Any major holiday says "family," doesn't it? And thus it also says "annoyance." Of course they push all your buttons; they were the ones who installed them.
One thing that's always been curious to me are family nicknames that break out into the wider world. You will occasionally encounter something like the man who introduces himself as Cooter, and it turns out that his younger brother couldn't pronounce his actual name of Cooper, and everyone in the family started calling him Cooter, and it stuck to this day, and he's 71 years old. That's a long time to be a cooter.
Fortunately I did not have that kind of an issue. Mine is much more common; at home they called me Freddy, which helped distinguish me from my dad, Ed (not Eddie). A lot of guys will stick to the childhood diminutive, calling themselves Eddie or Chucky or Bobby or Jimmy all their lives. The teachers called me Fred, though, so that's what the kids at school called me. It became the way I would introduce myself. Nowadays I'm Fred to everyone except my family -- with some exceptions.
One guy I know calls me Right Said Fred, and has done since that wonder had its one hit in 1991. Another likes to call me Freddy Krueger, which I'm not fond of, although I have to admit I like the character's snap-brim fedora.
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Strangely, despite my attraction to cardigans, I've seldom been compared to Fred Rogers. He was so calm, so wise, so not-screaming-his-fool-head-off, that I guess people sensed we were not interchangeable.
I have sometimes been called Astaire by wits who have seen me try to dance. In one psych class a couple of the girls called me Sigmund Fred, which I still think is funny. I've gotten a few Fredericks, which is fine, and Frederick the Great, which is better. Generally I've refrained from using the full Frederick as too formal; I use it on writing and such just to stand out from any Alfreds or Fredas or Fredericas or plain Freds named Key that might be around.
Oh the whole, as fusty and unpopular as Fred may be, it's really a pretty good name, not too given to mockery, at least not since I was in grammar school. Kids always find things to mock about one another in grammar school anyway.
I know a Mark who is enraged by being called Marky Mark, feeling that he's been stuck with Mark Wahlberg's cast-off stage name. I know an Ed whose friends have assured me that his nickname is Oed, as in Oedipus, but clearly this in-joke is hard to express vocally. Whatever your name is, someone can use it to stick a bad name on you, though.
So what's your lousy nickname story?
I'm "Jimmy" to my family, middle initial is "K" so for a while my older sister called me "Jamie K" until I threatened some vague, unspecified revenge. She knew me well enough to cut it out.
ReplyDeleteI became "Mongo" to a small group of associates when I took 4th place in a dead-lifting competition. In my fifties, I was the senior entrant. Most of the guys were in their twenties or thirties. Someone said "That was a mondo lift!" It was heard as "Mongo", and the name stuck. At sixty-five, the days of the 400+ pound dead lift are over. Probably could do 300 with some training, but why chance it?
ReplyDeleteWhen one's name is Richard, the nickname takes care of itself. Why don't Peter and Roger and Johnson have these issues?
ReplyDeleteI much prefer Dan. Some (particularly the Mrs.) have, once in a while, called me Dan'l and that's good with me. A guy at work called me Danno, but 5-0 we were not (I was more pushing 6-0 at the time).
ReplyDeleteOutside my siblings (or other relatives I haven't seen in 40+ years), I have been known to let people know that I prefer not to be called Danny. Seems that the kid in the TV shows and movies who were named Danny were always just a bit off. Sometimes more than just a bit.
"Your Lordship" or "Your Grace" are also acceptable forms of address.
Just don't, as tradition holds, call me late for supper.
Very interesting, lads... I hear a rumor that Stiiv's real name is Stiiiiiiiv, but he goes by Stiiv for short....
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