in the telling, so maybe I’d better stop there.