What’s in a Nickname?
Nicknames are fun. We give people nicknames for different reasons.
A person’s name may be really long or hard to pronounce, and it’s easier to shorten it. Bartholomew turns into “Bart.” Maximillian turns into “Max.” Hrvoje turns into… “Hey… you! *friendly shoulder punch*”
You may not like someone very much. Dude with a popped collar wearing sunglasses inside turns into “Douchebag.” Silly looking white boy wearing pants down to his knees and trying to be a thug turns into “Stupid White Boy.” Whiney guy who panics and makes emergencies out of everything turns into “Placental Gazelle” (don’t ask).
But most often, giving someone a nickname is an expression of familiarity or affection. Everyone else calls your best friend by his first name, but you call him something weird that nobody else understands. A bunch of jocks refer to each other as “Bro.” A woman greets her fiance, her love, with “Pooky” (*CRINGE*).
The only thing I like more than a good nickname is hearing the story behind it. And cheese. But let me tell you about a few of mine. Some of them are really dumb, but I enjoy trading stories.
I call one of my closest friends “Turkish.” Contrary to popular belief, this actually has nothing to do with my former war against the Turkish hackers. It’s a term of endearment. Turkish is the main character in one of my favourite movies, Snatch, played by actor Jason Statham. In the movie, Turkish’s parents meet on a Turkish Airlines plane, which crashed. They survived, had a child, and named him after the plane. So you can see why the nickname would be a term of endearment, as it comes from one of my favourite movies. Turkish often says to me, “Hurry up, I’m hungry, let’s grab lunch.” I reply, “Two minutes, Turkish,” and take five. I sometimes wonder if he realizes this is also a direct quote from the movie.
Turkish has a nickname for me, too: “O’Flaherty.” He says it’s a quote (“You’re a good man, O’Flaherty”) from… somewhere. Where, I don’t know. But I like to think it means he thinks I’m a good man. The feeling’s mutual, mon frere.
I call my best friend “Dudehead.” Nobody else is really allowed to call him that. And I’m not telling you how I came up with it. But I will tell you it was random and stupid. That’s what’s so awesome about it.
You call someone by an awesome yet ridiculous-sounding nickname in front of others, and you always get strange looks. Looks that scream, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” But that’s one of the best parts of having an exclusive nickname for someone, isn’t it? That inside joke between you, that little thing that makes the two of you laugh, and everyone else look at you as though you’ve just sat down to dinner wearing nothing but a thong and a chicken mask.
So I’m dying to hear some stories about some of your nicknames. Care to share?
Very interesting!
Thanks Steph! When are you going to start writing again?
A long long time ago, a wise man once dubbed myself and one of my close friends Roughrider and Poundcakes, respectively. HE had nothing but our bravado to base this on, but 6 years later, we STILL call each other that. The friend and I. I married the boy who came up with it.
Roughrider and Poundcakes. That is so awesome! Roughrider, in particular – that nickname is just too rad.
That one was mine….poundcakes was my friend…
One of my nicknames, since I was a baby, has been Pancelita. Only my family calls me that though. There’s not really much of a story but I know they nicknamed me that because I was a super chunky baby and one of my uncles said I had “cien pancitas” which is one hundred bellies.. So voila! My nickname!
Thanks for sharing! Those are the kinds of stories I love to hear about them. Makes it so much more interesting, no?
its not really a clever story but I call my friend Cathrine Rin.
I call her this because Cathrine sounds too formal, we both already know a Katy. Kate sounds like the name of a b*tch, I hate the name Cat, so I just call her by the second half of her name. Rin.
I disagree, James. That’s pretty clever, as far as I’m concerned. Love it. Thanks for the comment!