Nasty Nick - names

The Idiot (DD3's husband) calls their youngest 'chunky', which I find appalling! When I asked him not to, he said 'Well she is'. She was a normal 'round' baby and gorgeous!

My dad always called me dumpling - I thought it was cute.

I was always 'little apple dumpling' to my nan, which I liked.

My maiden name was Williams and children used to say Willy ams, which I didn't like as Willy was a rude word.

On the other hand, my mother called my father Willy with no sense of shame

These nicknames can be endearments but it's not good if these family nick names get out into places like school or Facebook.

Use them strictly in the family as terms of endearment and abandon them when the child is old enough to understand them.

Like "Who's a stinky boy then" etc. I am sure most of us have done it.

The tradition of people being known by their nickname always makes me thibk of English public school types. I think it was the Duke of Windsor who had a great chum called "Fruity" Metcalfe and of course we have Biggles etc.
In DH's family hardly anybody was known by their "real" name- GP Richard was known as Peter, Uncle Pat's real name was also really Richard, my FIL Robert was known as Buddy and his sister Geraldine was referred to by everybody as Molly. Oh and. MIL, Jane, was universally known as Jean.

I often get confused when taking details for DH's patients when the member of staff say they want to make an appt for John Smith and I write that on the record card for DH to discover the patient is called Algernon or some such!

And, now you mention it, my granny was actually Jane but universally known as Jenny! My Mum is actually Alice but known to all as Babs except by my children who call her Anna!

I always referred to DS as The Bad Baby (he was, he threw everything he could lay his hands on and was a devil for emptying cupboards and leaving devastation behind him - mainly in other people's houses) and my sister said if I called him bad, he would be bad all his life. She got very cross with me.

He is positively angelic and so kind! Whereas her 'precious' (as she called him) is an opinionated heroin addict whose friends on facebook call him debauched...

So Flabz will probably be a model earning a million, fear not.

My dear aunt was Marion but when she was a baby, her big brother referred to her as Baba which she remained for the next 90 years, though many people though that it was short for Barbara.

Hmmm maybe I overreacted, my sister, although commented that she hates
it also but when I agreed with her that I thought her GGD and her DD were in the wrong she has not contacted me since. Silly girl

I had to wear glasses for a lazy eye when I was seven, for a couple of years. I was called four eyes, but it never worried me. I thought it was quite funny.

My dil told me that when her brother had to wear glasses as a child their parents called him 4 eyes so that when he wore them to school.he would already be used to it. Apparantly.it worked!

Dd is known as Eshie. Due to her bro not being able to pronounce Venetia.

I remember the children at primary school being called; Specky four eyes,fatty, and short arse! Presumably they managed to live [we hope] happy lives thereafter.

My two DDs call one another names which are not nice, and my DIL and her sister call each other by even worse nicknames!

GS2 veers from Rampage Baby to OCD Baby. While he causes mayhem himself he is very insistent that we should all put things back in their proper places. My usual habit of leaving the phone lying around the house is a complete No No!

My uncle used to refer to DS2 as 'The Mighty Atom', which tells you all you need to know about him. It could equally be applied to his second son who takes after him.

Back on track with my sister (thought I would let you in the loop) I had a smack on the wrist and apologised for upsetting her.

I suppose I was thinking of the connotations of the name Flabby which would probably stay with her knowing the family. In this day and age of body conciousness I didn't think it was a good thing. Maybe I am wrong.

FB could be there for ever unfortunately, whereas in days of yore nicknames could be forgotten ( perhaps).

Nicknames that are fun are fine and quite cute sometimes. Friends of mine (childhood ones) whose nicknames I can remember were Pearl (Shirley), Pen (Wendy), Piece (Keith), Spoon (June), Babs (Barbara), Dave the Rave the Gangster of Love (Dave - he actually nicknamed himself that lol) and Baba (another Barbara).

Both of my GDs were given nicknames by their parents: Boz (the eldest) and Chunky (the youngest, yes, she was a bit large as an infant but now as thin as a reed) and both hated those nicknames. The youngest now verges on anorexia as she is obsessed with keeping her weight down.

There was an item on the news this morning about depression and especially depression affecting young people; turns out that most of begins before their 15th birthday - maybe nicknames aren't as harmless as we think (not that I'm implying they are the only reason for depression).

connotations of the name Flabby

A friend of mine has the surname 'Dyer' and her eldest daughter became the object of ridicule at school thanks to her teacher who, when doing the register, would call out 'is XXX Diarrhea' (as in 'is XXX Dyer here) which the teacher thought was funny!

I think it's worth remembering that just because others find it funny, it doesn't follow that the person being called that will agree.

I worked with a teacher who did things like that. He thought it was funny and didn't bother the children because they lauged. He said it also helped prepare the children for the real world. I asked him how often he'd been humiliated and had to laugh along with everyone else.

Slightly off topic but the talk of names and teachers reminded me.
One of our teachers used to pronounce my friend's name as De-bor-ah with emphasis on the middle syllable. Despite several requests to pronounce it in the usual way he still did it.
A case of teacher thinks she knows best.

My mother is like that about the name Diana - she will insist on pronouncing it Deeanna for some reason.