NICKNAMES

 

 

My father’s nickname was Bud. “Hey, Bud!” You too would probably want to be a Bud if your given names were Oliver Osborn. My mother had no nickname. Her name was Dorothy and she absolutely hated, hated!, to be called Dot or Dottie. My granddaughter Victoria is Victoria, never Vickie or Tori, and outside of the house please don’t call her Sweet Pea, her mom’s nickname for her. She and her sister Elizabeth, Liddie to us, have a great but sometimes annoying doctor who insists on calling them by names they hate. He calls Victoria Vickie, and Elizabeth Bitsie. Bitsie!? It gets their attention all right, but not in a good way.  Why would he want a kid annoyed by him? My five nephews too use their whole given names – no nicknames please.

Nicknames given by parents are usually loving; given by friends, they can be fun - my husband’s nickname in the army was Johnny, for Johnston – or often cruel. In grade school there was a kid we called “Boogie Nose” because his nose was always running or he was picking it – eeeew!

I wouldn’t dare to begin on all the famous nicknames for historical, entertainment or sports figures. You can do that for yourself by googling ‘nicknames’. All I can say is that after doing that and reading further, I am absolutely amazed and sometimes appalled at the origins of many of them.

My mother’s nickname for me was Lee Lee. I just love it when I know the crossword puzzle answer to “actress Sobieski", and I wish I were her age and know what I know now.