Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Name Game

I stood in front of the office coffee pots this morning wondering, "Leaded or Unleaded?" One is going to make me smoke more. But by God, I'll be chipper doing it! I'm trying to be good though. Or maybe "better" is a more reasonable term? I only smoked ten cancer sticks yesterday, a definite improvement from my usual pack-a-day habit. Now I'm sitting at my desk wondering if I can manage to take a nap with my eyes open and my fingers still typing. That's where my head is at. Pardon me if I ramble around my topic....

I was born before the time when ultra sounds became a normal pregnancy procedure. People didn't find out the sex of their baby unless there was a problem. With only her own feelings to go by, my Mom felt certain she was going to have a boy. I was to be named Christopher. Everyone was surprised when I arrived without the necessary equipment, but they were obviously happy just the same. I was named Cristen instead.

My last name, being Italian, has as many letters and doubles in it as Mississippi. Can you imagine the trouble I had learning how to spell that?! I loved my name though. It was unique. The only time it became an annoyance was when everyone else paraded around with store-bought personalized keychains, pencils, and shirts. You can't find "Cristen" anywhere. Believe me, I've looked. Perhaps it's for this reason (the pride I had in my name) that being given nicknames was so odd. Over the years I've had dozens. I used to try and curb them. I don't anymore. I find it endearing. Here are a few of my favorites:

*Peaches: When I was little my Dad could only get me to eat canned peaches and McDonald's sausage. I'm glad he chose the nickname "Peaches" over "Sausage" as it quickly stuck with his side of the family. Can you imagine being called "Sausage?" Phew... Talk about giving someone a complex.

*Angel: This nickname does NOT derive from those lovely winged creatures. No, I'm not that lucky. This nickname comes from a fish. At my last job I worked in a cubicle farm. There were five desks all linked together, each divided by a totally pointless cardboard wall. Someone in the desk behind me brought fish in for lunch and thoughtlessly left it in their trash can to rot. At a point where I was working alone, my boss strolled in and stopped to sniff the air. He scrunched up his nose and called out to me, "Dear God! New perfume?" From that point on he called me "Angel Fish." He mercifully changed it to "Angel" soon after.

*Kiki-Moo or Mooki: I used to watch after a good friend's niece. She was a lovely little girl, impressionable and at the age where she was beginning to talk. One of my favorite games to play with her was naming and making the noises of farm animals. She especially loved my rendition of the cow. It wasn't long until she began calling me "Moo." It was later changed to "Kiki-Moo" and/or "Mooki", as Kiki was the nickname of her aunt who shared the same name as me. I get teary eyed every time I picture her running from the house with her arms spread wide screaming, "Mooooooo!"


My Mom used to work at a children's dental practice. Once a month they would have, "Welfare Day" where they would do dental work for free to the people too poor to pay. There are a million horror stories I could share with you about babies with rotting teeth and no adult ones to replace them. But I'm not here to depress. There is a point in mentioning this. My Mom also tells of the creativeness in which some of these people named their children. Here are a couple that I've used as bar conversation:

*A man by the name of Mr. Hogg had twin daughters. He named them Ima and Ura. I would have much rather been Ura.

*A woman named her twin boys Orangejello and Lemonjello after the cravings she had while carrying them.

((Edit: It has been brought to my attention that my Mom is evidently a wicked little jokester and that the above two accounts cannot be believed. We won't tell her that I was stupid enough to fall for it though lol... Thank you Mrs Harridan for the link to Snopes. You rock!))


Now it's your turn. What nicknames do you have and why? Know anyone with an odd name?

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18 Comments:

At 04 January, 2006, Blogger Chris said...

Um, no real nicknames. I guess I have one gaming friend who calls me "Chrystabel," after my Diablo2 character who I named (misspelled) after Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Christabel for reasons I no longer remember...

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger Mrs. Harridan said...

I thought that "Lemonjello & Orangejello" story was an urban myth! Oy vey.

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger Mrs. Harridan said...

Hey, I was right!: http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.htm

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger Tink said...

LOL I sincerly hope my Mom wasn't just pulling my leg! She's a horrible liar. "Horrible" as in can't-do-it-well, and not as in does-it-so-much-you-can't-tell-when-she's-not. *Eye roll*

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger Tink said...

*Looks up at Mrs. Harridan's last comment* LMAO My Mother's a witch!! I'm calling her to complain for making me into an idiot. NOT that I need a whole lot of help in that department.

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger Mrs. Harridan said...

You know how it goes - everyone *loves* to repeat these stories. My sister is a nurse and she SWORE that {famous local newscaster} was in the emergency room of her hospital with a gerbil up his butt.
http://www.snopes.com/risque/homosex/gerbil.asp

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger mamatulip said...

I'm with you on the Italian last name. I went from a rather famous maiden name to a Mob Boss/I'm-gonna-break-your-knees-sucka last name. Took Julia months to learn how to pronounce it.

Nicknames. Aaah, nicknames. My mom used to call me Katie Bunzo. I loved that. She also called me 'chickie' right up until she died. I loved how her voice sounded when she said it; it kind of flipped up at the end and she really enunciated the 'ie'. She also used to tell me that her and my father almost named me Radiator, which sent me into a cascade of tears every time.

I rowed in high school and my crew an coach called me K.J., or Kaje, because of my initials. In my late teens a very good friend of mine bestowed me with the nickname Kdawg, after the wrestler, which people still call me now.

And Dave calls me Tulip. I have no idea where that came from...if I thought about it for long enough I could probably figure out but thinking is for suckas. ;)

 
At 04 January, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The only long term nickname I've had, and only a few people ever used it, was "Metabo Man," because I could and can eat and drink anything and stay skinny. Well, not so much now, I have to exercise or I start getting this little pooch on my belly.

And my wife is now calling me "Crash" because I've had two car wrecks in the last two months. She better change that to "uninsured" pretty soon.

My nickname I've cosen for myself is the most important one, although it has the least basis for application. The "Piston."

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger The Gradual Gardener said...

I was always tall for my age, so my dad used to say "Ho! Ho! Ho!" whenever I came in a room (for the Jolly Green Giant, not Santa Claus). I made out better than my sister, though...he used to sing "Amazing Grace" when she walked by (she was a klutz)!

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger ma content said...

My dad alternated between Stinkweed and Mata Hari. My kids call me Mother Superior!
Hay, thanks for stopping by my site!

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger Mignon said...

My name is Mignon. Need I say more?
Although, unrelated to my given name, when I was a soccer player in college, a group of hecklers started to call me "Mute", which is probably the worst heckling I've ever heard. And for the next 3 years, they called me that whenever we played them. I really have no idea.
Oh, also my best friend in college called me "Oooze" for a while because I always had allergies and for a while, a bad case of poison ivy. Delightful.

 
At 04 January, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My mom called me Peanut. I love that and I'll use it with my kid someday.

All through high school I was Maui, shortened to Mau. That story is long and has to do with weed as in maui-wowee.

And most recently Mignon has christened me Teebs. I love that.

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger Mary said...

My main nickname is Memo (like Nemo the fish). It came about when my best friend in 5th grade got a babysister. When the baby started talking a couple of years later, she called me mimi which became Memo. Everyone in my family still calls me Memo.

In jr high youth group, they started called me captain memo instead of captain nemo, hence my screen name of cptmemo on all the message boards I post on. (that was my very first screen name ever, cptmemo at AOL way back when-we were in the first 500,000 members ;)

On a side note, Tom calles me Mookie, but I'm not sure why. Maybe he didn't want to copy my family and call me Memo? Hell I'm even refeered to as Auntie Memo to my niece and nephew-i'll never escape it.

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger Heather said...

My nickname is pumpkin. I have NO idea why... that's just what my mom has always called me.

My sister, she is butch. She too, was supposed to be a boy. When she was born she had A LOT of hair, and I guess it looked like butch cut so they started calling her butch. She was a tom boy most of her child hood, so I guess the nickname suited her.

 
At 04 January, 2006, Blogger Allison said...

Well, growing up I was called "Sis" or "Sissy" once my younger sister came along, because apparently, they thought "Allison" would be too hard for her to say. LOL!

And in high school, I was lovingly called "Alli-Ho" by some of my guy friends. It was when MC Hammer's dancers were all referred to as [something]-Ho and we did a big MC Hammer dance in our senior year talent show. LMAO!

I was called "Hole" in college by a few people, but I don't even remember how that one started.

And now, I'm Alien. That started because the first initial of my name (A) and the first four letters of my last name (Lien) spell Alien. I didn't even realize this and started posting on message boards with a user name of "alien----". Um, duh. LOL!

 
At 05 January, 2006, Blogger Pixie LaRouge said...

My given first name, which I won't bore you with, but which IS related to your given name, does NOT fit me. At all. And the shortened form that my parents thrust upon me fits me even less. Daddy, even after finding out I was a girl, still wanted to call me Christopher, which would have been really darned cool!

I have no idea who in my family or their friends started calling me "Pooh" as in Winnie the, but it's stuck to this day with my dad, mom and an uncle. It's particularly unattractive when they tag it onto the end of the REALLY short form of my given name. Chris-Pooh is not a good thing to have shouted across a mall.

For most of high school I was "Keebler." I'm 4'9 1/2" tall. Any questions? Thankfully, my friends shortened it to "Keeb," so most people had no idea it wasn't a real name (I love that question in relation to nicknames. "Is that your REAL name?" I always want to snot off "Is blond your REAL color?")

Pixie was gifted to me by a guy that I loved to torture. He started introducing me to his friends, and my boyfriend's friends, and random passers-by as Pixie, and Pixie I've been ever since. Suits me well, and a tad more class than "Keebler" doncha think?!

 
At 05 January, 2006, Blogger V said...

I dated a guy in highschool whose last name was Case. He SWORE that when he had kids he would name the boy Justin and the girl Basket.

 
At 05 January, 2006, Blogger Arabella said...

I'm still not ready to share my best friend's nickname for me, even with all of you, because I may want to run for President someday, and, well, I wouldn't want to be known as President S--------.

 

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