Nicknames fascinate me: where they come from, whether they affect us or change us in some way, why they last regardless of how hard we try to get rid of them. They can be short forms of a given name, a play on a name, an image or trait that, in your eyes, represents the person. Some are even original—such fabulous creations that we spend our time desperately trying to figure out how we got them.
I’m always surprised by people’s reactions when you ask them about nicknames; some are funny, shy, embarrassed, thrilled, sly, some even go so far as to ‘denounce’ them.
Nicknames intrigue me because we give nicknames to people within our inner circle, those we are most intimate with. What happens when someone, whom we don’t consider as close, gives us a nickname? Does it hold as much weight, even if we don’t reciprocate?
My mom’s got Pinky and Rosebud, my sister’s got many from Poco Coco to Coco Puffs to Cornster, my dad calls himself Al Bundy. My brother is Daver and his girlfriend is TorTor. Jennifer is Monkey and Jennstir, so named because she mixes wicked drinks. She calls her boyfriend Warmeo, his first name + Romeo. Kelsie is K-Pak, Lara’s last name turns into Badman, Ryan will always be known as Piranha. In public school, Sacha was called Jolly Green Giant, a play on her height and her last name. In high school, I dated a guy I called Thomas the Alley Cat.
I’ve been called Ashtray, Ashie, Ash and Grizzly, at various points in my life. In high school, a guy (and I use the term loosely) named Shawn replaced the word danger in Mystikal’s “Danger (Been So Long)” song with my last name. So, it became “GRANGER! Get on the floor!” He sang it every time I came into the room; he was a real joy. I’ll omit the rest since there are too many swear words for this to be fun 
What’s your nickname? And does it define you or characterize you in the same way that your given name(s) do? Or differently?
I’ve often been called “Bill Nye” (the science guy). It obiously is not related to my given name in any way, but it does relate to my interests and indeed to my character to a degree.
HAHAHA Bill Nye… Tom sorta looks like Bill Nye too
I was given Meli-Melissa by Christiano…or just Meli. I’ve always been called Mel by my friends in school. My dad’s side of the family calls me Millie. (I hate that name SO much) and my sister used to say Mill instead of Mel. In my last year of high school I was called pornstar…just because I enjoyed having conversations about sex. 
I was once called “Ralphie” cause I looked like another boy named Ralph in junior high.
Boob-Lee came up during a hiking trip because I sort of have man boobs. Not the muscular boobs either
And LeeMobile came up once randomly from some dude, and I really liked it.
I sometimes like to call Ash, Ashum. She likes to call me *sshole from time to time :-p
i’ve been called crusty, crustytuna, weener, steen and crustini. some of the not-so-pretty ones include studyslut and hobag (in jest of course).
i like nicknames.
Growing up in a small conservative mid-western community, a couple friends and I have come up with most of the nicknames that existed within that community. We are all converging on turning 60! 2 of the 3 are retired and have time for this. Myself, I’m retired and back to work. Anyway, we have become fasinated by the process; finding at least 110 different nicknames. With a masters degree that allowed me to do research…I’m fasinated by the process of ‘researching’ nicknames.
I’m really short (4′11”) and kind of skinny so everyone just calls me scrawny, scrawnita, or scrawnz. at camp, my friends call me chauncey (don’t really know why).