I’ve been called by many names in my almost forty years of life. Some by choice. Others by obligation. Some nice. Some not-so-nice.  Some just plain wrong!  All in all I haven’t really been bothered by the variations or the variety. On the contrary, variety is the spice of life!

Nicknames are a funny thing, though. Sometimes a person can get stuck with a rather unpleasant one, and, as we all know, nothing sticks like a nickname, especially in high school!

So tell us, with which nicknames have you been addressed over the years and by whom? Which of them has proven itself your favorite and why? Come on, darling! Flaunt that favorite nickname and share some serious laughs!  

A few of my many nicknames stand out cold and stark in my mind:

I remember a rather intimidating eighth grader “befriending” me when I was in seventh grade. She decided to call me “Mickey” because she felt it was fitting. Ugh. I just let that one slide. Like I said, the girl was intimidating and fortunately no one else took to using it.

In High School I was “Shell” usually prefaced in the hallways by a rather loud and obnoxious “Hey” and followed by an even louder and more animated “you look like you’ve just been @#$%^&!” (Don’t ask). That lasted awhile. What joy! My boyfriend used to call me “pumpkin” during those years which I really can’t understand since I was quite the stick figure back then. Witnesses to our hallway make-out sessions used to call me “nymphomaniac” under their breath. And man, did one preppy jerk get the shit kicked out of him by my boyfriend for that.  Poor fool should have kept his mouth shut. I am and have always been a one man woman!

As a nun I was dubbed everything from “Sister Christian” to “Twisted Sister”. You have got to love a teenager’s sense of humor!

My favorite nickname of all has be the absolute oldest. It was dubbed by my mother’s paternal grandmother, my great-grandma, aka to all the great-grandchildren “Little Grandma” for her miniature size, but certainly not her personality. She was a blast! Honestly, the nickname wasn’t entirely “my own” as it was that of every one of her great-grandchildren.  She used to refer to each of us in her native Italian tongue as: “gioia mia bella” which translates to “my beautiful joy”.   It sounds so much better and is so much more meaningful in its original language, especially sliding enthusiastically off the lips of that firecracker of a matriarch, but whatever the musical quality of her words, it was what was felt with the heart when she used it that was the very best part.

Your turn. I look forward to reading all about all your favorite nicknames.