Nicknames: Do You Use Them?
This is Snuggles. Do you have nicknames for your pregnancy or children?
My husband’s a nickname guy. He gives everyone he meets (well, almost) a nickname at some point in time. Family members usually get several nicknames. He’s had several for our children over the years, which sometimes change depending on what they’re doing at that time. Our daughter was “Wiggles” when she was an infant because she never stopped moving. Our son is “Snuggles” (actually I call him that) because he just loves to snuggle anyone.
I was reminded of this tendency by some of the comments on my other post, Claiming Baby Names: Okay or Not? One commenter mentioned that sometimes names are chosen due to family heritage. My husband’s family is all German (his grandparents are immigrants) and although none of the younger generations speak German anymore, kids in the family are affectionately referred to as “fritz,” the German word for “child.”
A lot of people also use nicknames for their babies before birth, especially before they find out the sex. Just about all my friends have had a unique way of referring to their babies before birth, or in the early months of pregnancy (most do find out the sex and some then refer to the baby by his/her “real” name). It’s kind of a cool way to make your baby unique, even before you’ve chosen an “official” name.
Many of the nicknames I’ve seen were inspired by totally random things. Some use initials from their family, some choose a baby name they’d never really use, I’ve seen “2.0″ or “baby number 2,” all kinds of interesting things.
Some nicknames stick after birth too…though most usually get changed! My niece was called “Fred” for the first few years of her life…and they joked that all the girls in the family needed a boy’s name for a nickname.
What about your family? Do you use nicknames before or after birth? What inspires you?
If we call our kids anything other than their given name, it is because their personality has inspired it.
Our oldest child was called “Duckie” for a while because the only song that would soothe her was Rubber Duckie, her favorite toys were all toy ducks and when she cried as an infant she would make a sound and then wait to see if anyone would respond. No response, another noise. We joked she “quacked like a duck.”
On the other hand, we deliberately chose names that could not be shortened into nicknames.
You know what’s funny, Kate?
We named our daughter Katherine with every intention of her spending her childhood as Katie. We called her that from the day we brought her home. It was just perfect for her. We now call her Monkey Buns, PJ Stinkerton, and Rif (short for Katie-rific).
Then, we chose Matthew for our son’s name, thinking that he’d be Matt. Then we had him and I just couldn’t call him that. He is Matthew through and through. But, more often than not, we call him Stinky Buns or Buddy Boy.
My son’s name is Sebastian and when I was pregnant it got mixed reviews. Everyone asked what we would call him…I would say, “Sebastian!” They would ask “Sebby, Sea-bass…” I didn’t like those at all. Over time, his nickname somehow became “Bash.” It suits him so well and it is a nickname that I actually like.
We have some odd nicknames. My husband started calling our daughter moo, and bear it turned into moo-bear (no idea why but it stuck). We also call her monkey, and now that she is a big sister she is Sissy-saurus. Our son has gotten nicknamed Bubby, or bubby rex… he is still pretty little so I’m sure there will be more odd ones to come.
We nicknamed our baby PJ in the first trimester since it was the initials for our girl name. 12 weeks later we found out that she was indeed a Penelope Jane. I’m not sure what we would have done if we found out it wasa boy and the nickname no longer matched. I guess it was just meant to be.
My son’s name is Clay, but in the hospital after he was born my husband called him Claybie (as in Clay + baby). Almost a year later, we still call him that. But it does work on another level too, because our last name starts with a B (as in Clay B.).
My husband has called our son Punklet (as in “little punk”) since the first ultrasound. He also calls him Goofus, L.I.Am (like Will.I.Am), and Gruesome (a Bugs Bunny reference). I tend to call him Sir Fussalot or Sir Fussyface (when he’s fussy) or Punklet/Punkaloo. When he’s older we’ll upgrade him to Punk.
We were joking the other day that he will probably be three or four before he figures out his name is actually Liam!
I love nicknames (I was Amanda-Panda for years and my sister was Lizzy-B) but I don’t like it when people shorten names without being invited to do so. I’ve never been referred to as Mandy, and I don’t care for it; there have been people who’ve taken the liberty to refer to me as Mandy and then I have to correct them, which is uncomfortable.
I grew up in a family of nicknames (four of us girls, we all had a nickname). When my son was born, I called him “Bubby”. Now that he’s a bit older, I just call him “Bub”. My daughter as a baby was “Toots”, now that she’s older it’s just “My Big Girl”. Nothing too dramatic.
My parents had in-utero nicknames for my siblings. OB-1 and Boo are the two I remember. Oh, and my brother was Ethelred the Unready! (You kinda have to know history to get that one.)
As for me, I’m all about the nicknames. I have this weird hangup about calling my kid by his actual name, probably because I never have. I’m trying to get over it now that he’s learning to talk so that he will learn his name. Mostly I call him “the baby” when I’m talking about him, and Buddy or Little Guy when I’m talking to him. But he’s also gone by Young One, Man Cub, Baby-San, Milkboy, Yoda, Stranger, and many, many other nicknames from Daddy and me.
My husband and I nicknamed our son “Goober” in my first trimester as we had an ultrasound (sadly when we found out we lost his twin) and he looked like a peanut and where goober is another word for peanut we thought it was a cute nickname. We do still call him our little Goober on occasion but mostly call him by his proper name of Gabriel or the nick name for that which is Gabe. His godmother (though she has self proclaimed herself to be his “faery” godmother) calls him Mr. Wiggles still as he was a very wiggly baby while I was pregnant and is still extremely active now. While my mom was pregnant with my little brother (her third and final child) everyone had deemed him “Big Bad Joe” as my mom was finally getting a boy after being told my sister and I were supposed to be boys.
When I was growing up, everyone had their own nickname for me (and still use them to this very day). My mother calls me ‘Babe’, Dad calls me ‘Smooch’, my older brother calls me ‘Sissy’ (he’s 35 and he STILL uses the name my parents told him to call me when he was 7). I’m ‘Sunshine’ to Uncle D, ‘Smurfette’ to Aunt A, ‘Anna’ to my great grandmother (she’s always confused me with my mother) I go by my middle name at work to avoid confusion since my boss and I share the same first name…I don’t really mind the nicknames though, I know who they’re talking to and that’s what’s important.
But that’s my name. When we’re talking about my 5 year old son, nick names are a ‘no no’. His name is Vincent. His daddy calls him ‘squeaker’ (because he never cried much, just made these cute little whimper noises to get our attention) but to everyone else, it’s Vincent. I just like the way it sounds, and it just really suits him – and besides, we’ve already got a ‘Vinnie’ (my husband), and a ‘Vin’ (my father in law).