I love nicknames. I love fun ones, ones that shorten your name, and ones that don't mean anything at all. Perhaps it's because I grew up with a father who was called "Rat" as a teenager. Or, perhaps, because my own nickname has always been Neelie.
We've given our kids fairly normal nicknames until now, just shortened versions of their real names. But for some reason right after the twins were born, my husband began calling A2 "Potato." At first I was horrified and told him to stop, but then one day, I started doing it, too. Potato Man. Potato Head. Mr. Potato. And if I'm referring to both of the babies—Little Potatoes.
Sometimes, you can go too far with nicknames, like the other day when I was getting the babies out of their cribs after naptime and I called A2 "Potato Peeling." Yeah, that's no good.
But quite possibly, the best nickname in the history of the universe...
Bedabuff. Shortened to Beda. Shortened to Bead.
When it was made known that my friend Elizabeth grew up with a nickname of Bedabuff (because she couldn't say her own name or her brother couldn't—something like that), that sealed the deal and our group of college friends have called her that ever since. When people would call our apartment looking for "Liz," I always had to stop and remember who they were talking about. Years later, I called her Elizabeth just for fun and she asked me to stop. It was "creepy," she said.
I know that at some point, we'll have to stop calling A2 Potato, because we don't want him introducing himself in kindergarten that way (although, it would be very amusing...). But for now, he is the Potato.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
You know I too love nicknames. I snicker quietly to myself when people insist that you don't call their children by any nicknames. It WILL happen, might as well contribute and hope for a good one to stick. I had a friend whose parents named him Cory--trying to avoid the whole nickname game, but they raised him in Utah where he was called Korihor, Corianton, Coriantumr--all less desirable names and far worse than if he had been a William called Bill.
And as for your little Potato, hopefully he is no longer the Wheezy Potato!
Tyler's nickname was "Pookie Loo," which was shortened to "Pookie" and sometimes even down to "Pook" by his dad. Shortly after he was put into the nursery at church, they made little placemats with their names and pictures on them... when Ty's nursery leaders (who obviously knew his name) asked HIM what his name was so they could put it on his placemat, he said: "Pookie."
From then on, we pretty much went back to "Tyler." :)
love the post. We love nicknames around here. It always cracks me up when i talk about my college friends and say "Bead" I get these looks of confusion. What kind of name is that? Then I have to explain how she will always be Bead to us.
My kids names don't really lend themselves to great nicknames but I think Ang is right...people will give them one whether you like it or not. Tristan's friends tried to call him Tristy....ahh!!yuck yuck yuck! Luckily it didn't stick!
I love potato. I mean I love that.
And I love that when I talk of Bead people for some reason think the name is referring to a Spanish person.
I too am a die-hard nickname giver. It's how I show my love. And even though Bead is a weird name, its seems weirder to me that she wouldn't be called Bead. It's the most made-for-someone nickname I have ever heard.
Post a Comment