When we were growing up at Casa Tait, we all had several nicknames. My Dad was - actually make that is - a demon for them. None of them made any sense. Many of them came with their own songs. Or a poem. Maxabella, in particular, seemed to attract the musical variety. I cannot think of her nicknames today without adding the ensuing lines that go with them. She's a walking Andrew Lloyd Webber production.
The only one who doesn't have a pantheon of nicknames spilling out behind him is my brother TICH. His name was, and always has been, simplified to one letter. M. Later he became Mmmmmers. And is known as Uncle Mmmmmers to his many, many nieces and nephews. But he was just plain old M for the longest time.
The boys are bearing up well under the weight of their many nicknames. As embarrassing as some of them are. Mr8, however, has drawn the line at being addressed as 'Doodlebug'* in public. He believes it to be undignified. I'm not even sure where that one came from. It's relatively new and I am doing my best to confine it's use to the Fibro. But it's just such a nice word. It really rolls off the tongue, don't you think?
But I digress...
I'm guessing it's one of those genetic things. Like discussing the weather at length. But maybe I'm just kidding myself and it's more widespread than I thought. So I'm asking...
Is yours a house of nicknames? Do you have one or more per member of household? Are any or all horribly embarrassing? If so, please share. We won't laugh at all. Not one little bit**.
[image: The Builder will henceforth be known as 'Bread' as per this lovely pic from Luxe Mountain Weddings blog}
*Note, this was not one of the choices for the UberCircle
**okay, maybe just a little
A Browilliawalliawishiawasiapicklemagranmamas to you! x
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you attempted to SPELL it!
DeleteGOOD GOD. I think maybe your dad and my dad might be related. My dad called my mum, Mumpyumpywompygong.
DeleteBut I'm pretty sure he only did it to annoy her.
It worked.
What a mouthful!
DeleteI love that pic!
ReplyDeleteI'm a serial nicknamer and name shortener too.
As a teacher, I have actually been told off by parents for misusing the lovely names they gifted their precious children.
(The kids love it though!)
My Magoo has named the bub within 'Muppet' and it has stuck.
He or she will not be outrunning that one.
I do draw the line at being called 'Shaz' or any variation of. It just irks me.
:-) x
My husband calls me Beloved. So much so, that our (very small) son thought that was my Real Name.
ReplyDeleteAn embarrassingly large number of people refer to me as Shirl, tho. As in Shirley. As in Purvis.
Because of the way I speak. Yeah.
And Al, that was told to you in confidence. Don't you DARE repeat it.
LOL. My lips are, like, totally sealed.
DeleteAwesome. I thank you.
DeleteHi Shirl!
DeleteIt is genetic. Our poor children. x
ReplyDeleteI can see how you'd baulk at Shaz...
ReplyDeleteAnd clearly that response was supposed to be tucked up under Mum On The Run. Sigh. Gremlins.
DeleteMy daughter’s main nickname is her first name with three extra letters attached. Or else it is her name with a rhyming word on the end.
ReplyDeleteMy son is generally known as a derivative of his first name. Lately we have taken to calling him that derivative twice which ends up being longer than his actual name but hey, who said nicknames make sense?
My brother is known as Daisy. This starts from my son not being able to pronounce David and making it ‘days’. My Dad and I then turned it into Daisy. He gets called Uncle Daisy by my kids, Daisy by my inlaws and friends and husband.
My husband’s name starts with J but he is known by a totally different J name. Which just confuses people who have just met us.
I am known by anyone I have met online as one particular name but family and people where I live know me as my birth name.
On a recent extended family camping trip we dubbed my 16 year old niece and her boyfriend as Honey Pie and Turtle. Turtle has definitely stuck.
Names are fun!
Nicknames make no sense at all. Most of our family nicknames are WAY longer than the actual names...
DeleteMy son was able to say three of his nicknames before his own actual name, no doubt because he was utterly confused about what his name really was. But I am always, absolutely, no-questions-asked, Amanda. No Mandy. Ever.
ReplyDeleteI hear you!
DeleteMy 4 yr old daughter is known as Missy - pretty normal nickname. But when Daniel was born she was only 20 months old and couldn't say Daniel. 1st she dubbed him little boy but got offended when that name took off within the family and renamed him boylove. He's 2&1/2 now and still known as boylove. Hope that nickname gets dropped before he's a teenager. They are the youngest of 7 children. The eldest 2 were 15 months apart and found his sisters name too difficult so attempted to call her sister which came out as ditter. He was still calling her ditter when he was 5, as was their younger brother. We got rid of that nickname. They are 21 & 20 now but still remember the days when she was known as ditter
ReplyDeleteBoylove is hilarious. He's going to just adore that when he's 12...
DeleteYep! We're a house of nicknames for sure. The boys have multiple nicknames as well. Hubby and I call each other Bubba, it's what we answer to, in public and in private. In fact, it's the name we use in our phones for each other's numbers. I only call him Scott if I'm really peeved at him about something. Thinking about that, we sound a little strange, haha.
ReplyDeleteWell we try to call Mr 2 'buddy' and he is quite adamant that he wishes to be called 'jaden' - which is boring don't you think?! As for my side of the family, we don't do nicknames after my two older sisters nicknamed me 'Words' when I was like ... 9 ... And I never got over it :)
ReplyDeleteThis was my post on nicknames
ReplyDeletehttp://joeh-crankyoldman.blogspot.com/2011/10/fraternity-reunion-nick-names.html
Everyone had a nickname in college, but we did not put them to music...not that clever!
Cranky Old Man
We're big into nicknames. When Mr 5 was a toddler, we called him Rainman due to his surplus of odd, obsessive quirks. Then Mr 3 came along, and he was dubbed The Chunk (in the great tradition of ironic Australian nicknames). I am The Wife, and even have my own mobile ring tone on Mr Karen's phone: the sound of a quacking duck.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid my brothers called me Midge, and it hasn't worn off. Even their partners call me Midge or Midgey.
cringingly, my husband & I call each other 'pumpkin', always have! We used to keep it inside the house but over the years it has just gone all willy-nilly anywhere somehow without us noticing, until the people around us do a double-take..our youngest was called everything but his own name, it's a wonder he even knows what it is. All my brothers were 'joey' until another brother was born, and then it was passed down the line, so now my youngest brother is stuck with it, everyone he knows calls him joey. I love nicknames! x
ReplyDeletePumpkin... sorry, got nothing for that one!
DeleteAli, i have advice for your ubercircles.. Just think what you would like to have on the circles in 20 years time.. the nicknames of now seem to keep being reinvented and evlove.. perhaps their real names are safest! (and nicknames can always be in small font!) UberkateX
ReplyDeleteYou're right. I know you're right...
DeleteMy son's unfortunate nickname as a 2 year old was affectionately 'Pooh' until he went missing in a large shopping centre one day. It wasn't until some time later that I realized how strange I must have appeared frantically running around calling out,'Pooh, Poo, where are you?' ' I got some strange looks as I yelled to my husband,' Have you seen the Pooh?' Anyway all was well as 'Pooh' had crawled under a dressing room door in a ladies wear shop and was happily munching his sandwich whilst gazing at a half naked stranger! Undeterred my daughters have been nicknamed 'Puddleduck' ( middle name Jemima) ( not much better than Pooh really when you think about it), My youngest daughter has been BB Hannah, ( middle name Hannah) Hannah B, Boo, Beebs, and Boo Boo. All that after painstakingly choosing first names which I was determined could not be shortened. At school, the nickname reigns supreme! Rhiannon became Razza, Siobhan became Shevy, Hamish evolved into ( more appreciated I'm certain than Pooh!) and Briallen was Bree.
ReplyDeleteHaha, too funny. Hubby and I hate - HATE - the pet names thing, but our friends used to give us crap for not having them. So we tried to come up with the worst ones we could think of. I'm now his sugarplum, and he's my snugglemuffin. Vomitous, no?!
ReplyDeleteMy mum still calls me button. And Ashleigh's my little chicken. I wonder how long it will stick?
Snugglemuffin? Please tell me that you send each other love messages in the Valentine's Day classifieds...
DeleteWhat a great idea! Noting that in the calendar for next year.
DeleteWe have nicknames here. My husband and I often call each other babe both in public and in private. He used to call me Little (still does occasionally) and when our daughter was born she was called Little Little, which has now been shortened to Little. The boys both get called Mate and Buddy - not much distinction as to who gets called what though. My youngest also gets called Fin Fin.
ReplyDeleteMy Grandpa used to call me Pennykins when I was a child which I hated the same way as Henny Penny. Mum used to call me Lope-e-pen or Lopey/Lope (can you tell my name is Penelope?!!) and I often got Penelope Pitstop from other family members. I was only ever called Penelope by one friend which I quite liked and some friends called me Pen Pen, Penwah or Pens (I seem to have a ridiculous amount of nicknames - I just counted 11!!!). These days it's mostly Pen or Penny.
Not sure what the hubby got as a kid. I will have to check that one out!
What a great post!
Ah yes - we are nicknamers too... Punks, Punky, Hunky, Pix, Punky Magrew, Lilo, Lila Boo, Boo Boo, Lila Lilypad, Olly Dolly. I could go on, but I won't!
ReplyDeleteGrowing up my Mum called me Scraggs. I think it is pretty! Scraggs Woog.. nice
ReplyDeleteI wish that Blogger had a 'like' button.
DeleteWhere to start?! If people actually call me "Lucy", even now, I feel like I am in trouble. (One of my brothers emailed just earlier with the greeting "Dear Louliboulishouli-pie".
ReplyDeleteI rest my case.
You seriously are a Tait from another mother, aren't you? See Maxabella's comment above for one of her best ones.
Deletei go by a nikname myself (..yeh!) and - when i n a good mood! - i tend to give completely sensefree nicknames to my boys (husband, son, dog.. uhm.). then i double them up for good measure. my son HATES it!! (oh, why my Pimpam-pam?)
ReplyDeletethe other day i called my husband .. ahem.. "Bapbap-bapbap ?" and he said "Seriously? it kinda sounds like you are driving over street bumps!" He was a bit right.
The only one who doesn't mind, is the dog. Because he is deaf. :D
Nope, minimal nick names here. Popps has a long name, people keep asking what we use as her nickname....arrr, um, don't. And Immy, only introduces herself with her full name to anyone who asks.
ReplyDeleteMy dad used to call me Flossie-fewclothes, apparently I was well known for saying I had nothing to wear. Which seems odd to me as I remember happily spending many summers wearing nothing but a bathing suit and a t-shirt, didn't care at all about clothes.
ReplyDeleteMy two youngest children have nick-names, "Taffyn" and "the boy". The older two just go by their regular names.
My second husband called me Smurf while I called him Troll.
Jackwafabwa is actually an abbreviation of "Jackwafabwa of the Deathwa clan" which my bestie Buffy friends made up after we watched a certain series of Angel (Buffy spin-off show). The Jackwafabwa has stuck in social circles, in professional circles I get JJ (my initials). My maiden name was Jacki Morgan and my worst nickname from my high school days was Jack-me Morgasm. Thanks boys. After a friends 21st I was known as Kegs and my younger brother as Carton.
ReplyDeleteHubby and I have multiple nicknames for each other: Schnookums ,Buza, Sexy one. My husband is known to his mates as Golfy because his much larger brother is Beachy short for beachball. The nickname for my currently pregnant belly is marble (smaller than a golfball) and if it turns out to be a son then his nickname will be meatball. Oh dear I've just realised we are planning nicknames 4 months out from the birth of our child. I have issues.
My husband and I mostly call each other buddy.
ReplyDeleteOur son gets all kinds of nicknames from us, including but not limited to:
Osc
Osci
Osci doomp
Odie
Obi-Wan
Oscar bear
Oscar Bosca
Oh
O-man
Choomp
Choomp bag
Doomp
Doomp head
Noomp
Noompity
Buddy
Boomba
No idea where most of those last half come from. We are weirdos!
I think we must be related Jenny...
DeleteI tried to have the name KISA stick with hubby (Knight in shining armour) but it didn't :( And truth beknown, as he sits in the lounge with the laptop as his book, he's not really tonight! And we use the term "The Munchkin" in real life too...
ReplyDeleteI am a chronic nick-namer. I don't remember anyone's real name so I just call them something. When I was growing up my father never called us by our real names. Not quite as creative as your Dad, he just called us "boy" and "girl".
ReplyDeleteMy daughter Ailish has the most nicknames. When she was little she was always "Princess" even with her name added for formal settings "Princess Ailish". Her daddy always has and still calls her Possum. To me though she is Maggie. Short for Missy Maggot.
Charlie is Charmander, Charmeleon, Charizard, Sir Charlesworth, Chooch, he tends to call himself Charlie from Bali quite often. Charlie Choo Choo, Charlie Chickenman.. Nature Boy... and Steveo.
Kelsey seems to some of the weirdest ones - Kelamundra which is short for The Kelamundra Maggot (we have a maggot thing), Kelenoscopy, the Kelsenator, Kelvinator.
Ash has almost always been Asho - which gets shortened to Sho. Then I call him Sho Pony.
I'm sure my 21 year old will love me mentioning I still occasionally call him Loki-loo-loo.