Have you ever had a nickname certain people would call you?
At Honee Bear, where I worked most of my adult life, the Mexicans called me 'Chango', which means 'Monkey'. Other folks called me 'Spike', because way back in 1980, a guy who worked there called me that because he said I looked like the dog on Tom and Jerry! The names stuck until I retired.
When I was in jail for 3 months, they called me 'Haystack'- because my hair was real long and I never combed it once.
From kindergarten, both stints in the 1st grade, and on into the 2nd grade, none of the other kids could pronounce "Algin" even when the teachers corrected them, so I was Alijen for several years... Then I changed schools.
In junior high school, kids who didn't know me called me Winchester, I think because I reminded them of that M.A.S.H. character... The kids who did know me called me faggot.
Aint a day that goes by, that I don't want fifteen years of my life back in hellfire & blood.
Growing up, when I was in a difficult mood my dad would call me Malevelyn. (Like Evelyn combined with malevolent?) It kind of stuck and he called me that not long ago when I was slinging 'tude his way.
On the Appalachian Trail my T-name was Wall, because I didn't want to tell a lot about myself, so someone said I was like talking to a wall, lol. There's even a wooden post in the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine, if it's still standing, with a date in August 1997 carved into it, and the T-names Hector, Beanpole, Hal-Gal, and Wall carved in it.
Then there was a guy in Austin who called me Bean. (Ellie Bean.) Another who called me FLN (sounds like Evelyn). And one I only knew online, who affectionately called "Dorkly."
But heck, since I was two people been calling me Ellie instead of Evelyn, because apparently that's how I pronounced my name. It's hung around so long it's not even a nickname anymore.
They're all me, shrug.
Nicknames... should be affectionate, not a slur. I typically dub a nickname on the ones I love.
My mother gave me a two part name, no hyphen, and no middle name. Half my family called me one, the other half "John". Only my mother always used my proper two part name. I think that was the genesis of having two minds. But nobody ever gave me a nickname; though that second name was used as the basis for slurs.
I've had the nickname "Indy" since I was in high school and Harrison Ford shamelessly plagiarized my exploits in a film . . .
Bob
Quote from: indianasmith on September 09, 2019, 09:50:41 PM
I've had the nickname "Indy" since I was in high school and Harrison Ford shamelessly plagiarized my exploits in a film . . .
:teddyr: :teddyr:
My dad called me Bubba, my mom called me Dino and my nieces and nephews called me didi.
I'm still being called Dino by my sisters, and my grown up nieces and nephews still call me didi.
For my freshman and part of my sophomore year in college, some people called me "Hung." No joke. Best nickname ever!
One poster on the IMDB message boards named "Dr Strangeposter" nicknamed me T-Mo: T for my first name and the first two letters of my surname.
My very special nephew and niece call me Uncle Zombie: I don't know where that name came from but I wear it proudly.
I have a very special friend in the LGBTI community who calls me Joan instead of Trevor.
I hated it - and still do - when people call me by my surname: where I come from, that's an insult.
My grandma used to call me George, because she could.
When I was at school Dracula, for the first few years in my job Ronnie, until I pointed out a few years later that 1) All my brothers had the same nickname (indeed, we were all in a bar one night and someone walked in and said "Hey Ronnie", and got a shock when we all turned around and said "Yeah?" and 2) The guy who gave me that nickname had become loathed by our social group, so people stopped calling me it.