September 16, 2009

Nicknames

My daughter came home on the first day of school wearing a name tag that read "Amber." When your child shares a name with an automobile wheel alignment setting, you learn to expect clerical error.


The next morning, I sent my daughter to school with a corrected name badge.

Two days later, Camber came home with a stack of papers stuffed inside a folder labeled "Amber." The day after that, my daughter brought home a note addressed to "Amber's Mom."

"I'm beginning to wonder if this teacher is playing with a full deck," I told my friend Tina, whose daughter is in the same class at school. Tina confessed that she had similar concerns. Her daughter Leah had been coming home with notes and binders and forms labeled simply "Le."

My suspicion of foul play was confirmed when I asked my daughter to write her full name on a piece of paper.

"Why did you write 'Amber' when your name is 'Camber?'" I asked.

"Because that's my new name," she said matter-of-factly.

Upon further interrogation, I learned that my daughter and her friend are united by a cruel but not insurmountable fate: neither was blessed at birth with a nickname. Tired of watching their classmates Katie, Maddie, and Nikki hog all the glory, they decided to take matters into their own hands. When asked by her new teacher what she preferred to be called this school year, my daughter chose fossilized tree resin. Her friend picked the definite article used for masculine nouns in French.

"Amber is a very pretty name, but I would prefer if you went by the name that your Dad and I gave you," I told her.

Amber ignored me.

My husband told me not to take my daughter's name change personally. "At least her new name isn't weird," he told me. Then he reminded me of the nickname that I chose for myself when I was seven. Inspired by my love of flying horses and secret belief that I was one, in the second grade I answered only to the name of Peggy.


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Have your kids made up their own nicknames? If so, what are they?!


131 comments

Mike Sullivan said...

Very common, mostly with girls, i think. At various points, my daughter, Katie, went by Emily, Sarah and "Twinkles", who was actually her imaginary pet kitten.

Amy said...

My name is Amy and I grew up with about 5 million Amy's. So I was continually know as Amy N. I HATED it. So in an attempt to individualize myself, I started spelling my name Aimee.

It lasted about one week before my mom found out and once again I became "Amy".

Anonymous said...

My oldest son, 8 years old, and definitely the bossiest of the bunch, has convinced the neighborhood kids to refer to him as "The Captain." Which I suppose is better than "Your Majesty", which I wouldn't put past him! Also, last year instead of just writing his name at the top of his paper, he wrote "Commander Josh" at the top of all his assignments. His teacher was great and allowed it, as long as he spelled "Commander" right.

Midwest Mom said...

My daughters name is Channing. I LOVE her name and had chosen it when I was 14. I had to wait 15 years to finally use it!

What is she called?

Family calls her Chanzilla, and at school her classmates call her Chang.

Me? I somehow started calling her Missy!!

Kay said...

too funny. I have been calling my son (named Logan) Lolo since birth. My husband tells me when Logan is a teenager he will probably hate me.

kimert said...

I remember doing something similar as a kid! I think we (my friends and I) just changed the spelling of our names to something ridiculously obnoxious! lol

My kids have NOT given themselves nicknames yet though. But they are only 3 and 6...

Anonymous said...

I HATE it when people take it upon themselves to shorten my name or my children's names to what they term to be an appropriate nick name...Ben - Hate it! Beth - Hate it! Tony - Hate it! Aim - LOATHE it! We gave our kids names with cute nicknames - BJ and Lizzie. My husband and I go by our full names, unless we are in the comfort of our own home and referring to each other with our pet names. When people refer to my husband as Tony I have no idea who they are speaking of...and I tell them so.

Anonymous said...

No offense intended for the actual Ben, Beth, and Tonys out there....or to the toothpaste company.

Tasha said...

I named my kids, Melody and Katelynn, with nicknames in mind, Mellie and Katie. My husband swore he'd never use them, but it didn't take long to assimilate him!

Sarah said...

I remember wishing I had a cute nickname when I was a kid. You can't really shorten Sarah. Plus, it was the 80's, so my friends were Stephanie, Tiffany, Kelly, Cassy, etc. So much cuter than Sarah!

Brooks said...

I don't know about my kids, they're not creative enough... yet.

As for me, having been inspired by Mary Martin's portrayal of Peter Pan in a theatrical television special, I refused to be called anything other than "Peter".

Furthermore, life is tough when you're a girl named Brooks. Camber is going to have to fight for the "C" like I had to fight for the "S".

Chelsea said...

At recess one time, my friend and I decided our names were Tootie Fruity and Tootsie Wootsie. I was Tootsie Wootsie.

Adelina said...

My daughter's name is Rosaria. But the teachers and admins at the school call her Rose or Rosie. The reason behind it is that Rosaria is too long to put down on all the forms. Wonderful. So I keep correcting them and sending in forms with her correct name.

The children in my son's class call him Bob. And no, that is not his name. And he has no idea why it started.

Bugs said...

My name is Serenity. I logically go by Bugs. There are many people who are surprised to find out my name isn't Bugs. It was even on my wedding announcement.

Anonymous said...

My name is Aubrey, and i had the unfortunate luck of being nicknamed Arby... even my family somehow started with Brat, though I don't think I was! LOL
My kids get teased all the time by their grandpa who gives them silly nicknames, which makes my son Jalen mad to be called Pete!

CountessLaurie said...

And the whole time, the teacher probably thought you were a bit tapped for naming your child Camber but calling her Amber...

No nicknames here yet. We did call my first daughter Pooh, but everyone thought it was Poo, so we gave that up. (Although I still call her my Pooh....)

My husband just calls everyone Gert.

You may address me as Countess :-)

Cornered said...

My 5 year old was the first born grandchild in our family so my brother started calling her Queenie, she reminds him now that she is the Queenie. Hopefully she doesn't start trying to use this nickname in school.

Susan Anderson said...

At one point, my sister changed her name from "Jane" to "Elizabeth." As an older sibling, this bothered me no end!

brittany said...

I'm stuck with a relic of the 80's-Brittany. Growing up, there were always tons of Brittanys in my class. I hated it. I hate it even more now. I've never had a nickname that really stuck.

My daughter, on the other hand, is named Annalise. I ABHOR the name Anna because I hated a girl in college with that name. (I know, very mature). We call her Annalizard, or Lise, for short, but mostly just Annalise.

Stephanie said...

Since my name (Stephanie) naturally comes with a million nicknames, it was usually just a variation of that.

My husband is Christopher and somehow thought it would be cool in 2nd grade to answer only to Christopher Robin. One of the many reasons I believe we didn't meet until we were older.

We picked names for our sons that have lots of built in nicknames. Hopefully, they'll stick to one of those. Who knows though.

Karen said...

I changed my name from Karen to Karenanne.....because my cousin's name was Maryanne and I thought that was cuter.

LisaS said...

When calling out to her son, my cousin would insert between his first and last name, the phrase, "cutie puhtootie". So when he started kindergarten the teacher had all the kids introduce themselves. When he introduced himself he used the cutie puhtootie middle name.

pegzhere said...

Hey now! My name IS Peggy and I don't think it's weird (although it is a nickname so maybe that increases the cool factor). In kindergarten my son decided he didn't want to be PJ (another cool nickname for a given name we think) but would rather be called Roger. I still have no idea where he got that name from. When we said he couldn't be Roger then he started signing papers "Boost". SO we lived with Roger for awhile. it didn't stick though so don't worry!

Parenting Ink said...

My kids haven't done this YET. But my dear friend's daughter, Margot, tells everyone that her name is Annabel. This is MY daughter's name.
Needless to say, on the occasions that we do get together, it's pretty hilarious.

Sims Family said...

My daughter's name is Ainsley. She hates it. Someone once told her there was a male cook on the Food Network with that name. She is 8 and tells everyone her name is Paige.

Ruthykins said...

my kids are named emily and andrew. we call our daughter emmy. i've even forgotten on occasion that emmy isn't her real name. someone asked me if they can use nicknames for andrew like andy or drew. i told them i didn't care because i liked both of those. we call him andy sometimes, but he doesn't really like it.

cutiepiescustomcreations said...

Too funny! We purposely named our kids with names that didnt have easy nicknames to go with them... I am Jennifer and often got Jen or Jenny...i still get Jen which doesnt bother me, but I dont care to be called Jenny.... My husband is Patrick and i DETEST Pat...(sorry to all of the Pats) It reminds me of the SNL ambiguously-gendered character, lol. My oldest son, Hayden, did decide to sign all of his papers last year as "President Hayden" for a time...lol

Anonymous said...

When my youngest son, who's name is Jonas 1st started pronouncing his name it sounded like "judge". So both my husband and I started calling him Judge, then somewhere along the way I decided to give the nickname latin flare and started calling him "judgeito". Eventually I realised it sounded like I was calling him "Judge Ito" (the judge in the OJ Simpson case)

Twinlinebackers said...

You would have enjoyed being my mom when I was (C)Amber's age. I didn't have a middle name so I made one up. Or rather several. I think I had 10 and I knew them all. The only ones I remember being in there now were Strawberry Shortcake and Leah Landsbury (some baby I knew and liked).

Donna said...

I can understand that. With Donna as a name, I have no nickname and always wanted one. That's why I named our son Nicholas, so he could be Nick. :)

I will admit this...in college, after watching that movie with Angelina Jolie (Hackers), I made all my roommates call me "X". It didn't last long. Yes, very pathetic. Considering I was pretty old to be doing this. :(

darlene said...

waaayyy too funny ... one summer, when my now-almost-15-yr-old-darlinggrandson was almost 7, he informed us, his family and me, his gramma, he was not aaron, but, rather he was *ANAKIN*! and that almost-7-summer, aaron refused -- refused -- to respond to anything but *anakin* ... so anakin it was ... we laugh about it now as much as we did then ...

you go, amber ...

ps ... i always wanted to be *carol* or *sue* b/c NO ONE was named darlene when i was growing up, nor now, either ... LOL ... thanks for the memories!

The Four Week Vegan said...

No nickames here although all their names would easily convert to one Becky, Davey, and Andy. However, my dd has decided that the name Rebecca is much too ordinary and now has all her teachers call her by her middle name Leilani.

Our family said...

My kids are too small to make up nicknames for themselves, however my sister-in-law was named Stephanie at birth. She started calling herself Amy in elementary school and her parents allowed her to legally change her name (as a child). She still goes by Amy. The devilish part of me wanted to name my daughter Stephanie and just see what they said. We didn't really do that though!

Vanessa said...

Well, my name is Vanessa, and there are a lot of appropriate nicknames for Vanessa, like Nessa, Nessie, V, even Vanna. All of those are just fine with me. For about the 2 years in Middle School, I referred to myself as "Queen Giraffe V, the Great Almighty One". And I said the whole thing all the time!

My 4-year-old, Audrey, has had a million nicknames. Toj, Auds, Toji, Aud-er-ee, Skunkers, the list could really go on and on. I call her something different about every other month.

But when she makes up her own nickname, it is ALWAYS Melissa. When she is in "Melissa" mode, she will answer to nothing else!

Anonymous said...

We named our daughter Moira, and my in-laws asked if they could callher Mo-mo or Ra-ra. I said absolutely not. What stupid nicknames! Who wants to be mo-mo? Sorry to anyone who does. I do wish for her that her name had an easy nickname for it, but it does not, and we just love the name Moira (pronounced Moy-ru). Plus contrary to the complaints from both sides of the family, they can all pronounce it without a problem, even the nephews under 5. If Moira ever wants to pick out her own nickname, or even as an adult change her name, I'm ok with that, but for family members, I thought is was horribly rude of them to be so rude about the name we loved and chose for our daughter, that they would create their own stupid nickname and be surprised that I was angry about. In fact, she is 2 and I am still pretty peaved. I never told them how stupid I thought the names they chose for their kids were.
Melissa

goldengirl said...

Last year in 6th grade my daughters teachers asked if they had a nickname they preferred. My child came up with Raven. Last time I checked Raven was a very dark cartoon character not a family member of mine. This year I have gained a son named Sam. He will look really funny in all the cute clothes bought for Megan. She won't let me call her Meg or Boo or any of the cute little pet names I want....why cant the teachers just call them by the names they have been given? Seems like more work for them...

Chrissy Jo said...

When I was 14 we moved across the country. I was ready for a change of identity (not to mention I was tired of explaining the pronunciation of my name to EVERYONE who read it out loud ever) so I simply changed my name from Christyn to Chrissy. To this day the only people who call my Christyn are my siblings and my parents when they're trying to bug me. My poor mom felt a little bad that I disliked my name so, but thankfully she was a flexible mom and got over it. Yay for Flexible moms. I hope my kids will say the same thing for me someday... when they're in therapy for all the things I didn't do right . :-)

Shan B. said...

Totally laughing at your nickname "Peggy"....lol!!!

Anonymous said...

In fifth grade I insisted on being called EJ.

My son Ryan, who is cursed as the only child in our family without a really nicknameable name, started calling himself "Ry" and his brother Sam "Sa." The Sa kind of cracked me up.

Chief said...

Not my kids, but I did. I totally wanted a new identity.

I work at a school and kids(especially girls)do this to us here all the time. They come back every year with a new Nickname!

Katie said...

I am a freak about spelling things properly! I think that it is all due to the damage that was inflicted upon me in kindergarten. My maiden name is Merkl and my teacher sent me home w/a red mark across my last name each and every day for a week re-writing it MERKEL. Well it is just not spelled that way. Well it is a German name and my family is proud of it all and the way it is spelled. My mom and dad were none too pleased w/my teacher when they finally got a look at my papers. Well I decided to change my name from Catherine to Katie in the 4th grade (my family always called me Katie but I was known by my given name at school, Catherine). My 4th grade teacher (an old biddy) refused to acknowledge my nickname. It was very irritating. I, again, am scarred by another name incident.

Susan said...

My oldest (age 11) wants to be called "Joey". Her name is "Joy". I wouldn't mind changing her spelling to "Joye" (even though we tried REALLY hard to keep spellings of names "normal"), but not renaming herself after a baby kangaroo or a 4-year old boy...

She's also hung up on the fact that her first and last names are nouns. She doesn't like it at all. Sorry, kid. Wasn't thinking that far ahead.... Maybe she'll marry a Brown, Baker, Long, Short or gasp!---Gross!! Then she'll think twice!

Dayna said...

When I was 7 I wanted to change my name to Friday. (where on earth did I think of that???)

Later, when I was 13 I changed the spelling of my name like most girls do at the time. I thought my name looked plain- Dana. So I added the "y". Then I moved to a new school during that time and I continued with my new spelling and it stuck! So to this day, all forms of ID have my name spelled Dayna.

My children are Ish (Tracey) and La (Kylee). The youngest doesn't have a nickname.

Liz said...

I named my son Caleb BECAUSE there are no "natural" nicknames for it. At the ripe age of 2 1/2 he came home and informed us that his name was no longer Caleb, but we were now to address him as Cobby. It's over two years later, and everyone still calls him Cobby. He refuses to answer to Caleb.

Unknown said...

My oldest, when she was 4, declared that her new name was "Princess Butterfly World of the Pretty Things."

the cakes said...

Having the name Jessica (along with a zillion other girls my age) I detested being called Jessie or even worse - J.J. (my maiden name was Jones.) So all my kids have 4 letter names that are not nickname friendly. But I always call them by their full names. Why have a middle name if you're not ever going to use it, right? I love it when my kids introduce themselves using their full name. Its cute, for now. The only nickname we have around here is my imaginative 3 y/o who insists on being called Dash. He constantly corrects us! Hopefully that wears off soon.

Anonymous said...

Once my sister would only answer to Little Folks. Then she got a couple years older, like 5 and chose a new name. Which I can't share here because everyone still calls her that and she is now 23. It's rare to hear her given name.

Also, camber is also what it is called when you pour a concrete floor higher than the desired end result so that after it deflects, it is at the correct elevation. Just your tidbit of useless knowledge for the day. lol.

EVERY PHOTO IS A STORY CAPTURED IN A SINGLE MOMENT said...

on man this brings back memories.
My junior year in high school I had a different name for each class. Seriously

My name is Heather. I went by Celeste and Sailor Moon

Seriously for a whole year one class only new me as Sailor Moon and I signed everything as such.

Crista said...

I am loving all these comments!
For awhile I thought I wanted to be called Chris, since everyone was always messing up my name. And notice I spelled it "cHris", the "right" way. I used to hate that my name was "spelled wrong." I used to hate my name, for that matter. Now I have accepted it, but I still don't love it. I have also learned to say my name emphasizing the "A".
So, yeah, I got issues :)
On a lighter note, a friend of a friend named her kids with nicknames. She reasoned that since they were planning to call the children by their nicknames, why give them a longer name? So their birth certificates actually say, "Andy" and "Lexa".

Erin said...

that's funny. my kids are too young to make up nicknames. but, my sister's name is Katie. Just Katie. She had a teacher in 5th grade decide that her name could not be Katie (b/c it wasn't a saint's name and this was a catholic school), so she would send home her papers with all variations of names - Kathleen, Catherine, etc. My mom had to have a sit down discussion with the teacher because she did not believe my sister.

cd said...

not really a nickname but my oldest son for years would say his middle name was Dinnertime. So anytime you asked his name he would say, "Damon Dinnertime Dolezal". And it was the cutest thing ever. We could never figure out why he thought that until my sister called me on it one day saying it was my fault. By asking him to come to the table for dinner I would say, "Damon, dinnertime." The poor kid got confused.

My other son (who is naturally hilarious) hates his name, Xavier. So he announced one day at dinner that he was changing it to Rae. In his brain, Rae is a much cooler name.

mintifresh said...

For some reason I was trying to get the name 'Charger' to stick when referring to me. Don't ask me why.

When my nephew started school a couple years ago, he wrote his name backwards on his assignment. To this day he is known by our family as "T. bocaJ"

Deirdre said...

We chose Daniel for our son's name thinking we wouldn't mind hearing "Dan" or "Danny." But he won't answer to anything except Daniel. He won't even look at someone who says, "Hey, Dan." He thinks they're talking to someone else.

As for me, my parents named me Deirdre Margaret. And called me Megan. It was even in my birth announcement! No idea why, even my mom can't explain it. When I went to college, I made the change back to Deirdre and only a few people still call me Megan.

Anonymous said...

kind of off topic, but i inevitably think of the friends episode where Phoebe becomes "Princess Consuela Bananahammock" and then Mike decides he is "Crap Bag". awesome.

Surlygirly said...

When I was in the 3rd grade, I really tried hard to get everyone to call me Candy instead of Mandi. Yeah, that didn't happen. I was so bummed. And you'd be surprised how many people I've come across who don't know Mandy is a nickname for Amanda.

But I do spell my name with an "i" because when I was in kindergarten, I had a really hard time making y's. So my dad told me there was another way to spell my name- with an i. I was so stoked and used to spell it MandI. Luckily, once the novelty of the i wore off, I quit capitalizing it.

I didn't start using Amanda until I started working and it seemed more grown up.

Scot and Evie said...

This is funny. I had friends that wished they had a unique name and I wanted it to be the opposite.

My real name is Evalinda (Thanks mom). In first grade my friends and I came up with calling me Evie. It stuck with me. My mom and siblings went along with it, but my dad/grandparents still refer to my given name.

Kiki said...

Lil' D has made no nicknames up for himself, but each member of our extended family has about 5 nicknames each for lil' D. He used to be confused a few years back, but he now responds to all of them. Big D and I have about 10-15 names we use for him. Same goes for the dogs. I wanted to change my name so badly as a kid. I hated the spelling. I wanted to be Katherine so I could be called Kat. Then I wanted it changed to Ursula from the Little Mermaid. Still love the name. Lil' D would have been Ursula if he had been a girl. No matter how much my family hated it. I do have a few nicknames: Nina, Tina, Lulu, Mama-Katina, and Kiki. Take care.
-Kiki

Lynn said...

My son at 5 1/2 insisted that I call him "Mr. Stinky Head".

Leanne said...

My son's not old enough to choose a nickname, but when I was little I refused to answer to anything but "Jessica." It didn't last long because my parents refused to call me anything but my given name!

Jen@Scrapingirl said...

My daughter wishes her name was Sarah. She get's it from Liberty's Kids. But I won't give in. :)

Anonymous said...

Where to BEGIN? My son Christopher goes by his middle name Zach. My daughter Amariah goes by her middle name Caelyn. My son Keiran goes by his toddler name "Tank" (he refused to walk around walls he ran into, preferring to make the wall give way). Step-daughter Cashandra goes by Shandy or Casha. Shahana goes by Hana. But they DO come by it honestry. Their father, born Michael Eric, changed his name at the age of nine to Eric Michael, to honor deceased grandfather Eric ... whose name was actually DEXTER Eric. My given name is Peri ... and no one listened when I demanded to be "Diana." So ... I'm still Peri! Named for a Persian elf at the ripe old age of 52. Now isn't THAT silly?

Sam said...

My Daughters name is ASHLYN during 1st grade she wanted to go by SHELBY : )

Anonymous said...

Both of my teenage daughters have adopted new monikers. Amanda's self-given nickname is Mandy-Divine and Misty is now known as Cupcake.

When I was a child for some reason I thought being known as Tony would be very cosmopolitan and my best friend Debbie changed her name to Daphne because she was a huge "Dark Shadows” fan. Thankfully, it never caught on...


My best friend Debbie changed her name to Daphnie because she was a huge "Dark Shadows " fan.

Crystal said...

haha! That is so funny! I had a nickename for myself when I was younger. I called myself kissyfur from this cartoon show I had as a kid. I made everyone call me it for the longest time! My dad still reminds me of it to this day!

Donna said...

No, I have boys, who could care less about their names. On the other hand I hated my given name and wanted to be called Diana when I was younger. Now I realize my foolishness.

Yvette said...

My name is Yvette since most people dont have this name I just wanted to be normal. Sometimes I asked to be called Sandy from the movie "Grease" of course.

thepedaller said...

Our son (3 yrs) has not come up with a nickname for himself just one for me Emmo (my name is Emily). Whenever he calls me 'Emmo' I feel like I should be some kind of rapper or something.

Unknown said...

When my daughter Renee was riding in a stroller at age two, she was asked her name. She replied, "Snow White!"

I think the woman who asked believed her!

My sons Ken and Neal became "Koala Man" and "Chest Man" for several weeks. Later, Neal became "Jack Stone."

Andy said...

I insisted on being called Robin for about a year. I was a huge fan of Robin Hood and Batman's sidekick. Fortunately, I had an understanding teacher and mom who just went along with it until I decided Andy was good enough for me.

Jacquie said...

I was Nicki, Ten'al Ka, Rei, I had different nick names for different groups of people that I hung out with, Now I am called Bunny so it never really changed lol.

Cindy Stagg said...

hahahhahahaha peggy! hahahahhahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 LOVE IT!

Liz said...

My 6 year old Samantha was desperate to switch names with her sister (Molly, 15). She begged for a few days til I gave in. So I started calling her Molly and of course she felt awkward and told me, NEVER MIND.

Unknown said...

Since we live in the land of Duke, and there's always the danger of someone d-r-a-w-l-i-n-g out a child's name, we gave ours very concise nicknames before they were even born. They're content with it and dread being called by their formal names.
On the other hand, I do recall announcing to my (very conservative, opposite-end-of-the-spectrum from hippie) parents one day that I should henceforth be referred to as 'Sunshine'. I remember their exchanged looks of shock/horror, the outbursts of laughter, and then the, "Um, no you're not." :)

Anonymous said...

My kindergarten teacher called me "Maylox" at my request. I don't remember exactly what sparked this desired name... but it's very funny to look at the papers my mother saved with "Maylox" written at the top.

The Taskers said...

My daughter hasn't "officially" changed her name, but at 3 1/2 she is majorly into pretend play and is a different "character" each day. She also renames her brother - who at 21 months has no idea why she yells "Diego, come here" one day and "Brother Bear, come here" the next. She also changes the names of her stuffed animals just about daily and I'm constantly being told, "Mommy, that's not Charlie, that's Buster" (or whatever). I think its funny when she doesn't let me know who she is, I have to guess and she'll finally answer me when I guess correctly.

*Lyndsey said...

My given name is Jennifer Lyndsey, but I was always called by my middle name. As a child, I frequently tried to change my name back to Jennifer, because I thought it was a MUCH cooler name. I even got angry when my parents would have engraved things with "Lyndsey". As an adult, though, I really like my name (along with it's unique spelling) so the only time I use my first name is when I have to speak to someone from my corporate office. I sign everything "J. Lyndsey" though. Or just J.L. because I'm lazy.

I never really had an actual nickname that friends gave me...my family calls me Zee Zee, or just Zee to this day, and I'm 25. :)

leslie said...

My daughter's name is Libby...but she is always trying to convince everyone to call her Jessica! She is 7 years old and she's been calling herself Jessica for about three years now.

Mindi D said...

Yes my 4 year old has sa new name every day!! She doesn't like Jerzi anymore. She has been Hattie, Kenbe, Racy and a few others lately! I love to hear who she is each day it's hilarious!
Also when i was 7 i was Mindi Ted, because i didn't have a middle name i chose my own. It was my dads name! Ha ha we are funny people!

Red She Said said...

I think this story is so funny and I can totally relate Peggy. Ha ha.

When my daughter was four she was obsessed with the Power Puff Girls - specifically Blossom. She wanted to BE Blossom and I still have a bunch of her preschool artwork that she signed "Blossom." One day when she was called on in class (by her real name) she yelled at the teacher, "My name is BLOSSOM!!!" We had to have a little talk about respect over that one.
If it makes you feel any better, she is now 11 and doesn't seem to recall ever demanding that anyone refer to her as Blossom.

Also, I have a cousin who is named after his dad, but when he was a baby everyone called him "Mister" - a name that never fully went away. Even as a junior high student he was called this. Last year we went to the zoo together and somehow got separated from him. So my family walked around the zoo yelling, "MISTER!!!! Where are you Mister?!!" People must have thought we were all crazy.

Heather said...

My son, Henry, is usually known as "H", "H-Man", "H-Bomb", "bomber", or "Punk". Don't ask. My daughter, Anne, is "Scooby Doo"

Jo's girl said...

when I first discovered the name Channing (hard CH like "change") I fell madly in love and vowed to name my 1st born that whether it was a boy or girl. well our beautiful daughter thankfully fits the name and I adore that my plan worked. until she hit preschool and every one there is stupid and insists on calling her shanning. she has even taken to correcting the handful of intelligent folk who get it right. sometimes I could just scream.

and recently my other daughter has been called emily when her name is emma -it's not even weird. what is wrong with people! emma is a freaking classic! you can't tell me you haven't heard of emma before. I swear some people.

amysue said...

I love reading all the comments, wish I would have named my kids 1,2,3,and 4.

Erin said...

OMG My 1st name is Peggy and I HATE it, so I have always gone by my middle name Erin...so when my mom calls me at work and I answer the phone and say This is Erin she says "I thought your mother named you Peggy-Erin" And I always say yes she did, she was out of her mind! =) But I promised her I would not legally change it while she was alive haha

Amy said...

My 4 yr old recently told his dad and I that his name was "the other Max" I said, oh, hi, Max. He said no, mom! The Other Max!! LOL his big brothers name is Max.

Unknown said...

My daughter does not have a middle name. When her kindergarten class started learning their middle names her dad, Ted, told her she didn't have one so she could pick whatever she wanted. She came home the next day with Mindi Ted on all her papers.
So funny!!

Tanya said...

WHen I was 9, I had my hair CHOPPED off and people claimed they didn't recognize me, so some friends and I decided I was one of their cousins from Canada and named Nancy (because I'd seen a movie that took place in Canada and the girl's name was Nancy...) Yes, all of my assignements for a few weeks were signed "Nancy".

My little sister's nickname was George from the old Daffy Duck/Bugs Bunny cartoon with the abominable snowman. At bedtime she wanted Daddy to rock her and hold her and love her...and there it came! She answered to George til she was about 7.

Cam said...

My daughter tells everyone her name is Sassy- in particular I've enjoyed her saying, "I'm Sassy" to the bishop as we went for our tithing settlement, to her pediatrician and random people and clerks at the grocery store. She picked it up from the movie, "Homeward Bound."

Anonymous said...

Our kids' nicknames came about during pregnancy or shortly after birth....Hammie (9), Tater Toes (5), and Noodle (3)...wih Sweet Pea (decided on by the other children) on the way. Niece and nephew ended up with Cake and Puddin'. No, we don't like food at all...

Hammie changes her name with the weather...Tater Toes has decided his name is Eagle Eyes, but coming out of HIS mouth it sounds like Evil Eyes...between the two of them,they have decided that Noodle is now Schmuzzy. Some people call him Van, since he was born in the van...to the point that some friends' mothers thought his actual name was Van, they had never heard him refered to by his birth name, ha!

twinzmama said...

My grandpa and aunt always call me Shanna Lynne but my name is Shannon Gayle, not sure how they came up with it but that's what it's always been. My SIL's name is Kathrine but growing up she changed it every year. My favorite...Kate the Great, which she went by as a freshman in college!!

Anonymous said...

I think this is super common with girls. My daughter has a very unique name, Elizabella, and whenever I go to school and tell them I am Elizabella's mom, they say,"Who?". She goes by Ellie, Bella, Lala, and Isabella. Not all of those nicknames are by choice and at first I didn't make a big deal b/c we kinda expected it with the name we gave her, but when she started telling people her name was Isabella when asked, I drew the line. LOL

Rocket Ma'am said...

My kids don't like the nicknames that I give them, so they eventually rebel to the original form. I'd like to say it was all part of my master plan, but alas, it was not.

Anonymous said...

LOL... You are hilarious! I have a first grader, I am so familiar... His name is Jackson so naturally his nickname is Jack. However, when I was a kid, I constantly changed my name (Jennifer, Jenny, and Jenn weren't enough) In the second grade I would only answer to "Frankie"!

Esther said...

Ethan spent much of last year in kindergarten signing his papers as either "Indiana Jones" or "Rex." Michael's comment? HILARIOUS!

Robin said...

I am to call my son "Professor Hill" until further notice. He's 7 and years away from becomming a "professor".

Rachel said...

My son Tucker at the age of 6 decided he was Zachary. The simple reason was that all the license plates, pencils, notepads, cups, etc. you could buy with names on them had "Zachary" available every time. "Tucker" was never an option. He outgrew it!

Becky said...

I'm pretty sure my trapper keeper from third grade had that very same picture on it!

Maree said...

Yeah, like you really NEED more comments! My daughter, Hannah, gave herself nicknames: Princess, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Elizabeth (her middle name). She does not care for the name her Dad and I have chosen for her....

My son, Christopher, goes by Topher. Except that my father insists on calling him Chris...If we'd wanted another "Chris" we'd have named him thus.

ME said...

My sons name is Stephen Carland during the first practice of soccer season, which was being coached by the coach's 17 year old pretty daughter, my son in an attempt to appear cool made up a shortened version of his name. He has a friend AJ and knows that it is short for Anthony Joseph. But Stephen didn't get it quite right. When the girl asked allt he kids what they like to be called, Stephen ( who was 8 at the time) with a certain swager responded, "You can call me ST". And without batting an eyelash that is what the girl called him from then on out.

Emily said...

My daughter, Macy, insisted that she wanted to change her name to "Princess Ballerina." We told her that she can do whatever she wants when she's 18. But I think she might rethink that one.

Ber said...

My name is Amber (in real life), and I don't ignore you :) Love yer blog baby!

the higgins' said...

My daughter hasn't given herself a nickname, but she did decide to spell her name differently, for some reason. She liked it better. :)

Hilary said...

When I was little I couldn't say Hilary. So when someone would ask my name I would tell them it was "Harold".

When my second son was in 4th grade he began signing his papers "Nacho". He could never explain why.

When I was pregnant with my daughter one of my older sons wanted to name her chicken. It's a good thing it didn't stick past pregnancy.

Renee said...

My youngest has been called "Sissy" pretty much since the day she was born; and if you try to call her anything else (other than her given name also of course), she will promptly tell you "I'm Sissy!" Too funny. My son's nickname is Joey, and he will let you know this if called by his birth name. Sometimes my in-laws call my oldest Maddie and my youngest Mac (which I can't stand!). That's about it though. I've always wanted to change both my first and middle names though, but I don't remember any nicknames in school.

Colette said...

My boys decided that they would give themselves nicknames. My oldest James decided he would be J-man. Tyler decided he would be Ty.

Meagan and John said...

We actually had a club where we took our initials and that was our club name--my friend was SARG(her first name was sarah and she later fell in love with a boy whose last name started with an A so here initials would be SARAH), my sister was KAG, but my initials where MCG, later a friend (not in the club) called me MCGregory.

When hercules came out I tried to get people to call me Megorah, until some one called me Meagadork, people would call me meg which didn't make sense to me cause my name was meagan, not megan, some nicknames people gave to me I won't admit, but when it came to my son's name we were very careful and named him Johnathan Dominic giving him a plethora of nickname oppertunities, the one we didn't realize till it was too late was Dom--which my brother insisted on calling him (cause we call him Dominic)

Funny enough though, is that my son is in his 2nd year of head start and last year he went by Dominic, this year the teachers says that policy is they go by the name on their birth certificate and so they call him Johnathan and my on is so bothered by this, it is a real issue for him, he even told me one day after school that he didn't like it and that his dad was Shawn (that is how he says john) and that his name was Dominic not Shawnathan--he was devastated when I had to break it to him that his name was in fact Johnathan

Tami said...

Hilarious! My 4-yr-old is now insisting her name is "Snow White." The 6-yr-old is now "Belle." The 9-yr-old is wondering why he doesn't have a nickname but hasn't bothered to give himself one. And the 2-yr-old just says, "I a robot."

Sheryl said...

Suprisingly, I picked Peggy as my name as well. Unusual pick, glad my name is Sheryl

Pam said...

My 9 year old son made his own nicknames: Billy Bob and King Louis. Needless to say, we don't call him either. We do, however, call him "EE" because his brother couldn't say "Ethan".

vanilla said...

Wheel alignment setting vs. fossilized tree sap.

Good one, Peggy.

No disrespect. I think Camber is a perfectly great name for a little girl.

Character Builder said...

In 1st or 2nd grade or so, I wanted to be "Strawberry." I have no idea why.

mykideatsdirt said...

My oldest, Chloe, is 7 and has been called "Chlo-bo Barrunga" by my husband since birth. I sometimes call her Cee Cee.

My 5 year old is Brenna, and the whole family calls her "Brenna-Bee" and sometimes Bee Bee.

My 7 month old is Hallie (NOT like Halle Berry- the pronounciation is HAY-lee) However, it did not start out that way. Everyone kept tripping up her name going between the pronounciation of Halle and HAY-lee and HAY-lee seemed to be the more popular one so that's what we stuck with and kept the spelling the same, because well...it works...AND I'm not paying $60 to change her name! If she wants to change it when she turns 18, then so be it.

Back onto the topic of nicknames, she was very colicky when she was born so she has been dubbed "Hallie waily" and it has stuck since then. lol My older girls want to call her Lee Lee so it matches their nicknames. Sure! Cute!

Kim said...

My son, Benjamin, decided to go by Ben this year. Why? Because he doesn't want to write all of those letters on his name spot on his papers!!

Anonymous said...

My name is Breezi. Yep.. Just like the wind. I always hated it growing up, because it was an 'odd-ball' name. I vowed that my children would have nice normal names... and that we would name our kids exactly what we were going to call them.
Our first daughter, we named Alli Rose. even though her name is a nick name we still call her Albers, Alli Rose buckets, A-l-l, Bers... etc
Our second daughter we named Maggie Grace. She usually goes by Moo, Maggie Mo, or Moomers. Poor kid.

We have a friend who is a little messed up, and named her kids after places. Arizona, Alexiandria, and Geneva. She was reading the Twilight novel when she was prego with the 4th... his name is now Edward.
Her kids have about 10 nick names a piece, including Spaz, Spew, Peanut, etc.. that the kids actually go by.

Unknown said...

My three year old son Liam has started saying that his name is Liam Spencer. We don't know anyone names Spencer.

Kim said...

I teach high school. Some of the best nick names I ever saw were: Dance Machine Jammenstein, Groovalicious Shockwave and my personal favorite, the Nebraska Canasta Masta. All three of these "gentlemen" were in the same class period and these were the names they wrote on the tops of their papers. They were so creative, I couldn't even object.

Bouchard Family said...

Leagally my son's name is Joseph Christopher. He goes by JC though. Except he has a Budda Belly so I ahve taken to calling him Budda. My husband calls him Meathead from the show All in the Family- that was the nickname Archie called the son-in-law. Lord knows what he will get called in school. I just pray it isn't the booger nose picker eatter kid or something horrible like that.

Anonymous said...

My 3 year old son is changing his name to Red Ferrari.

Jessica B said...

My name is Jessica -- when I was a little kid, I was the only one in the entire elementary school named Jessica, so it was kind of unique, but not unique enough for me! I wanted to be called NieNie Carmichael ( oh, I cannot even begin to explain why...), but only my older sister would call me that. The two nicknames I had for years growing up that most people called me(besides the obvious Jess ot Jessee) were Jet or Joot.
I did nickname my cousin Kathy, as Kat, and that has stuck to this day.

Anonymous said...

My oldest daughter's name is Kara, and I have always called her KitKat. It really bugged me when people called her "Kare-bear." My middle daughter's name is Megan, and I call her Meggie-Cat (I guess I have a cat theme going here, LOL), and her siblings usually call her Megster-Mookster, or Moogenstein (??). Our youngest daughter, named Brooke is often Brookie or Brookster, and my 12 yr old son Alex answers to Axe, Axel or Axeman.

Jessica B said...

I call my youngest daughter Lala or Hummy (she hums ALL of the time). When I was expecting my middle daughter, my son, who was 3 at the time, wanted to name her Baby Jesus (however, he called it Baby Cheeses), and my neice wanted to name her Little Gogi (after her grandmother). She in turn, requested to name her baby sister Chip Chip when she was first born. Kids are funny with what they come up with...

Sybil said...

When I was little I can remember my mom getting a phone call from my brother, Jack's, teacher at school. The teacher told her she needed to come in for a teacher conference for Jake. Mom told her she had the wrong parent and hung up! ha ha. It took another phone call for my mom to figure out what was going on.

My name is Sybil so I had the opposite problem, other kids gave me nicknames like Scribble, civil, syllable, etc.

Mary Ellen said...

My kids aren't old enough to make up nicknames yet, but as a child I insisted upon being called Bianca for several months. And Stacey shortly thereafter.

~C~ said...

In 3rd grade I INSISTED on going by my middle name, Lynn, because my name (Casey) is spelled in the masculine form and I was upset by that I guess. It only lasted that school year and to this day I'll find random notes or whatever that I'd written with the name Lynn at the top and think "who on earth is Lynn and why do I have her old school papers". My sister Stephanie went through a similar phase, wanting to be called Sam since that's what her initials spelled out and she didn't like her name anymore, that lasted a few years. But now she's Stephanie again and I've come to appreciate my manly name, except when I get those random ED solicitations in the mail or emails about male enhancement stuff.

~C~ said...

My kids Brett, Jacob, and Allyson go by a variety of nicknames...
Brett- B, Stinkerpants, Monkey
Jacob, Jake, Jakers, Shakey Jakey
Allyson, Ally, Ally-Cat, Ally-gator, Ally-baba, Allouisis. Poor thing thought her name was Ally cat for a long time. Now she says "Ally Morban (Morgan) thassss my firs names" (she'll be three next saturday)

Anonymous said...

My daughter wants to be called Awesome J and my son (Isaiah) wants to be called Williams.

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Jules said...

When my son Jack was 5 he wanted to be called Kevin!!, we spent about a week calling him Kevin, but then, that wasn't enough, he not only wanted to change his name, but the colour of his skin!!, he decided he wanted to be 'brown' (we're Irish and so pale white we're almost blue!!)

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Vanessa2 said...

ha this is so funny well my name is Vanessa n I'm 15. I don't have many nicknames (necha,nea, n my older brother always calls me little girl or barney) :p ha but I remember for about 3 soccer season everyone called me barney I alwayz thought it was funny when I saw the videos of my games cuz you can hear people yellin Barney I'm open!!! Haha super funny.
but I also remember when my lil brother was little everyone called him chewy but my dad always called him '' pokemon trainer from san-fan city'' (haha he loved pokemon) :p but on his first day of kindergarten the teacher was takin roll n she said '' jesus c.??'' n she walked up to my lil bro n said ''isnt that you?'' n he said no my name is pokemon trainer from san-fran city to fight the evil sabrina!!. My bro is crazy like that haha but it was funny when his teacher called my parents for a meetin XP

Vanessa2 said...

ha this is so funny well my name is Vanessa n I'm 15. I don't have many nicknames (necha,nea, n my older brother always calls me little girl or barney) :p ha but I remember for about 3 soccer season everyone called me barney I alwayz thought it was funny when I saw the videos of my games cuz you can hear people yellin Barney I'm open!!! Haha super funny.
but I also remember when my lil brother was little everyone called him chewy but my dad always called him '' pokemon trainer from san-fan city'' (haha he loved pokemon) :p but on his first day of kindergarten the teacher was takin roll n she said '' jesus c.??'' n she walked up to my lil bro n said ''isnt that you?'' n he said no my name is pokemon trainer from san-fran city to fight the evil sabrina!!. My bro is crazy like that haha but it was funny when his teacher called my parents for a meetin XP

Anonymous said...

I so disagree ! My niece is Sarah and I call her SaSa...... hope u like it ;)