Nasty Nick - names

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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!