T, Slickster, Miso Baby, Flava Flave, and T-Money are just a few names he goes by.
I COME FROM A FAMILY that obsessively makes up nicknames. I haven’t seen too much evidence of this tendency in my extended family, but my immediate family is certainly covering all the bases. Perhaps because I am an Anastasia forever called “Anna,” I’m especially fascinated by the intimacy that comes with calling someone by a hand-made name. At this point in my life, even “Anna” seems rather formal to me, since it’s dissolved away to “Ann” for my brother, and to “Annie” for my parents. My dad almost exclusively refers to me as “Punks” these days (a reduction from the original “Pumpkin” that sounded like “Punkin” when he’d say it). And my mother has called me “Miss Twitch” (don’t ask) for as long as I can remember. As for my brother, I have always referred to him as “T,” probably because my tiny mouth couldn’t pronounce “Teva” during the time when we were getting to know each other. Variations came about later–things like “T-Bone” and “T-T.” He’s known by many names to many people:
He’s “Slick” or “Slickster” to our dad.
“Miso Baby” to our mom, or just “My Boy.”
We all call him “King Ruckamuck” from time to time.
“Flava Teva” became “Flava T” among his high school friends, but sometimes it’s just “Flava Flave.”
Other friends call him “T Money,” which later became “T Money Flex A Lot” (that’s also what he likes to use when referring to himself in the third person).
At work he’s always “Teva”–its uniqueness helps him stand out among a sea of other employees. But while we were growing up his given name was more of a hassle. There were beauty-pageant applications addressed to him in the mail, quizzical looks when he introduced himself, and constant misspellings on the high school sports page of the local paper. These days, he’s really coming into his own and embracing his, “You know, it’s like the sandal, only pronounced ‘TAY-VAH’” bit. Of course to me he’ll always be T.
What kinds of nicknames bounce around in your family? And not just things like “fart-face” and “knuckle-head” (although we have our fair share of those, too). What do you call your siblings that no one else does? Or your sister-friends? I’d love to know…
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
i’ve always thought it funny that even though i go by andy you tend to call me andrew a lot.
I guess after hanging out with your family, I liked how they call you “Andrew.” It’s sweet.
When we were younger T used to refer to me a lot as “Ann the Man” or “Ann the Man with the Two-Time Plan” he also went through a period of calling me “Lou” for some reason.
I am flattered and touched by this nice write up. If I ever have the pleasure of speaking with someone who reads this post, I want to give them a few more name options. I have also been called, Tito, T-dogg, T-dogg jenkins, squeak, Tave, Mr. T, T. Mister, and T Rex. Additionally, I am open to new nicknames, and if we meet feel free to call me something new and unusual that I have not yet heard. Furthermore, if my sister Anna is with me, please feel free to call her Chrome Dome (a nick name I created for her that is near and dear to me). Finally, I would like to dispute Anna’s statement that our extended family does not use nicknames. Our cousin Paul has created more nicknames for his younger brother Joe then any nick name creator ever. Seriously, he should be in the Guinness book of world records. Every few months we have family parties. During the parties we all hear the new nicknames Paul has created for Joe in addition to the older more familiar ones. Paul often refers to Joe as, Frank, Scadootch, Samuel, and bump on a log, just to name a few. Anna can you remember some of the names Paul used to call Joe when we were growing up?
I vaguely remember the US Passport Agency also getting confused by the name and Teva’s long hair and marking little his passport (f). I think Anna and I thought this was funny for years. . .
oh yeah, Jessica! We laughed about that for so long! (sorry T)
And as for Paul’s names for Joe. I remember “Harry Barry” and “Jonabarris”
I’m really down with this post, Anastasia. My family is pretty into nicknames, as well. One of my older sisters, Holly, has always been “hmboj” (holly molly bucket of jelly) but I have no idea as to its origin. Now I call her “Holls”, mostly.
Everyone calls me “Noonie” or “Annie Noonie” but I’m not sure where that comes from either. Sometimes I’m “Blueberry” to my dad but in the past few years he’s taken to “My delicate irish flower” which I just think is so pretty.
One of my younger brothers’ name is Andrew Michael and we’ve always called him Andrew Michael Mouse or even “Mickle Mouse.” It sort of rolls off of the tongue, don’t you think?
And I’m sure as you’ve gotten from time to time, I’ve been called Anna Banana more times than I can count (including by a scary 6th grade reading teacher with braces who used to also slap me on the butt and sometimes called me “Annie Bananie” – umm what was that about?!).
p.s. now come back to Paris.
Annie – I love it all! You and Alex totally have good ears for names, like how you always refer to Becky Stecchetti by her full name.
We used to have a childrens’ book called ‘Annie Bananie’s Jump Rope Rhymes’ that caused my Mom to start calling me Annie Bananie. But a butt-slapping braces-wearing sixth grade teacher calling you that sounds absolutely traumatic. At least now you know how to really freak out the kids in neuf trois–get braces and start crossing physical boundaries.
I guess all of this family nicknaming played a major role in the outlasting names you’ve created for our college peers. Even though it seems like some nicknames have worn off in the past couple years, it’s still hard for me to call some nicknamed by their given name.
I like that picture of T-dogg jenkins.
I was Iceburg to my middle school basketball team, but of course Bunny and Conejo will go down as my longest lasting nicknames. My sister called me A-wack when she was little because she couldn´t say my full name and I totally hated it.
Of the nicknames in my family, it drives my parents insane that I call my sister variations on the term Poopy. She defiantly owns the nickname however, so it´s stayed. On the other hand, dear Andrew Young will never escape Andybear.
Add to the list of names for Anastasia ´Tay Tay´.
I never truly realized how big of a part nicknames are to my family and friends until you pointed it out.
- I remember referring to you Anna, as “Anna banana” so frequently that I forgot your last name was actually Smith and wondered why your locker was near mine and not in the ‘B’ section!
- My family and friends have a wide variety of nicknames- in fact our group of friends not only have their own unique nicknames, but we also took it one step further to create a nickname for the entire group of girls ‘SCLANTTS’.
If I had to dub one person as the master of nicknames in my family, it would be my dad. To him I am refered to Youngin’, Wiffer, Tiffer, TifferWiffer, TiffWiff, Queen-la-tiff-a… The list is endless. Now that I am growing up he has now turned to naming my niece all sorts!!
In my closing statement I have to mention my favorite nickname. This was given to me while working at a small country store in West Stockbridge, MA C.H. Baldwin and sons. I was taking an order over the phone from an older southern man, when he asked my name I replied “Tiffany”- his reply was then ‘oh T-Baby?’ T for tiffany, baby for baby. This one shall be remembered forever!
Sometimes it’s not a nickname, but how you pronounce someone’s real name that brings out the uniqueness – how would you spell My-kell?
I am just catching up with this post. Michael, your name in my phone is spelled “Mikel”…pronounced My-Kell. Anna-Stass–my brother, for some reason, always called me Johnny when I was younger. I think he liked this mostly because it got a rise out of me. I would get so angry and stomp around about how I was a girl, not a boy, and that my name was Chelsea, not Johnny. I must say to everyone who has replied here, I am envious of your posts. Unlike all of you, I never had a nick name that stuck…i get the occasional “Chels” “Chel” or “Chelly” which usually is followed by “Chelly belly, you’re so smelly”. Oh how wonderful.