What’s in a nickname?
Do our nicknames mean more than our names?
We know Shakespeare’s often quoted “What’s in a name?” from Romeo and Juliet. But my question is, “What’s in a nickname?” I have always been fascinated by names, but more so by the nicknames folks are given by their near and dear ones.
I first became cognizant of nicknames when I used to visit Punjab, and my young cousins were called nicknames like Montu, Chintu, Pinky, and so on. These names didn’t describe them, nor were they short forms of their given names, so I don’t know how they came to have their nicknames. The amusing part of this was how these nicknames were used by the family and people outside the family. I used to find it very confusing to figure out who was who with respect to their given names. During his childhood, my dad was called ‘Mangi,’ which had nothing to do with his name. But this name stuck to him in his family.
I found this practice of giving children nicknames that were widely used by people in and outside of the family to be very interesting because, in the area of Bengaluru where I grew up, this habit of giving nicknames was not common. Either the given names were used, or people would be called either brother or sister or simply “kid!” In public, it was always the given name. Culturally, I found the approaches towards nicknames quite different between the northern and southern parts of India.
This practice of giving nicknames made me think about how my family members, both young and old, were given amusing nicknames.
Being christened with nicknames
My mom had a couple of nicknames; one was Mimi, and the other was C.O. The former was coined by my grandfather because he loved the name having come across it in a book. My dad coined the nickname C.O., which means ‘chicdoo one’ (one who is small). This was in comparison with my dad, whose nickname was D.O., which means ‘doddadoo one’ (one who is big). My dad looked a lot bigger than the local Bengaluru folks back in the days since he was from Punjab, and I guess that was the inspiration behind the names. These names were words made up of slang Kannada words. They have used these nicknames, C.O. and D.O., for each other for as long as I can remember. My entire extended family calls my mom Mimi.
My dad used to call my maternal grandmother ‘EMIL’ (pronounced me-mil), which meant ‘Excellent mother-in-law’! He used to call her sister, who spent most of her life in New Delhi, ‘Capi’ to indicate that she was from the capital of India. Both used to have a smile on their faces when thus addressed.
My grandmother used to call me ‘Celluloid Bombe’ (meaning a doll made of celluloid) since I was somewhat fair and looked cute like a doll once upon a time. Grandmothers can be pretty biased! She never stopped calling me that nickname, even after I married. My mom used to call me ‘TTB’ (two-tailed bun), because I used to have two long braids in school and ran extremely fast in my school track events, like a bunny! Once I transitioned into having only one long braid, my name was promptly changed to ‘OTB’ (one-tailed bun) or simply Bun. She still calls me Bun. Once I left India and phone calls were common, Mom coined a new nickname for me, ‘Annakantaki’ (one who interrupts someone who is eating). Mom claims that I always call when she’s eating!
My brother was called ‘Cheshire Cat’ or CC after the character in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll because he always had a silly grin. As you probably know, whenever the cat’s body used to disappear, the Cheshire Cat’s grin was the last to fade. Hence, the nickname suited my brother perfectly!
As we grew up, my mom, brother, and I came up with a dozen or so interesting nicknames for my dad, of which I only remember the following:
- Onion Octopus: since he used to love eating raw onions
- Tardy Tarantula: Dad was never tardy, but it sounded cool
- Mushy Mushy: because he was mushy (a softie) by nature
- Grouchy Gorilla: Dad was never grouchy, but I did my best to push him to his limits, and when I failed, I still coined this nickname
- Hungry Hippo: because he used to love snacking
- Tummy Tortoise: because he had a cute belly that resembled the shell of a tortoise
- Cunning Crocodile: because he would get his own way by being nice, but we felt he was ‘cunning’ in how he went about it
He was a good sport who never minded us calling him these various nicknames and would tease us by asking, “What am I today?”
My husband was not spared either. He once declared to my mom that he was Uber smart, so promptly, my mom gave him his nickname ‘Mensa Mensinkai,’ where, of course, Mensa is a reference to the high IQ section of people, and Mensinkai meant ‘chili’ in the Kannada language.
Once my kids grew up to know my mom, they started calling her ‘T-REX pati or T-pati,’ where pati means grandmother, and T-REX because she’s a fierce, strong woman who can’t tolerate nonsense.
My son’s nickname given by my mom is ‘kuri,’ meaning sheep in the Kannada language, because he used to have curly hair when he was a kid.
My daughter got her nickname ‘Nagosaurus’ because ever since she could write meaningfully, she used to leave notes all over the house, nagging us. For example, it would be something like “Don’t pack dish X for school,” “Make sure the curtains are completely closed,” “Don’t leave the tap dripping,” “Keep the check for the school trip in my bag tonight,”and so on. We used to call these ‘nag notes,’ giving rise to her well-deserved nickname.
Although we use these nicknames at home, we never refer to ourselves by these nicknames in public. But I think these creative nicknames define us as individuals in our family and reflect our quirky personalities. In a sense, these nicknames are more relatable than our actual names.
Do any of you have creative nicknames? I would love to hear them!
