Reading lgold's blog reminded me of something else Ron & I talked about - Dad's nicknames. (lgold referred to one of her friends as 'Robbie Dob'; a nickname for Robyn.) Elder bro asked me if I knew why some of his friends called Dad 'Sundowner'. That is a name I didn't even remember and Ron didn't understand until long time acquaintance Dick Ashenfelter explained it: "Your dad was so tall that when the sun went down, the last thing it shone on was the back of his head."
Another of his nicknames neither of us know the origin of was 'Cy'. No, he was not an Iowa State alum nor fan. Louis got shortened to 'Lou', of course. And any tall, long-legged guy can be tagged with 'high pockets'.
Older brother Ronald has always been 'Ron' (except for a brief 'Ronnie' when he was little); younger brother Leslie was Leslie until he went away to college in Warrensburg, MO and became 'Les'. Sister Betty was already a diminutive of Elizabeth, but her real given name was Betty. I had someone argue with me once that her name was really Elizabeth and we just called her Betty. I think I knew what my own sister's name was!
Ramona often gets shortened to 'Mona' but I have never been a Mona. When I began school some of the kids tried calling me Mona or Monie, but I wouldn't answer them. The only person I would answer to was Grandma Ridnour when she called me 'Monie Rene'. With the exception of a highschool classmate who did and still does call me 'Groaner', I've never had a nickname.
What are nicknames? Some are natural shortenings of a given name. What about the ones that have nothing to do with a first or last name? Are they generally given by friends? Is there always some story behind the naming? Do the nicknames survive after the school years?
What if we were named in the way of Native Americans? Would I be 'White Dove' or 'She Who Sings Like Frog'? What about you? Do you have a nickname? Did you give it to yourself or was it given by family or friends? And what is the story behind your nickname?
oh, this was a fun post! My dad was nicknamed "bean" for stringbean as he was so skinny. too bad i didn't take after that side of the family. :)
ReplyDeleteNicknames are very much an indication of affection--the dearer you are, the more mutations of nickname I give you. Ken will not thank me to list most of what I call him here, so I'll use the progression of names I gave my friend Carter as an example: Bear (b/c he loves Winnie the Pooh); Bearby; Bearsy; Bearsy-Dotes; Dotey; Dotey-Boats; Boatey. To this day, when he calls, I may shout any of the above in greeting, and we sign notes to each other "Bear" or "B 1/2" (Bear One of Two) and "B 2/2" (Bear Two of Two). (Yes, that's a Borg reference, Unca Les!)
ReplyDeleteAs for my nicknames, it's hard to shorten Kari by much, but I do encourage "Kai" as a nickname. Dad and Preston used to have fun anagramming my name into nicknames: Arki sort of half-stuck, and P will still call me that sometimes. I hated it then, but it's sort of endearing now; a callback to our shared youth.