Nickname Onomastics

The unfortunate thing about nicknames is that you don't get to choose your own. Sure, you can try to get your friends to call you something cool like..."Chaz", but these kind of nicknames never really stick. [Except when your friends decide to mock you because you picked a ridiculous nickname for yourself (like "Chaz")]. This was proven once recently when I tried to give myself the name "Murgatriod" during our last laser tag outing. Fumbling with the phonics of my new nickname I penned "Mergatroid" on my registration. When laser packs were being assigned "Megatroid" got pack #7.

In contrast, a nickname with real staying power is usually bestowed by those that proport to be your friends. The nickname is often born from some episode in which you've distinguished yourself (usually in a not-so-famous way) or due to some unfortunate play on your name. I cannot adequately describe how much I loathe the marketers of Bengay for deciding on this particular name for their product.

It's not uncommon for an individual to answer to more than one nickname at a time. In second grade I was known by my classmates as "Bean" (again, due to another unfortunate mispelling incident) while my brothers affectionately called me "Admiral Nanny" (I'll let Jon or Allison address this one). Quinn was "Qwanbee" or "Qwan" and "Quinnafred". Alan was "Gloworm" and "Bagel" (Big-Al).

(I know this isn't really finished, but I just had another idea for a blog entry and this entry kind of got away from me already....)