What's In A (Nick)Name?
This may come as a shock to many of you, but 'WonderBaby' is not WonderBaby's real name.
It's not even her nickname. Contrary to what you might expect, we do not run around the parks and playgroups of Toronto calling out WonderBaby! 'WonderBaby' is, like 'Her Bad Mother' (pick yourself back up off the floor!), a pseudonymic nickname (a pseudo-nick-nym?).
Her real nickname is - wait for it - Budge. As in, budgerigar. The bird. Don't ask me how or why this nickname stuck. There's nothing bird-like about Wonderbaby. Nothing at all. And yet, we call her Budge, or Budgie, or Budgerigar. More usually Budge. It's not the most elegant of nicknames, but for some reason, it's her.
Her Bad Father and I both call her this, as name and as proper descriptive noun. We say things to each other like, oh, the Budge. She's such a Budge. Or, Budgie was so Budge today. Or, is she being a Budge? Such a Budge!
It has emerged, it seems, out of the babble of our love for her. Scrolling through the archives of my memory - and of this blog - I can note that sometime last year I was calling her Baboo and Bapchi, nicknames that are really gibberish, gobbledygook, nonsense. Words that mean nothing, but which are nonetheless utterances of affection, expressions of love in our own private language. Somehow, from Babchi came Budgie and Budgerigar and the name has stuck, perfect in its expression of the inexpressible essence of who she is, to us. Incomprehensible to anyone other than us.
No doubt absurd, to you. But I suspect that however absurd the name 'Budge' sounds to you, the idea of an inexpressibly nonsensical but nonetheless perfect name is something you know well. I suspect that you have such names for your children. I'm not going to ask you what those are.
I've told you our special name because its specialness is exclusive to our use of it. It is nonsensical, on the tongue of anyone other than us. It has no power, no meaning outside of our little world. For us, this silly, gibberishy word is full of meaning, inexpressible meaning, meaning that melts into air outside of the circle that is us. Meaning that is ours, and hers, alone. So you can know it, because having others know it doesn't diminish its power. Its power belongs to us.
You can tell me yours, if you want. I'd love to hear your special names. But you don't have to, if you don't want to; you could just tell me how it came about, what it means to you. I'd love to hear about it.
Portrait of a Budge.
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I was tagged by Jeremiah at ZRecommends to write a post about names; I decided to write about nicknames. Consider yourselves all tagged, too - respond on your blog or in the comments. As I said above, I'd love to hear about your nicknames - even just the stories behind them.
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Hey! Have I harassed you lately about writing a post about how - or whether - blogging empowers women? Yes? Well here's the harassment again - sometime before midnight this coming Friday, write a post about blogging and the empowerment of women and link to MBT. Not only will you feel really, really good about yourself, you'll be eligible to win a two-day registration to BlogHer. Or candy. Your pick. And your post will be linked up here, and at MBT, and at BlogRhet, where the brightest minds in the blogosphere will immediately set about deconstructing it and identifying its greater meaning. An offer you can't refuse, no?And, in other corners of Her Bad World: talkin' 'bout blueberries and BBQs here, and singing the praises of local bloggers here. And, always, gossipin' here.
posted by Her Bad Mother @ Monday, June 11, 2007
90 Comments:
I must get working on my responses to your harrassment if only to quell any further attempts :)
Love the dirty Budgie-Face!!!!
M&M
The Poo is a real nickname. And we do the same:
The Poo is such a poo.
The poo is a sleepin'poo.
The poodaloo, poodalee, poodalumps. Or the poodles, and sometimes, the peedles.
All stemmed from a a huge bowel movement when she was an infant. We decided that were she a superhero, she'd be SuperPoo, and her power would be killing enemies with her stench.
Now, she's just The Poo.
"...meaning that melts into air outside of the circle that is us."
Precisely.
We call our oldest "Pants." It started out from some obscure episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a show we don't even watch. A character was named "M.C. Pee Pants." For us, this turned into "Fart Pants," and eventually "Pants."
I can't tell you what that word means to me now. How random. But my heart is tied up in it.
And, yes, sometimes I slip and yell it out at the park.
Our daughter is "Bunny" or "Bunny Rabbit" or "Rabbit." I called her a million different nicknames, and those were the ones that my husband least objected to. Now she's just "Bunny" or "Bun". Once in a while, my hubby will email me at work to let me know he's picking up "The Rabbit" from school.
My father and I have the same nickname for each other: Wiener. From the time I was 5 or 6 I've called him Wiener. On the phone, in public, he is more likely to be called Wiener than Dad. And he calls me Wiener as well. It just works. So much so that I wonder about the funny looks we get sometimes. :)
As for this male child festering within, I have no doubt he will have his own nickname in time.
Our nicknames have evolved. Hollis was Little Man and he really was a Little Man. He looked like an infant CPA before the age of 1. Now he's more often buddyboo. Or if he's being ornery, buddybooboo. I don't know why.
Holden, being a second child, has the nickname cast offs. He's usually grumpypoo, even though he's not usually grumpy.
Ben (Benjamin) was Farmajin.
Jack is still Jack Attack or Jackson (the latter being a joke between me and the hubs, because we did not want to name him Jackson, but we got shit for naming him "just Jack").
Isabella is 'Boots' - she has been since day 1. it just seems to fit.
Bee was Bee in utero. Now she's something else entirely, but I'm afraid that babe #2 is already cast in her older sister's shadow - we've been refering to her as Soon to Bee. No doubt this one, like her sister, will have a silly, special nickname once we get to know her.
(or him. that wasn't a slip, just habit)
I just emerged from my introspective world the other day and happened across your blog. Loved the post about the "Great H&M Escape!" Came back for more...
Now that the blatant flattery is out of the way, on to nicknames. We have so many, but what stands out most for me is that all three have been called "Choops" at some point (and often still are). I will also accept "Choopy-Choo," "Choopers," and the shortened, "Choo." I really can't remember the origin, so it must have been insignificant. Yet the nickname persists.
I really do call mine Monkey and Chickadee. Monkey is also occasionally Smushkin (as in, so cute and smushy), whereas for Chickadee there are a number of singsongy plays on her actual name I sometimes use. Most often, though, it's MonkeyBoy and Chickadee or Chiquita (which is unrelated but sounds similar).
We call our son Buster. No reason, in fact it doesn't truly fit him. He's not a "buster" kind of kid.
Our daughter we call Rooty. She's almost 5 weeks old and roots ALL THE TIME. She's a hungry little girl!
Dylan is Monkey Toad and Thomas is Scooter.
:)
LOVED this post. So cute.
On the day our Tootie arrived, Hubs cradled her in his arms and crooned, "Hey, there, Toot-Toot."
And it stuck.
As for our little guy, I call him Baby Man, which, now that he is 2 1/2, is simply ridiculous, but I can't help myself.
We also call him "E." Or E-man.
My son use to be the "bean" in utero because that is what he looked like. Now it's "cheeky" from when he had chubby cheeks when he was two. The cheeks have long since disappeared, but the name stays in many of it's forms. Cheeky, cheeky monkey, cheekasaurus, etc. You know the drill.
I have some strange nicknames for my six.
Kim was Clue
Rick was Rickster
Andy was Andrew Pandrew - which he hated.
Jon, of course was the Kidney Bean,
Charlie is Char-low
and Rachel is Boo.
My husband is Chuckle Bucket. Don't tell him I said that!!
Ahh, all your names are so cute!
We call our son Brodiferous Christopherous. (I can't even spell it.) But he responds.
Our daughter's nickname hasn't quite emerged yet. My son and husband call her "sweet girl". Hmm, I'll have to put more thought into this one. I loved the post. An insight into someone's life is always so fun!
Oh, LOVE these!!!
I also, sometimes, call WonderBaby 'Jones.' No reason. Just 'cuz.
no kids of my own - as we all know - but lady m's son will always be my bubbers, or bubs, or bubbala. my best friend's daughter is named makayla, but i call her miki. :)
miss magoo for bigirl when she was little, now she is called sweetie
littlegirl is boo or superbaby (only from her big sister)
my nickname when I was little?
Geah (pronounced guh), a noise you give with a hug.
wierd shit you made me remember tonight.
Our nickname while our daughter was still in utero was Peanut, for the obvious reason that it is exactly what she looked like.
Since then the name has evolved. Silly Monkey is always popular, or Boo-Boo. But recently she has been Turkey, or Turkey-Bird most of the time. Where it comes from? No idea really... Mostly because she can be such a turkey when she's not getting her own way. :) You get some funny looks in public though...
My Claire is honeygirl, Clairegirl or Pooper depending on what she's been up to. Most recently, it's been Pooperloo & Iderdider (the sound that her tongue makes when she's really happy)
Hehe. These are great.
Q is Miss Goose, The Goose, which turn into Googaloog or Googs or something of that nature. I like the "OO" sound apparently.
And Drew - Mr. Goose. And Cha-Cha
Don't ask. I have no idea.
Oh, I love the nickname "Budge"
My toddler's nickname is "Bah" It started out as a cute way to say "baby" (bah-bee). Now she's just "Bah" and even "The Bah"
The new baby's nickname (for now) is "Squishy." Because he's so little and squishy of course! My 8-year old thinks he should be called "Tuba" for "Two-Bah" (Bah #2) Poor little Squishy...
That's funny, I just wrote a post about names, and then clicked over to your site. Funny-weird, not funny-haha. ;-)
We actually did refer to the Boy as "The Boy" before I started blogging. I also used Sweetpea (a throwback to Popeye), which I have now bastardized to "Sweet of Pee".
In utero, he was "Estéban" (he of the Magical Guitar in informercials).
No nickname for Babe#2 as of yet. Mr Earth keeps saying "TJ", but I can't say that without following it with a "Hooker" afterwards. tee hee.
Oh this is so fun! I think I love nicknames as much as the real names.
The name of my blog was based on the nicknames my Mom has for the girls. I think Papoosie Girl came from our obsession with swaddling. Rosebud had those perfect baby rosebud lips.
These are not the nicknames I use or what my MIL uses (Greek sweet names) and they are not the names I yell out at the playground. I call them interchangeably:
monkey
angel
peanut (not so much now)
Susie (strange, but Rosebud likes to play a game where I pretend to forget who she is and she always wants me to call her Susie)
I have more, but these are common ones, others are based on their names.
This was fun, I will be back to see the rest of the comments.
I love nick names.
we actually call Lulu-lulu-even though this is not her real name.
that along with a bunch of other sappy things like
luv, monkey, bubelah, rascal, sweet pea, munchkin, etc etc.
To this day my own parents (and most of my relatives) don't ever call me by my real name.
They actually just call me sheen.
some times sheen bean.
silly, but I really like it.
Budge is the cutest.
O has been called LaLa ever since Boo could talk. And Boo has been Boo pretty much since birth. She's also called Issy-boo because that's what she used to call herself. She's also often and frequently called Monkeybutt.
The Bug is not called The Bug and never really has been, except for on my blog. We were calling her Pumpkin Pie, but Boo couldn't say that, so she just called her PiePie. That somehow turned into Muffinhead and that seems to have stuck. And now, every morning, Boo comes bursting into the room and yells "G'mornin', Muffinhead!" It is too cute.
Small animals seem ripe for nickname fodder. I call Ada "Bun" a lot. Bun from bunny. In the other direction I call her Ada Potata. When I am in public, I notice how much I call her that.
Most of Mme L's nicknames are too close to her real name to divulge here but we have, in the past, called her Ms. Pants (which, I stress, must be voiced with a Scottish accent). Don't ask me why.
Our hypothetical second child has, almost since Mme L's birth, been referred to as Twinkle, as in, "before you were even a twinkle in your father's eye."
But I am a huge fan of Budgerigar and I have friends who call each other and their dog "Jones".
I think Budge is precious.
My mom used to call me teenybug. Which is funny on many levels since I was always really really tall
Budge is a perfect nickname! My kiddo's nickname is Shmoo. I don't know how it came to be, but we use it, ironically, in a similar manner that you do with Budge. For example, "Shmoo was such a Shmooper today!"
Big girl is called Baa - a recent thing because the toddlers can't say her name, the smaller one is really called Jboo, oober baby, or snazzy. The incoming invader has been called, parasite, jelly bean and peanut so far but none of those will stick.
These are just great!
My 2 yr old daughter Eliana has been called Ellie by EVERYONE (including me) since birth. My personal nicknames for her are Bugaboo if she's being a real butt or just plain ole "boo" if she's being cute. If I want a giggle I'll call her my shnugglepuffs. She likes it now...just wait!
My 4 year old Gavin has had a gizillion knicknames over the years and none have stuck other than "my little guy" which is so...boring..and yet, he IS my little guy! It just fits!
too funny! my most recent post, which I wrote before reading yours, is simply titled "nicknames"
There was a time when we called Q by the name "Darth Baby" because he was such a noisy breather when sleeping. No complaints from us - it was easy to check whether he was sleeping without having to get out of bed.
I used to call my baby brother, Bubby or Bubs, when he was little. It stuck and on his first day of kindergarten when the teacher's called him Zachary he muttered darkly, "I'm not Zachawy, I'm Bubby!"
Poor kid, he's 21 now and I still love telling that story. :)
Stinkfoot is a real nickname.
So is Pidge (as in pidgeon), Bobby, Lu, LaLa, Boo, Mamma, Moo...Goodness...I never call her by her REAL name.
By birth order:
1) Scooter
2) Mr. Magoo or Hey, Buddy
3) Her Royal Majesty Queen Victoria
My daughter has always been "Buns" or "Bunsy" to me cause she had the cutest chubby set of buns when she was a baby. It was not, however, much appreciated when she was a teenager.
My son is "love bug" to me. He's so cute because he'll say "I'm not Maffew - I'm your love bug".
And, then the other day he said "I know you love me cause I'm your love bug."
Toooo adorable.
I love the new design.
PS Budge is very cute.
Kaitlyn's nickname is "The Boo". The boys gave her that nickname when she was just a newborn, because they thought she was so cute and they always said to her "what a cute baby boo you are". So now I say thing to them like "where's The Boo?" or "Would one of you take "The Boo" on a walk?" And I have used it at their school, on playgrounds, everywhere.
Love your little Budge's messy face!
OH, and my husband and I call her "KatieBug". It started because she had this adorable ladybug onesie as a baby, and I called it her KatieBug LadyBug outfit. The nickname stuck, and sometimes I call her the whole name, KatieBug LadyBug. I need to start collecting ladybug stuff for her!
We have : Monkey (7), Bean or Doodle (5), brothers who are also referred to as monster 1 and monster 2, and our baby, who is the Pickle to one and all.
They both have shorten versions of their own name. Then the Tar nicknames from the Hubs. But their nonsensical nicknames are respectively: Monkey (Monk, Monkster, MonkeyMan, ect) and Princess Pie (Pie-Pie, PieFace, ect). No clue how it started. Also, sometimes they are called Squirt and Squirtle.
Oh this is a great post, and all the stories about nicknames here are fantastic, too!
Perhaps this will give me something to write about a bit more expansively when I get Pookie Pumpkin and Baby Boo into their respective beds tonight.... ;-)
Apparently we are late to the "Boo" party. My 13 month old has been "Boo" or "Booboo" for at least half her life. Unfortunately, a new friend of mine has a poop-eating chihuahua named Booboo. We may have to find a new nickname....
Miss M quite literally has over 100 nicknames. We are a nickname household. She has so many nicknames that she has now started insisting on making up her own pseudonyms. Right now we MUST call her Jenny. Last week it was Jesse Jeerial. There's been about 10 pseudonyms in all. I've been meaning to write a post about this but I've now said it in enough comments that the post is moot.
Ready for this convoluted chain of nickname evolutions?
Former co-worker who is Irish used expression "tickety boo", which stuck in my head. I also used to like to sing the following to our cats: "(S)he's the kitty witty doodle pie from Company C", appropriate because both cats had names that began with the letter C.
So. "Tickety boo" became "Tickety boo doodle" became "Ticka" or "Boo" or "Boodle". ACK.
And don't even ask about how I have further bastardized the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy song in honor of both Tacy and CJ.
My daughter Mae is "Ducky" or, sometimes, "Miss Duck". I wish I could remember where it came from, but I can't. She's just so darned ducky, is all.
Achingly well-writting, HBM. For now, we put all of our nicknaming onto our cat of 13 years, whose OFFICIAL name is Ramona Q. Somehow, the simple "kitten" nickname became "kitchen," which then morphed into "chicken." Yeah, that's right: we call our cat "chicken," as in: "You should see what the chicken did to the bathroom rug!" or, "She's being SOOO chicken today!"
When our daughter, Roslyn, shows up in 5 weeks or so, I have every expectation that such name-morphing will continue, resulting in "Rozzle" which of COURSE could become "Rozzle-Dozzle," or even, heaven help us, "The Rozinator."
I call my daughter "mommy", it is an old ethnic thing around my parts. Dads call their babies "daddy", grandmoms call them "grandmom" etc. So, she is "mommy". But, at times she is also "sydney". That was my father's catch-all name for anyone he needed to get the attention of and couldn't get the right now out (two daughter, four grand daughters - he mixed them up a lot). So, my entire family has adopted "Sydney" as the name to call each other on a whim.
It confuses people all the time. Too funny. Budge is a great nickname, especially for such a great little girl! The photo is classic!
Love that Budge!
I really call my kids "Pumpkin," "Princess" and "Sweetpea."
Better than ASSWIPE, SHITHEAD and SHUTTHEHELLUP!
LOL
xoxo
My daughter is Boo on the blog (it's even in the title) but I have never, not once, ever called her Boo. My sister in law does at time, but I never have.
I have avoided a blog name for Baby K, but I do call him bugaboo (as in the stroller, but with no actual resoning or relation to) or bubbaloo. It just stuck and I love it. Funny how the nickname is actually longer than the real name :)
i love your new page HBM.its great.my children have all had silly or cute nicknames at various times.some of my faves.tokapee thats right from pokemon.was the changelings nickname whilst preggers with her.and stinkerbell was called peep.my eldest girl was just called baby for like forever.and my son was boo boo bear,bunnykins etc.budge is sorta cute and i bet it suits wonderbaby wonderfully.LAVENDULA
Very nice post! I like "budge". That is cute. Our nickname for our son is Tito which is short for a diminutive of his name.
Emilie is EmBug, or Bug and yes, sometimes I call her that when we are in public. It's much better than Princess, which is what all her teachers at daycare used to call her.
Her sister's real name is Margaret, but we never call her that. Its always Maggie or Mags, Magpie, sometimes Magarooni or Magaroons.
I was bugaboo and will sometimes use that for either girl. My mom called me "turkey pot" for years...never really understood that one!
We've actually morphed through a few along the way.
She started out bunny baby.
And went through many of the usual, most of which are still used on occasion: Sweet Pea, pumpkin, muffin.
And we use goofer, goofer girl, little lady, and oddest, kooker monker, a warping of kooky monkey.
LOVE the new look!
The Impling only goes by that name when she is in the midst of doing something very two-ish.
Otherwise, names are created as quickly as they are forgotten. Ones that have stuck include "Panda" and "Peanut Butter Parfait"
I have no idea where they come from, other than the natural organic evolution of sound and association.
And I'll consider myself harassed. Now if I can actually DO something about it...
I am so not good with nicknames, so my blog-kids don't even have pseudonyms yet. I think it stems from my nickname. I was a bit clueless as a child and assumed that "Nikki" was a "nick-name" as it had "Nik" in it. Yes, I'm still that clueless sometimes.
My kids have several from dad: Oh my god you're cute, and Oh my god you're cute II alsong with Pulga and Hombre Fuerte (Flea and strong man in reference to their sizes)
My kids both went through phrases of correcting me "I'm not your sweetie, bubbe, etc. I'm Dxxx [their actual name])
http://maternalmirth.blogspot.com/2007/06/nicknames-on-top-of-nicknames.html
I finally got to this :)
OldestGirl is "The Bug"
CurlyGirl is "The Bear"
YoungestGirl is "The Roo"
BoyBoy has a number of nicknames, but no real "thing" like the others. We use the diminuative of his name a lot, since his "big name" is quite a handle to hang on someone who is only 3.
william is cookie,or baby, it started as a nickname for my nephew who is six months younger-until i watched them together one day, now i call will cookie about a million times a day, and my nephew cookie when i see him...
my nephew is cookie because he was on special formula due to his cf that smelled like a chocolate chip cookie. his older sister i have called girly from day one, no idea why, she is just so girly..
Moppet has quite a few nicknames. I mostly call her a version of 'little one' in my mother tongue, and my husband has a different nickname for her. But she responds to everything - even when I call her 'rice pudding'! :-)
Had done a post on names some time ago.
http://moppettales.blogspot.com/2007/03/rose-by-any-other-name.html
Hmmm...nicknames, eh? Depends on the day. Seriously, that is how often I am concocting new ones. The most regular is Bubby, which evolves into Bubalicious and then Bugsy or Bug. But never Bode. You know. His actual name... :-)
My little girl is "Bug" or "Sweet Pea" or "Shatz-em-platz." Her daddy is "Bear", "Sweet Potato" or "Daddy-o". I don't have any nicknames....as far as I know. Sometimes, my husband calls me Mommy Awesome, but that doesn't really roll off the tongue the way a nickname should, does it? HeatherFeather, that's another one that gets used every now and then. I want a nickname. (pout)
I take your tag! (Did it on my blog)
I am kidless but I refer to my two rabbits (whose actual, dignified names are Ashley and Calbert) as bun-o and ash-o. My roomate calls Ashley Squishy, for reasons mysterious.
Years ago I babysat for a little boy whose nickname was Budgie (his real name was Solomon, so serious for a charming little preschooler). His baby sister was Pipsy.
We do call our Opie just that; his real initials are O.P. so there you go. Also bugaboo, bug, crankypants, stinky dinky doo, messy marvin...whatever fits.
Jo is Jojo, Jo-G, Jojo Pumpkin, or the old classic, Honey. And her "regular" name -- the one that everyone calls her -- is itself a nickname. We chose that first then worked backward to give her a formal first name. "For when she's president of General Motors," said my mother.
Ah, so WB is not the lone Budgie! I can live with that. Especially since she is, in all likelihood, the only Budgie Jones McBudgalot.
Me and my husband used to call each other bear before the baby was born. Now we just call each other names. LOL
I sometimes wonder if our kids even know what their names really are.
Our daughter is 3 1/2 -- she has been sweet pea, pea diddley, pickle pea, and almost any other variation on pea something or something pea you can think of. We've also been known to call her pumpkin poo, which I swear has no potty reference at all. I'm sure she'll hate that one most of all later on.
Our son is currently beebo (because he walked around saying that for a few days, and it stuck), but also bubby, bubby boo, beebo boo, and, again, almost any variation on something with boo.
At least we stick to a theme for each of them -- I'd hate for them to be too confused.
My sister and I are named after children on a 70s television show: it was the only english-speaking show my father "got" when he first immigrated.
Poopsie-Doo was my childhood nickname and my father still calls me "Poops" and never calls me by my first name. Every card, email, phone conversation, etc. starts with "Dear Poops" or "Hi Poops". I hated it in high school, but being pregnant with my first child now, I love it. We've been calling our unborn baby girl "Uncle Ben", because the ultrasound tech told us she was the size of a piece of rice at our first ultrasound. Wonder if that will stick.
hey! that's MY name!
Delurking to join in the nickname fun~
My kids have had various nicknames during their lifetime but the ones that have stuck are: (oldest son)Bub, (middle son) Roundhead (cause he had a perfectly round head at birth)and occasionally we called him TataHead (short for Potato Head), youngest sons we called Webster (as in Dictionary) because he was like a walking encyclopedia for sports trivia. My daughter is the one who has had oodles of nicknames:Mrs. Peepers (because as a newborn she was always peeping around with one eye opened) Tilda (short for Matilda)Freda, Ducky, and the Corkster.
My granddaughter is known as the Peach or Peachie. She was such a good baby and I was always saying she was such a Peach. So that stuck and we all call her Peach now.
My girl has so many nicknames! Her name starts with a B and has no definite nickname deriving from it, logically. BUT her middle name is Addison, and I've always called her AddyBuglet. It's sometimes, AddyBugs, Addy, Bug, Addy Brown, Baby Girl, Muffin, Little B, Miss B, Munchkie, Pumpkie, and Freckles. Her Daddy calls her Addy, B and Tootie. He used to call her Little Chicken. when I was pregnant and she was at the rice grain stage, we called her Colonel (a military style version of "kernel" which they said she was the size of). My bf calls her Little B and I love how he says it. He also refers to both of our kids as "pampers". As in, "gotta love our pampers".
bsmommy99.wordpress.com
We use the names Pookus, Whoot-ie, or Puppy Pupperton ( and he calls me Mommerton)for the toddler, Lucas. Yes, at the park or the grocery store...and he call it right back "You're the whootie!!"
She looks like a budge.
I seem to pick a new nickname for my baby every month. Right now, it's shmoopsy. I figure I can call him shmoopsy only before he grasps language skills....
Miss Fancy dubbed her brother Juji baby (pronounce joodge-gee) I am in constant fear this is some obscure racial epithet.
Miss Fancy has a few nicknames mostly the one that rhymes her name with Pakora. Which is likely why I rhymed Budge's name when she toddled off a bit far near the dolphin tank when you were here.
I tend to use nicknames for issues of security. Just like I use name escalation for discipline/pleadings.. I notice you do that, too.
Anyway.. I regretted rhyming Budge's name instantly. It doesn't suit her. I wish I'd known then what I know now.
Back to my girl... I do adore that one of our neighbours has nicknamed her. We know J. from walking her dog and she calls my girl Bubbles.
My parents called me Tird Bird. Because (they said) I looked like a plucked chicken when I was born. And I pooped a lot.
"Budge" is beautifully, sweetly elegant in comparison.
I have an Ivy J (because Ivy was too shorted to nick, we had to lengthen), Bumble Bea and one Chunky Beef Noodle. I know, I KNOW I wrote a post about it. I'm saving for her therapy.
My oldest, 6 year old boy, is Bug. It started when I would call him Love-Bug, and it eventually shortened to just Bug. The other day I called him that in front of his friends, by accident of course, and boy did I get "THE LOOK." Guess I'll work on that.
And my 2-year0 old's daughter real name is Nia which has turned into Nini or Nini-nunu...kind of strange that a kid with a three letter name would need nicknames at all! Oh, well!
Love everyone's name comments, though!
No nicknames for as-yet-unemergent little one, except for the wee one, or the wee dragon, on my blog, for fear that if I assign him a nickname I might let it slip in conversation, and if it happens to sound boyish, they might guess that he is in fact, a boy. As for my brothers, I call them:
Matt (oldest): Midget, as he was always very short until he hit about 15
Sam: Monkey, or Spazhead, or Samsam.
Alex: Benjo. Don't ask me why. It doesn't make any sense, especially since Sam's middle name is Benjamin, and you'd think he'd be assigned Benjo. But somehow, it just fits alex.
And I call my former best friend's daughter Buffin, a conflagration of Baby Muffin.
As for me, I have been alternately Tanie, Peaches, Bubbles, and Klondike. yeah, wierd, I know.
i have no idea where i came up with pooka for daughter #1, but it gets morphed into pooks or pooka-dook. bug has been bug ever since we decided on her name, as it comes from a misreading of the name written in cursive. bug lends itself to a host of sickeningly cute things, like stinkbug (obvious), lightning bug (in the bili-blanket), etc. pooka has in the past declared her real name to be pooka. bug isn't old enough to have a preference.
I think ours is probably more cultural (Mexican) than nonsensical, but from the beginning we called Alliclaus "Mamas." In the beginning we called her "Little Miss" or "the little miss," and I have sometimes referred to her as "Missy Mae." But "Mamas" is the name that has stuck and it is the one she knows is hers.
My son, Owen, is sometimes called "O-Dog" (or "O-Dawg"), his rapper name coined when he was just a baby. It still amuses me. We call our Lindsay "LuLu" - it started off as "Lindsay-Lou" and evolved. Funny, my adored grandfather was named Lou - should've changed her middle name to Louise. She was "Hani" for a while when she was wee little, as that was what her brother insisted her name was. (From hearing us call her "honey," maybe? Who knows.)
My son is called Bobie or it Bobey? I never spell it; I only say it. It has long O sound.
He's almost 12 now, and I call him the Bobe-i-lizer. I also call him "B."
And yes, we say things like, "That's such a bobey thing to do."
My sister-in-law's goddaughter is also nicknamed Budge. But her parents called her that because she's stubborn and won't "budge". How cute!
I love the new header, too!
Stink...but, more like a little song: Stink-stink-da-dink-dink-dink. No clue why or how but, she loves it.
Also, Fatty Mcfatfat. This is because she is ginormous. She is 8 months old and weighs about 24 lbs. wears size 18 mos. clothes and size 5 diapers. Did you know they only go up to size 6? I guess we will start wrapping her in shower curtains if she doesn't stop the madness.
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