Nicknames, Names and Who are You Anyway?
Around month three of my pregnancy it became odd to call the fetus inside me “the baby” so we gave it a nickname. And the nickname we chose? Mozzi. From Willie Garson’s character on White Collar. (Thanks for not killing him off USA!) Mozzi became such a household name that Vivi was still referred to as Mozzi for the first few days of her life.
I’m not sure how parents with more than three of these things running around do it. I’ll scream “ADDIE!” when I mean “VIVI!” only to say “MOZZI!” and then panic because “WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE ANYWAY?”
It let me to wonder…do you call your kids by their name or some ridiculous nickname?
Ironically we have taken to calling Vivi “baby” or “the baby” but it’s said with kind of a funny accent which is kind of a nickname in and of itself. It feels weird to call her Vivi and even stranger to call her Vivienne (aside: we never even spoke her name aloud during my pregnancy, we only wrote it and alluded to it. Even Addie didn’t know her sister’s name until she was born.)
I mean, one of my best friends calls her almost two year old son “Budzo.” I have no idea where it came from but it comes out of both her mouth and her husband’s mouth so naturally. Before Vivi was just “the baby” she was “sad baby” (oh. so. sad. baby.) My other friend has a “loud baby” and another friend has a nickname so ridiculous for her baby I can’t even utter it here. Addie started out as “smooshie” then “smoosh” then “mooshie” then “moosh” then “the moosh.” Talk about evolution of a nickname.
Who knows what we’ll call Vivi next, it may even be her name of all things. What about you, nicknames or real names? Or have you taken the “HEY YOU! NO! THE OTHER ONE!” approach in your house? (Can you even IMAGINE what it’s like for Mama Duggar?)
I once wrote an entire blog post containing all the nicknames we call my son, Dean. They include Deano the Bambino, Dean Bean, Muffinhead, Nermal and Coco Chanel. So, yeah, we’re weirdos.
One of my friends refers to her kids as Smidge and Bean so much that people have actually asked me if those are their real names and it took me several months of being friends with her to know what their names actually are.
My daughter is usually “munch”, which is short for munchkin….
We call two of our three girls by their nicknames. The oldest is 13, so she goes by her real name, because she’s “too old” for nicknames. Our 7 year old started out as Bubba, but now we just call her Bubs. Our 3 year old goes by Boogie or Boogie Oogie. And yes, I say the wrong name, whether it be nickname or real name, all the time.
My youngest, Lucifer, is variously referred to as Lus, Stinkerpants, Rumblebutt McGruff (he’s a farter and a growler), bebe, and silly man. My older son, Rayne, has managed to hold onto boo monster, though as a baby he was my bumblebee, boogerbutt, and demon-child. My daughter, Leslie, when she was little was Leslie-bug or just bug. In her pre-teen years she went by one of her middle names, Skye, and now that she’s hit her moody teenage years and insists neither of those is appropriate is now my darkling one. Surprisingly she responds to it, too LOL
Maggie was almost immediately The Monster. It started because she would get ‘angry’ in those early days and Dan called her The Monster.
Poor Audrey gets ‘Poopy’, ‘Stinky’, ‘Stinkmaster’, ‘Chubster’. Second child syndrome, getting second-rate nicknames? heh She comes by them honestly, at least
We call our baby girl Bear, mostly because I had an obsession with clothes with bear ears on them when she was born (winter). I can’t imagine not calling her Bear, even though her name (Olive) is perfect too.
My daughter was Squirt when she was little, but as she got to about 18 months, I called her by her name. Now, it’s usually her name, but the nickname I use the most with her is Chicakdee. Her brother has been Bubba since he was born, but I notice I’m using HIS name more and more as he gets older. Bubba may stick around longer, though, because his sister uses it, too. I’m curious what random nickname baby 3 will get stuck with.
Oh and stinker butt is a common name for whatever diaper wearer in the house.
Since you brought up nicknames, I have to tell you that there is a restaurant I ride by on my bus to work every day called Moogy’s. And every time I pass it, I think how well it fits in with your girls’ nicknames. Moosh, Mozzi, and Moogy. It takes the Moo from Moosh and the -ee sound from Mozzi, so it just fits. Could Moogy be their imaginary friend? Maybe a cousin? OOH, a puppy! NAME A PUPPY MOOGY!
Happy Monday.
My daughter’s name is Ainsley. While still pregnant she was Baby G (last names starts with a “G”) and then after she was born: Chubzie and Bouba (this one I still use and will probably be a permanent nickname when I’m not actually calling her by her birth name).
My kidlet has had enough nicknames to fill an entire novel with characters. If only we had settled on just one!
BunnyBoo is common, as is Buttercup, BooBear, Beautiful, Small Child… they just sort of keep on keeping on.
My oldest daughter is call kid. Like, “hey kid get over here.” “Lets go kid.”. The littlest one is called bear or Harps but she is only 4 months so I am not sure what will stick.
I also call my daughter Moosh. It didn’t even come from Smooshie or anything, just plain ole Moosh. Still call her that to this day! I also used to call her Burrito… because when I wrapped her in a receiving blanket, she looked like a baby burrito! I still call her names like Pudding and Pretty Gal… but even she will tell you her nickname is Moosh
It’s also one of the reasons I started reading your blog Casey… it was so random that our daughters had the same nickname it intrigued me to read of this pretty blonde named “The Moosh”. 
My oldest son’s name is Ezra and I mostly call him Ezra. Occasionally I call him Azariah (which is the name that Ezra is derived from, but not his given name). When he was a baby he didn’t really know the difference, but now that he is almost 4 years old he corrects me when I call him Azariah, he will say, “Mom, my name is Ezra.”
My younger son is named Ari (pronounced like the letters R.E.) and I call him Ox, and just recently he has been called Lasagna. Calling him Ox started when he was about 2 months old, I would say Ari, Ari, Ari and it reminded me of the saying “Alle, alle auch sind frei” which is sometimes miss-interpreted in English as “Ollie ollie oxen free” so then I started calling him Ari Ari Oxen, which later became just Ox. Lasagna came about when I was calling him by his first and middle name “Ari Alexander” and my older son tried to mimicked me but instead called him “Ari Lasagna” Now I have an Ox Lasagna lol. (I don’t use both together.)
My daughter is named Yvonne. When I was pregnant with her I thought as a nickname I would call her Yvie, but I never did. My younger son (Ari) can’t say Yvonne so he calls her Von, which I think is so cute. And I have started calling her Von or Vonnie. Her middle name is Joy and sometimes I just call her Joy since she is such a happy baby. I also call her Vonnie Joy which I think is fits her personality perfectly.
My son is a Junior, so we call him CJ. It’s weird for me when I’m in the doctor’s office and they call for Craig. I think it’s going to be weird for him when he starts school too. His other nickname is Schmoopy. Oh and Baby Bubba, since the hubby is Bubba.