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- Go to How Names Evolve, most humiliating was Apo, I Wanted to Die
I hated most of my nicknames.
A girl who was five years older than me used to call be Clod and Clodhopper, I think because she knew I hated it. And I'll never understand what my mother could have been thinking about when she called me "The Monster". As an only child, it hurt. But later on I got enjoyment out of playing "The Green Glob" once at college. I got under my green blanket. It wasn't hard to do. Did you ever see the movie by that name, Benzinha?
posted by
WindTapper
on January 28, 2005 at 11:12 AM
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Abuelita
Opals are nice! 
I did have some nicknames in high school that weren't nice on outward appearances, but my friends that gave them to me did so out of an inside joke and then love.
For instance, I was called "Bitch" for a while because my friend, S, and I happened upon each other in the bathroom one day during class. Unknown to us, there was another girl, L, in there. S and I started playfully fighting--your typical high-school name-calling fight.
S, you slut!
Jems, you BITCH!
Etc etc...the language just got more and more foul from there. But by the end S and I were laughing so much we were about to pee our pants! Only then, when our laughter became loud and no hidden behind our playful fight, did L come out of her stall.
Years later, in college, L told me that she thought S and I were going to start throwing punches soon, so she hid out in her stall, not wanting to get involved.
But for S and I, the whole incident made calling each other Bitch and Slut an endearing thing rather than something mean and vile.
And, of course, we loved the looks from people who weren't in on it whenever we did call each other those names.
posted by
Jemmie211
on January 26, 2005 at 12:53 PM
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Fr.A.E.OSA, said as one word, and you can tell your old friends by the
name that they remember for you. I dreaded my highschool reunion, knowing that the one girl who was cruel in the old days would spread my old nickname around again, trying to get people to use it and beat me up with it again. She tried and failed, thank goodness.....we saw who she was this time and were saddened by her need to belittle people and to gossip. I went out of my way to pull her back into the crowd again and again. I am also the one who speaks to the nerds at the reunions and I find them fascinating and I don't let them hide away from the crowd, pulling them in.
Always the grandmother, even at highschool reunions.
All of your nicknames makes sense to me and are pretty ones, too. I especially like Esme. My son is Guti for Agustin and sometimes, Gut, and then I think of it as German and meaning 'good', which he is. How about combining some of ours and making Gutong out of it, hoping that it means nothing bad in Pinoy.....or Tagalog, am I getting these languages right?
posted by
benzinha
on January 26, 2005 at 12:45 PM
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GEMZ, you can tell that I come from a nicknaming family, because
here on Blogit, I change people's names constantly when commenting to them, trying to tie the new name into their post..........a habit......Jem is a good one to play with. I could just call you Precious and you could add the name Jem to it in your mind.....or I could go all the way away from it and call you Opal or Ruby.
posted by
benzinha
on January 26, 2005 at 12:36 PM
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HGrail, you must have been a very normal acting and appearing child, then.
Nicknames come from our differences from the crowd, I think. I think that we wouldn't Want to know any names that people called us behind our back, no?
posted by
benzinha
on January 26, 2005 at 12:32 PM
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ca88andra, your nickname for him is close to the one for my 2nd son.
HIs name is Agustin, so we said 'Guti' (goo-tee) and then finally Gut (goot) for short. Gut and Scoot could meet someday and giggle over their names. Names do come from appearances or habits, thus your son's G.I. Joe's crawl....
posted by
benzinha
on January 26, 2005 at 12:30 PM
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void-is, so you were the only amerikano in the group? Yes, hide some
nicknames forever! In Brasil, there were many 'gringos', so our nicknames had more to do with our appearance or habits.....one fellow was named Rabbit. There were more nicknames on our street within our neighborhood crowd than there were at school. Evolutionary nicknames are usually an in home, in family phenomenon, no? Thanks for reading and commenting.
posted by
benzinha
on January 26, 2005 at 12:28 PM
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bb, and isn't it good that some names stay hidden within the family?
Wouldn't want them to get out into the public square. My baby brother, a fairly well known and respected lawyer, was 'Bimbo' for awhile from a childhood song and then the Mexican bread brand, Bimbo. My one brother is still 'Bubba' for 'brother' and he is over fifty. We all have quite a few names within the family.
posted by
benzinha
on January 26, 2005 at 12:23 PM
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Mine has been
"But" (Burt without the R sound) by Mom, then "Esme" (from Esmeralda, my family name) and "Betong" when I was in grade 4 until Junior high. For awhile I was "Gusting" (for two years) because of the name Augustine, then "Abet" (my choice, more because of the girls than anything else) when I was in College. In Italy, I was simply "Fra Alberto" (I liked the sound of it when Italians -- both friars and lay -- called out). And now when I introduce myself I just say, " I am Fr. Alberto Esmeralda, OSA. Call me 'Father' for short" which a lot of people find amusing.
posted by
Friar__Tuck
on January 26, 2005 at 1:18 AM
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Ahhhhh . . . nicknames
None of mine have ever really stuck--except for Jemmie (and Jems), but even Jemmie has its variations: Jemmie-Bean, Jemmie-San (kinda like PooSan), Jems (and its variation, Jemz), Jemmers, etc. Just this past Saturday, in my ASL class, one girl asked if she could call me Jem. I said, "Of course! Everyone else does!"
posted by
Jemmie211
on January 25, 2005 at 9:44 PM
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Well I feel boring because I've always been called my given name. Never really even had a nickname. Not one that I was made aware of anyway.
posted by
Holy_Grail
on January 25, 2005 at 6:36 PM
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I like this post! The only thing I can think of in our family is when we nicknamed my middle son "Scooter" because at four months old he would take off and scoot about the house - not quite a crawl, but a very fast way of getting around. Sometimes I just call him Scoot...
posted by
Ca88andra
on January 25, 2005 at 2:12 PM
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A very entertaining post! I've only had a couple of names that never
really evolved. My classmates at school in Greece called me "Amerikano", even though I was from Canada, while my Canadian schoolmates called me... well, forget that one...LOL
posted by
void-is
on January 25, 2005 at 1:15 PM
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Benzinha
I'm with you I would never reveal some of the names I had/have. There are some which only relate to one friend or family member etc.
Thank you for your comment to my post. It was quite the complete comment
posted by
beachbelle
on January 25, 2005 at 1:03 PM
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