Funny how conversations go all over the place and things you haven't thought of in dog's years come up.
Today, while reading the riot act to Billy for his general lack of using noggin, nicknames came up. And so, beginning with a diaper-inspired first nickname, I recall all the nicknames I've had. Why? I don't know. It's a relief from all the serious crapola going on.
Stinky. The first, and what my 2 eldest brothers called me til they died. Billy calls me Rora now but for years he called me Babe.
Laura Begorrah... Grammar school. Rhyming was big.
Lady Jane, Bratinella, Mother Laura Stella. Thanks to Mom. I knew what was in store by which name she called me.
Fat Stuff. A charmer from my Uncle Bert.
Moose...from the old block. We were all animals.
Bubbles... Junior High. Possibly because I laughed a lot?
Janis... High school. I think every hippie girl was called Janis at some point, if you were one after the original was dead. I was also Queen Hortense, Nard, Laura-Aura, Jaybird, and still Bubbles, depending on who was talking.
Treasure... this was post-college, when roommates named me after a character on "Gidget". The character was named Mary Eleanor Chest, "but the boys all call her Treasure". It's still used by a few, as it made a comeback in the union drive when we used pirate names in things.
Mama Duck... when Seth was living with Ian and me, he was like our ward. Ian was Papa Duck and Seth was Little Duck. It's now only used by Dodo, and he calls me Mama Q (for Quack).
The Whore of Bethlehem. What Anthony at the Magickal Childe called me. He was confused, everyone laughed, and so it stuck.
annikee. I use this as a nom-de-net but certain people use it to my face. It was a Dutch friend's name and I always liked it. The bonus is it's a lot like "anarchy".
Fitty Cent... after the rapper, but not because of rapping. It's a long story.
It seems, including my real name, I've answered to 19 names.
And now I'm wondering if I should use a pen name for the Beest book.
Can a person have too many names?
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MYSTERIOUS GARDEN
10 months ago
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6 comments:
All your names compose a delightful history, Austan. Post is well-titled but I still wonder why Shirley Ellis never responded to prompts of "Chuck, do Chuck!"
I don't believe a person can have too many names.
We are a different person in each of them. Sometimes contradictory people. Which is fine.
Depending on the time of our life, we show different parts of our personality. So Bubbles, it sounds like you had an interesting life.
As long as you don't get confused lol. A good many of us refer to you as Austin even though we know your real name.
As someone who has been going through a bunch of names recently (Raven being the latest), I'm learning to be open to different names, depending on what people feel comfortable calling me.
I'll call you whatever you want to be called. (But I do like 'annikee'.)
I never had all that many nicknames. My hubby has been calling me Hot Rod for the past fifty years or so. (I know... terribly romantic. HA!) My mother used to call me Suzabelle from time to time. I used to tell her it made me sound like a cow, but I'd give anything to hear her say it again. One of my aunts used to call me Lurch, and that's because of my, um, extreme amount of grace and decorum as a teenager. (Yeah, right!) And one fella I dated back in the Dark Ages called me Droopy Drawers for a while because of a reeeeeally funny underwear malfunction that occurred after exiting a restaurant.
Do I think it's possible to have too many names? Nah, especially when they're terms of endearment with special meaning, like yours. Relish them.
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