So I have never been a nickname person. I remember as early as elementary school feeling uncomfortable calling Nathanial, Nate or Nat…but Nathanial seemed too long so I really just avoided saying his name altogether. I don’t know if I just don’t feel close enough to people to presume that I can use their nickname, or what the deal is but I can count on one hand, perhaps even just a couple of fingers, the number of people I use nicknames with (if you add the pets in, I can probably get to a full hand.)
Of course, Belén is one of those people. With the number of the nicknames we have for her, I think that I am making up for the lack of the use of nicknames with other people in my life. Here is a nearly exhaustive list of all of the nicknames Andy and I have for Belén.
Chicky B
Baby B
Little B
Chickadee
Chicky Txu (Basque word for little, pronounced “chew”)
Chickadee Txu Da (sung to “Skipadee Doo Da”)
Chickitita
Lovey
Lovity
Chunky Monkey
The Little Lioness
Queen of the Jungle
Cute Patoot
The Cutest of the Patootists
The Happiest of the Happies
The Snuggliest of the Snugglies
Okay, so they mostly just get silly at this point. She generally receives a new temporary nickname every couple of nights depending on the evening’s activities.
Andy has been reiterating that I need to start calling her by her name before she gets utterly confused. But nicknames are SO fun!
Do you go by a nickname? What nicknames have you given your child(ren)? Are they the same as when they were babies or did they change through the years? Would love to hear from you in the comments section!
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November 19th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Before Diego was born, we had 3 names picked out for him. Diego, Dominic, and Dante. Obviously, you know what we decided on and then it was easy to name the second boy. Sometimes I wonder where my Dante is. Anyway, we called him baby D until we made that decision. He remained Baby D for the first 2 years of his life. We only called him Diego on occasion. Haha. He was my sunshine, my sweet little baby, and several other goo-goo-ga-ga things. When Dominic came along we called him Baby D2. How original are we? But it makes it easy when Ted and are are talking about the boys, we say D or D2. We also call him Domino. With Isabela, we have migrated to Bela…it’s just easier to say. Ted so lovingly calls her Bela Wela (which I hate). I call her Bela Boo, or Boo Boo.
Fun topic, I may have to steal it sometime!!!
November 19th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
I’m similar in the sense that we never used nicknames in my house. My mom REFUSED to let anyone call me Tammy. I’m actually glad too because I don’t really think it’s an attractive name.
So no kids but I can still relate. It’s still strange for me to call Matt Matt. His family calls him Matthew, but his friends call him Matt. It’s been quite the adjustment getting used to calling him both names. I think Matthew suits better and it flows better. So I actually call him that at home, but Matt around his friends.
It’s similar with my sister Jennifer. I have always called her Jennifer but growing up her name was shortened to Jenn. I still don’t call her Jenn much, just too weird.
So I guess I’m kinda anti-nickname as far as shorting your original name. haha. Why give someone a name that you don’t use? But I do like fun names. One of our dog’s name is Patience but she’s starting to look like a potbelly pig so we call her Piggy McWiggy which is her Irish name. She has also been called Piggy and McWiggs before.
Long comment but you get the point. haha.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Tamara, I have the same issue with Andy. His family all calls him Andrew but apparently when he was in seventh grade, he decided to tell everyone at school to call him Andy. So pretty much everyone besides his family has called him Andy since that time. I was introduced to him as Andy so that is why I call him Andy, but it is confusing.
I am with you, name the kid what you are going to call them…except for the forty other random nicknames you give them that aren’t the real names.
We will definitely call Belén by her name as she gets older, I guess unless she despises that which I never really considered until now.
Pets are another story though. Sassy has about ten nicknames including Sassy, mi bonita perrita (probably a bad word in Spanish), /Sassafrass, etc. Our dog that we had to give away when we moved to China, Gus, turned into Gus Gus or Gussy. The cat, Ozzie has always been Ozzie. It doesn’t seem right to give a cat a nickname for some reason.
Anywho…. thanks for the comments.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Jaimee, I love all three of your kids names. I like Dante too, but I just realized it reminds me of hell a little bit due to the book, Dante’s Inferno.
I actually saved a paper placemat from a hotel in Guadalajara that says, “Hotel Isabel”. I thought I might use it in our potential girls bedroom one day but didn’t. I know you don’t call Isabela Isabel, but if you would be interested in that let me know…I bet I still have it somewhere.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:27 am
I’ve had many nicknames over the years. The first I had since I was a baby was “peanut” I think given to me by Lewis but maybe my parents or both. I don’t think I received another nickname until I was 17 and had a job cooking at Louie’s. One of the head cooks gave me the nickname “grasshopper” as she was the master cook and I was the trainee. At one point in my 20s I was given the nickname “little skittle” by a friend but haven’t been called that in years. Now at work my nickname is “choobing” since that is my user name for the computers and my email address. It’s pretty funny so I don’t mind that one. I don’t think nicknames are bad as long as they are in good fun or are special. Oh I forgot when I first started at my current job a co-worker started calling me the spanish name for goat I think it’s spelled “chiva” (correct me if I’m wrong on the spellling). That was a funny one too since I’m not sure how that one got started but it was never meant to be mean. Sorry but calling my brother Andy has always been hard for me to change to from Andrew. Not sure why. I’ve just always loved the name Andrew and that is how I grew up calling him. I hope he doesn’t mind.
hoobing Reply:
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:53 am
Those are great! It is funny how often times we don’t even know where the names come from, but they stick! Oh I don’t think Andy minds being called Andrew. I actually like Andrew better, but for some reason in my mind he is Andy so it feels weird for me to call him Andrew (probably because I am not used to using nicknames…even though it’s his real name.)