Nicknames. I love them. For myself, for others, for things, for anything. I have secret nicknames for some of you (jilly bean, I'm looking at you. even though I know you don't like jilly bean, I just can't help it in my head). I think I get the nickname thing from my mom--afterall, she is the one who gave me the nickname TriniCapini, which as many of you know is my Twitter handle and other various usernames across the web. This has been shortened to Trini, Trin, and even Tri Tri (the i is long so sounds like Tree-knee-Ca-pee-knee). Trini Capini is just one of many nicknames--friends have called me all sorts of variations of Tricia and Trish (I went by Tricia until college...a story for another time).
I've had about ten trillion nicknames for all of the various pets that I've had and just as many names for Scott. He drew the line when I called him Chalupa once so now most of the time it's just Scotty. Or honey bunny boo. Or lovey. Or... I know those are mostly terms of endearments rather than nicknames, but they kind of blur together. I'm sure it irritates him but I can't help it and my nicknaming isn't about to go away.
Many of you have asked about how Elle received her nickname Chickpea Banana (or CpB for short, but usually with "the" in front--The Chickepea Banana. The CpB). And if you're my niece Emma, it's Chickme Bamama Gurell (a very Texan way to say Girl). But remember how she was once Baby Billy Bob? And then Little Miss Baby Bill Sue? This nicknaming business started back when she was just a little peanut.
Chickpea Banana was half processed and half organic. My mom calls my niece sweetpea and peapod so naturally Elle was another pea; I always liked chickpea.. When she was a baby, I sang to her all the time (still do) and one day while I was peeling my banana I was singsonging Chiquita Banana which morphed into Chickpea Banana which I then started to sing to her and...it stuck. For the record she's also called Ellie Belly Boop and Ellie P Jelly and according to Emma her name IS Baby Elle. We never call her Ellie by itself--it's a cute name but seems so different from Elle and not very fitting of her personality.
I'm sure that by the time she's my age Elle will have had a million nicknames. And since her true name is Elizabeth there's even more room for moniker changes. But for now she'll be my little Chickpea Banana. And doesn't she just look like a little chickpea banana??
Do you have any particular nicknames? Did the name evolve from something particular or just sort of happen?
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When I was a wee one, everything got an "ee" sound at the end. Grandma became Grammy, my brother Brian was Bri-ee, etc. My mom wanted to call the new cat Coconut (we were living in Hawaii) but she, of course, became Coconutty. I still tend to do it with pets but not so much with the kid because I hate the name that his becomes with an ee at the end. As for me, my siblings and my mom call me Kris but that's the only nickname I've ever had. One of my great grandmas called me Kersten but that's not exactly a nickname. She just got my name wrong for some reason. ;)
ReplyDeleteShe's the most adorable Chickpea Banana I'VE ever seen!
ReplyDeleteI've been called lots of things in my life, most of them good. Heather gets shortened to Heath a lot, said like the Heath in Heather, not like Heath Ledger. People at a job I once had called me Heather-Meather. And some little brat in kindergarten called me Heather Feather all the time. My little 5 year old self wanted to pound him, let me tell ya. And then, my favorite, of course, is Mama. :)
I never had a funny nickname and neither did my children, really just an occasional cut short version of their first names. I did have a habit , when i mad at my children, of calling them by their first, middle and last names for emphasis. Your little chickapee banana is much cuter than a banana:)
ReplyDeleteI don't have anything against nicknames for other people, but usually dislike nicknames people have tried for me. But Baby Shane is another story. I still occasionally call him Baby Shane, but now he's able to correct me himself - no baby, just Shane. :-)
ReplyDeleteCarl has a nickname that everyone in his family and hometown uses. When Vance was small he had a voracious appetite and I started calling him Pork Chop which I quickly shortened to Chopper. Carl put a stop to it because he has not enjoyed having a nickname.
ReplyDeleteYour Chickpea Banana is a doll!
This was so cute, Trish. Loved hearing all your nicknames and I do remember calling my daughter lots of different things. Her name is Samantha and she informed us very seriously at the age of 2 that we should not call her Sam. It was a boy's name. So, we shortened it to Manthie or I did anyway. Of course, when she got a little older, she was horrified when I slipped and called her that in public. When she got to be a teenager, her friends started calling her Sam and she liked it by then. All her friends called her Sam except one boy, who refused. He called her by her full name. Said she didn't look like a Sam. Well, that particular boy has been our son-in-law for over 5 years and he still doesn't shorten her name. I do sometimes when I'm talking about her, but rarely to her face.
ReplyDeleteMy husband has called me all sorts of nicknames for over 30 years. It actually started long before we married. And they are not particularly "sweet" names to others, just to me. The first one was Phred. I spelled it that way to make it more feminine. It's romantic to me and he rarely says those when others are around. He says after being married for 31 years, it's hard to think of new ones. LOL
Precious picture of you and your little "Chickpea Banana".
Wow, Trish, I'm totally impressed you can remember all those long, complicated nicknames! The only nickname I've ever had was from my aunt when I was a kid, and I really didn't like it at all. Friends have actively tried to give me nicknames since, and none of them have stuck. Oh well :)
ReplyDeleteI love that photo of you and The CpB -- she is getting so big!
Super cute! I love Chickpea Banana; it's sweet and has personality. :)
ReplyDeleteI've had quite a few nicknames in my life -- and Meg is, in fact, a nickname. :) At work, I'm always Megan -- but my family and friends usually call me Meg. My column has Meg in the title and my blog is "write meg!", so it's all nicknames, all the time around here!
When I was a kid, family would call me Meggie . . . and when I was in high school, friends started calling me "Gems" (Meg backwards, plus an S. I don't know. It was a thing in the early '00s, what can I say?)
Yeah, I'm a big nicknamer too. My friends and I did it all through college. We would give EVERYONE nicknames. Through college and to this day I'm called P-Bird (or just Bird) by my friends. That evolved because my favorite basketball player was Larry Bird and (obviously) my first name starts with P. My wife and I call PJ "Peej". Seems sort of weird to lengthen a name to get a nickname, but that's what happened. He's also called Bubba. I call Steph, "Bun" (short for bunny or hunny bunny).
ReplyDeleteI think some of this started with my parents. My mom calls herself Cookie Chardonnay (long story...she doesn't even drink Chardonnay). My dad is Hols (short for Holley) or The King. My dad used to call me Porky Dubois when I was a kid. Don't ask me where that came from.
Nicknames are fun. I like using them and I don't plan on stopping.
Pax
PS - Btw, I love Chickpea Banana. It's adorable. :-)
Which, now that I think about it, PJ's name is actually a nickname as his actual name is Paxton Jr.
DeleteShe DOES look like a chickpea banana! I sometimes forget her name is actually Elizabeth...I'm just so used to thinking of her as Elle! Nicknames are so fun...Ms. Patty Mayonnaise ;) My mom usually called me Laura-bug, but in high school, everyone called me by my last name. Not the most exciting nickname. I call Emily "bug" or "buggy" most of the time, and so does Matt. I think it morphed to that because we used to say she was our little June Bug. Again, not very original. "Ems" is also pretty common. Your nicknames are much more unique!
ReplyDeleteI love hearing of all her nicknames. And Chickpea Banana has got to be the best one I've ever heard. My baby doesn't have a lot of nicknames- we mostly call her Sonja Mon-ya or My Babies (I add plurals to a lot of words when I baby-talk, silly huh?) Sometimes I also call her Baby-Waby, Little Face, Miss Magoo, My Goober Girl or Goober Baby. I don't know where those names come from, but they make us giggle!
ReplyDeleteI'm huge into nicknames, huge. I have to remind myself some people are totally against them. It makes zero sense to me, because I feel like nicknames imply a friendship/familiarity. I was seeing someone last year who told me after months that he didn't like any of the nicknames I called him and preferred I just use his name. (They weren't pet names, just names branched from his first name) I felt like a complete dumb@$$ and wondered why he just didn't tell me sooner.
ReplyDeleteI have a billion nicknames. With a last name like mine there's going to be some obvious ones, although nothing stemmed from my last name every really was used regularly, except for my actual last name.
Pretty much all my close friends call me Rae, my former boss and colleagues call me Rae, family occasionally calls me Rae. I get that more than Rachel, hence my blogger name. I think some people just ARE certain nicknames, for example, of course I get the occasional "Rach", but very rarely. Some people started calling me Rae in high school, and then people in college who didn't know the people from home also called me Rae, and then same with my friends in New York. I don't introduce myself as Rae, so I think I'm just more of a Rae than a Rach. I have a good friend who's also Rachel, and she says no one's ever called her Rae, it's always been Rach. So I get what you mean when you say Ellie just doesn't fit for your Elle.
All that being said, no one I've dated has really called me Rae. Maybe occasionally but very rarely. I've gotten Rae Rae, and two different guys would occasionally call me Rachel Rae. Then there's my dad who calls me Rae Rae on occasion, and my mom who's referred to me as Boo Boo Kitty (or Boo Boo for short) since before I can remember. :)
Another nickname that has stuck is Rachel Hopebug. I drove a Beetle in college for a couple years and the license plate said HOPEBUG. Almost ten years later and some college friends still call me Rachel Hopebug.
The last one (that I'l explain, because there's still more!) is RaeHoe. Classy, right? This started as a joke in college one night when my friends Aimee and Toni for some reason figured out what our names would be if we only used the first syllables of each name. Toni became TonEva, Aimee because AimBrow. Somehow I became RaHo, or (spelled correctly?) RaeHoe. These names stuck for all of us, but somehow since I've lived in New York RaeHoe has resurfaced. I have no idea why considering none of my college friends live here (well, one does now, but she just moved here.) And actually some friends from back home randomly started calling me that as well.
Anyway, like I said, I think some people just ARE their nicknames and you can't shake it. Hope you liked my ramble. :)
My niece Rachel gets called 'Racy' and she's a sweet shy mild-mannered kid so Racy is not at all her personality but I still her lil sister still calls her that.
DeleteActually, she looks like a Pinkie Twinkie to me. LOL I like Chickpea Banana. It's so silly. Both of mine had a million crazy nicknames, too. I still call Kiddo by half a dozen different names. He answers to all of them. I have not yet been called down for using one of his nicknames, but that may be simply because I don't use them outside our home. I know better than that. He's 20, after all. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm 52 and my daughter is 23. We have had so many nicknames over the years, and because my daughter enjoys giving ME nicknames, there are more all the time. I have called her "Boots" for so long that neither of us can remember how it started! (Not even remotely close to her name; maybe from soccer days?) She's currently calling me "Prill" because . . . neither of us knows, just know it's fun. Nicknames are a way of making people feel they're extra special.
ReplyDeleteI've got a term of endearment for you: my husband calls me Moats. This name evolved from "honey" (which was never really used) to "Honey Bunches of Oats" (yes, the cereal) to "Honey Bunchamoats" to simply "Moats." Even the kids know that's me.
ReplyDeleteI've always loved nicknames too. My name is Melissa, but when my parents brought me home from the hospital my 2-year-old sister thought my name was Lissa and my parents were saying "My Lissa" instead of Melissa. I've been Lissa (LIS-ah, not Lisa) ever since. I love that.
ReplyDeleteEveryone who knows me calls me Jenn. Call me Jenny, and die. Not to offend Jenny's out there, but I'm not one.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin Ella is 5, and I call her, alternatively, Ella Bella or Ella Boo. Maddie is Maddie Mae, but one of my friends calls her Maddie Cakes. :)
Nick names....didn't have any, really until I got older.
ReplyDeleteJenny Girl comes from an old and dear friend of mine. My husband and I have all kinds of nicknames, most notably, Jenny bear, Pookie, pookie bear, Boo, boo bear, zombie snack pack (when I act like I am fit and fast)...there's a tone of them really, and we use them back and forth.
I always call people something too, like Pumpkin, sweetie, cupcake. Depends on my mood.
Totally see how Elle received her name, but didn't realize or remember her name was Elizabeth. I like that name just the way it is.
So cute! Chickpea Banana is adorable. My parents called me Binky Face or Bink when I was little and had a pacifier...and it stuck. I'm 30 and they still call me that! When he was little, my brother signed his letters and valentines Chris A. (like some other Chris would be sending my parents a valentine). To this day, we all still sign emails and things "Mom A." "Dad A." "Bink A." "Sister A." "Brother A." I love it all. :)
ReplyDeleteAs soon as our son was born, Dave started calling him "Little Buddy" (no clue why). This morphed quickly into Bud, which he still is (now 21). Although the extended family never calls him that, they know who we're referring to. We named our daughter Amanda because it was absolutely the only name her father would agree to (I got to pick the middle name). I agreed to it only if she never became Mandy (no offense, if that's your name) because it made me think of every blonde joke I ever heard. Couldn't imagine Chief Justice Mandy Whats-it. So somehow, she became Manna Mo (not sure that's better) which eventually got shortened to Mo. So our darling children are Bud and Mo. :)
ReplyDeleteWe've talked about nicknames a little bit. I'm known as Lulu in real life, but that was after a series of nicknames that never really stuck. Among them Mavis and Bruce, so, you know, I'm glad I got stuck with Lulu. I always hate it, though, when people call me Les. I just can't stand it. That's not my name! As for Michael and I, we rarely call each other by our first names. It's always dear or darling or honey. And I wouldn't have it any other way :)
ReplyDeleteMost of my nicknames were boringly obvious, but my dad's nickname for my sister and I (apparently we're interchangeable here ;) ) is something that I'm still trying to figure out. It's Spoon-Brain. I'm at a total loss.
ReplyDeleteYes she looks like a chickpea banana. She's adorable.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post!! I always wondered about the chickpea banana and now I know :)
ReplyDeleteAnd the TriniCapini too, cool!
I do have many nicknames as well and I like that!
As you know I'm called Cessie online most of the time (it's my Twitter account, it's in my Blogger names, etc.) but it's not my real name. It's Marcelle. As a little girl I couldn't pronounce that myself so I said my name was Cessie. And it kind of stuck. My grandmother still called me that in her nineties while having severe Alzheimers so I guess it really stuck with her :). It still gives me dear feelings...
Thanks for sharing, loved it!
Sorry for not being around much lately. Am having a lot on my mind and not always feeling well. Will try to blog more and read more blogs from now on :)
My sister Becky always had lots of nicknames (I guess Becky was just an easy name to manipulate?) but none of the rest of us did. My family called me Mandy, and still does, and Jason and his family call me either by my full name or just Manda because it's easier to say. Everyone else calls me Amanda.
ReplyDeleteI bet your husband secretly likes it! :) Nicknames are a result of love afterall!
ReplyDeleteI never had nicknames; my parents (Mom in particular) were against them, and attempted to pick names that were ill-suited for shortening/what have you. I got called Hannah Banana a lot, and I hated it until college. But really, that's about it. Oh, I had a prof who called me and a friend the Bobbsey Twins (which is all kinds of wrong, I kept trying to tell him, since those twins were boy/girl twins) just because we were always together (and both blonde and blue-eyed ...)
ReplyDeleteThat photo is darling! She's so cute, and I think the nickname fits perfectly. :)
ReplyDeleteMy mom still calls me Anna B., the B being the first letter of my last name. I wonder if my husband actually knows my name because he only calls me "Love" or "Dear," even when he's mad, LOL.
I only call my daughter The Girl online. To me, she's still Pumpkin Pie or Frankenstein, which I've been calling her since she was a baby. :)
GUYS!!! Thank you so much for all of your comments! I was at a conference all day yesterday so wasn't able to respond to your comments here and now I don't know where to start. It was fun to read your responses and various nicknames--there are some peculiar ones (which I think are the most fun).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the laughs and making me smile. :)
Of course, The CpB is adorable!
ReplyDeleteThe worst nickname I've had is CRUSTY, given to me by my fantasy football group. (My team was the Crustaceans.)
Care - LOL!!! But given your love of lobsters maybe you should have taken Crusty as a compliment? ;)
DeleteYou and I have talked about this, I think. I still want to know why you decided to change to Trish. That is one of my very favorite pictures of the two of you.
ReplyDeleteWhen my niece was pregnant with their second girl, my great-niece wanted to name her "Ruby Umbrella." I have no idea where that came from but she was really stuck on "Ruby" for sure. When she first got to the hospital to meet her sister, she bounded in and said "Hey ya', Rubes!" Little Lauren is now three and a half but she is far more often called Ruby or Rubes than Lauren by our family. I wonder how often she is confused as to the right answer when someone asks her name!
ReplyDeleteI have a tendency to toss nicknames around a lot myself. My youngest takes the cake though as we all call him pickle. Who knows how he is going to feel about that when he is older but right now there is nothing cuter than my daughter asking if pickle baby wants something to drink :) LOL! And pickle baby let's go play ball...priceless! I love this picture of the two of you by the way :)
ReplyDeleteIf I'm Jilly Bean, it doesn't bother me. My friends called me that in junior high.
ReplyDeleteI've been...
Bug (my grandparents called all their granddaughters that)
Jilldee (no clue where this came from, but I have a cousin that still calls me that)
Jilly Bean
Nuclear (for a short time in high school, as my last name is Powers) and Jillian, since Jill is hard to shorten and people seem to think it needs to be turned into something
Juice (my niece couldn't say Jill when she was little, and so I was Juice from about 17 all through college until my dad died...the name seems to have died with him)
Softdrink (as in Hamburger and...)
SD (short for Softdrink)
Fizzy Jill, Fizzy B, Other Jill, and various other combos thanks to blogging
Adorable photo! I love the way she's scrunching up her little nose. :)
ReplyDeleteLet's see... most of my friends and family call me Les. I was Letley by my immediate family when I was little. (My brother couldn't pronounce my name properly.) Over the years, Rod has called me Budette (he's Bud). Funny. I know he had another nickname for me early on in our relationship, but it's been so long since he's used it, I've completely forgotten it now. I'll have to take a peek at some old letters/cards to refresh my feeble memory.
I used to call my kiddo Buckaroo, Rooski, Roo, Amy Lou (her middle name is Louise), and Rod has always called her Munch. Rachel's nickname was Peachoo (that's how she pronounced her name when she was little). For a little while we called our granddaughter TLP (The Little Princess). Now she's simply Shay-Shay.
I have a cousin named Elizabeth and she goes by Libby. I've always loved that name.
Fun post, Trish!
Monica used to always call me Mitch, and I have also been called Shelly Kae, or Shelly Belly. People can call me whatever they want, I don't mind (just don't call me late for dinner... ba dum :}). I always thought I would call Emmory Emmy, but she is NOT an Emmy. We call her Em or Emmers or just plain Emmory. Ellie is either ellie bellie or ells bells or Ellie Bellie boo boo. And Ensley is Ens. Original huh? I love nick names and agree with Rachel. They are like a term of endearment in a way.
ReplyDeleteOh, Trish, I cannot tell you how much I love this picture of you and your sweet baby! I've been looking at it for several minutes now, just caught up in the days when children are small and the attachment they have with their mothers. Can't answer the nickname question with great detail, only let me say that my father called me Muffy Sue, a name from no where but his own dear head, and it has stuck between us. No one else even knows about it (until now). ;)
ReplyDeleteI *heart* this post hardcore since I am a nicknamer. I also AM receiver of nickname. I've been Andi-Bug since I was a baby and I literally had teachers in school call me by this name. And know me only as Andi-Bug.
ReplyDeleteGreyson is Lil G, G-Monkey, Monkey Pops, Greyson Poop, Pumpkin, and Sweetpea. And he'll never forgive me when he's older.
I never got the chance to comment on this, but better late than never, right? I'm big into nicknames, but only for people I'm really close to. My family has always used nicknames, but my husband's family never does. I think it's kind of weird to not, but that's just me.
ReplyDeleteI have had so many nicknames. My maiden name was Yost, so I was Krispy Toast growing up. A few punks went to Krusty Toast route, but not often. In high school I was supera$$ (I was a size two, but have always had a butt--my mother affectionately called it my bubble butt). I was also God minus one in high school. You would think that I would often be called Kris, but only my mom gets away with that. Most everyone that I meet thinks that Kristi is my nickname, though. Kind of funny.