Some people have natural nicknames. Susan becomes Sue. David can be shortened to Dave. Some of us received nicknames as children that stuck. My brother had a friend called Fuzzy. His given name was the same as his dad’s, yet he was always called Fuzzy. As far as I know, he uses Fuzzy to this day.
Neither The Schatz nor I have names that can be shortened. I gave The Schatz a nickname when we began to date, and still use it to this day. When we named The Future, we chose a name that is not easily shortened, but we created our own shorthand and used his initials. We are probably the only ones left that still call him that. He never used it outside the house.
I never had a childhood nickname. However, I was reminded of one today a friend developed. She alone used it. No one ever picked up on it, and when I graduated and lost touch with this friend, my nickname was lost. Until today. She contacted me and used that long ago name in her email. And it brought me back to a time of innocence. Of sleep-overs and passing notes in class. And giggling.
Quite often, those that have childhood nicknames revert back to their given names as they grow older. Often they make excuses; “Charlie is for a kid and I’m a grown man”. I’m not quite sure what that’s supposed to mean. Names come in and out of fashion and once so named, very few people go to the lengths of legally changing it. (I do have a friend that did it, but chose to wait until she changed schools. This way she had less explaining to do.) So why change a nickname simply because you can now legally drive?
I like living in a world where there are Fuzzy’s and Babe’s. Yes, there is a time for formality, but I really believe that most of life can stand a few more Fuzzy’s and a lot less Richard’s. Not that there is anything wrong with one name over another. But I suspect that just hearing the name Fuzzy makes people relax. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
You picked a subject that is dear to my heart. I grew up with the nickname of Bubblegum, though a few called me penguin. I tell the neighborhood children just to call me bubblegum and they get a kick out of it.
My son’s nickname is Puck (which he hates), and my daughter’s is Tweeter (which she secretely likes). Funny about the name Tweeter, I gave it to her when she was just a few days old and began tweeting on this mechanical swing that we put her in to rock her to sleep. The funny thing there is that the name Tweeter used to be very original but since Twitter and everyone Tweeting, it has grown popular.
By the way, my wife’s name is Biggie, which she also hates. I like to use the nicknames creatively. So I developed a theme son for our nicknames that used the old Flipper TV series son. Instead of Flipper, Flipper Faster than lighting, I used to sing at the table, Tweeter, Tweeter, Faster than lighting…
Nicknames are life, life is nicknames.