A reader question:
Greetings.A question for the community…Wondering, do WASPs have a proclivity for tagging family, friends, and acquaintances with nicknames?(Recall, of George W Bush it was claimed, he never met someone upon whom he did not want to bestow a nickname).What do you think?Thank you, best regards, and keep up the great work.
Everyone has a proclivity for nicknames. The only feature of WASP nicknames I find unusual is that quite a few have nothing to do with their given name, other than the occasional first letter in common. Of course, that is also true of the south, Bubba.
ReplyDelete"Bubba" is a corruption of "brother," probably prompted by small children sometimes having difficulty pronouncing the latter.
DeleteAgreed. My husband's family in Natchez has three women nicknamed Sister--generally the eldest daughter gets that name. Generally, the younger (or 2nd) brother is Bub (or Bubba).
DeleteBy a similar mechanism, Buzz Aldrin became Buzz. His nickname in the family was "Brother," but one of his sisters had trouble saying it, so it came out "Buzzer." It then evolved. Very fortunate accident.
DeleteCommon term Brother & Sister to call your children
Deletein the South. Been known to use it on children & dogs. Has appeared
in Horton Foote’s & William Faulkner’s books.
Friend of mine in Oxford , MS lived down the road from Faulkner.
When he ran out of firewater, he made a visit.
Yes. Nicknames are for everyone. There is a friend of mine who mingles with Tony “Scissors” D’Onofriano and Nicky “Bagman” Spatuzzio.
DeleteMy Texas f-i-l as a child called his sister 'Toter' and aunt 'Birgie' (for Virginia). He still did into their nineties. He was about as buttoned-down a Brooks Brothers Southerner as one could imagine, Harvard and HBS trained to run the family business, a plow and agricultural implement company that had pretty much cornered the East Texas markets..
DeleteIn my grandmother's family (and others, I think), nicknames had to do with birth order. Three children: a girl, a boy, another girl. The oldest child was called "Sister" by the younger two. The boy was called by his Christian name by the sister who was older than he and "Bubba" by the sister younger than he. The youngest child was called by her Christian name by both older siblings. In other words, "Sister" and "Bubba" were only used by siblings younger than the person in question. An older sibling would never use those for a younger sibling.
DeleteAn unusual thing in my family: the use of "Bubba" in place of "Uncle" (i.e., "Bubba Henry" instead of "Uncle Henry," "Bubba Richard" instead of "Uncle Richard"). While it seems like a classically Southern thing to do, I've never heard of any other family who did it and I have no idea how and when it originated.
DeleteI am a product of 1980s southern prep schools. In my experience, nicknames were given by students to their fellow students. Some, but not all of those nicknames stuck. Just my $.02.
ReplyDeleteIt was that way in the 1950s and 1960s, too. I went to Norfolk Academy. Norfolk being a Navy town, we got called by our last names. Those names were corrupted to form nicknames, often by the teachers.
DeleteMy husband spent many years in the British military. They all had nicknames, including my husband. Many of the nicknames make no sense- there is usually a story behind them. Not all stories are for delicate ears, but the name sticks nonetheless. Quite funny now to see these older, respectable gentleman refer to one another by these ridiculous nicknames in quite a natural way.
ReplyDeleteCamaraderie! Love it. Husband was in the US military and you're right, some of the names are, uh, special in times of need. There was a "White Chocolate Bear," a "Snacky Bear," another type of bear, etc etc. Oh and our friend's call sign was Chemo. There's a certain macabre humor that I miss when this group doesn't sweat the small stuff. - hrplo
DeleteThe Aussies are mad about nicknames for everything and most rhyme.
ReplyDeleteDon't know that the habit is exclusive to the South, but my late maternal grandmother, from Asheville, NC, always called my late mother (also from Asheville) by the nickname 'Sister.' My late maternal grandfather (from Lexington, NC) was 'Davey' to his three older sisters. He always called my sister by the nickname 'The Moonbeam' or just 'Moonbeam,' which I still use in our daily communications.' By the way, he always referred to me as 'son' or more usually 'Buddy' (into my late 30s), which I silently detested during my teenage years, but I sure miss hearing it now.
ReplyDeleteKind Regards,
H-U
Wasps - "we invented nicknames"
ReplyDeleteThe Mafia - "hold my beer"
Hilarious!
Delete“Hold my beer.” That’s what a Vermonter says when their car starts to slide into a snow bank. This request followed by, “watch this.”
ReplyDeleteOut west, hold my beer frequently precedes a Darwin Award worthy event which thins out the gene pool.
DeleteDo you mean a fist fight? That's what I thought "hold my beer" indicated.
DeleteI’m a public school teacher. When I started, I always asked kids if I could call them their given nickname. All said yes. Nowadays, few have nicknames and fewer are repeatable. Only a couple want those names used by adults.
ReplyDeleteThey are a standard! A fine tradition that should always be upheld!
ReplyDeleteI agree … our oldest grand son, Arthur S. Bar*** the V is Quinn, but I’ve always called him ‘QB’, his sister Berkeley is ‘Berks’, and the youngest Charles G. Bar*** is ‘CharBar’. But the best part is that when QB was learning how to say Grandma and Grandpa he pronounced it as ‘Mugga’ and ‘Pi’. I love bing Pi.
DeleteJimmy two times and gaspipe joey, to name a couple. Also hot tub kenny. You did not want to owe them money.LOL
ReplyDeleteI can't tell because so many girl WASP names are so cute to begin with (Muffy!), like Suki, Stevie, Georgie, Mopsy... but a little off-topic is the Sicilian naming tradition https://goodmorninggloucester.com/2013/07/27/who-remembers-itchy-bones/
ReplyDeleteMy Mom, born in the 40s, went to private girls school. She remembered the nicknames, and some were very funny. Her's was Betty, and it stuck. I was born in the early 60s — my and my siblings names are nice enough, but pedestrian. A nickname might have been an aspiration — but it wasn't done — not in my New England suburban school system. Kids were waiting for something to make fun of — and a nickname would have been thought pretentious. In college, in the 80s, I heard some nicknames. But they didn't seem to stick.
ReplyDeleteMy mother and her sisters were born from 1917 to 1921 to an English father and a quite English, but American, mother who lived in Boston. The girls were named Frances, Lillian, and Helen, but were called Tarn, Ninny, and Hennie for their entire lives. I think many people thought those were their given names. The nicknames all stemmed from mispronunciations of their given names by young siblings...but were embraced by all which shows a certain enthusiasm for nicknames. I do think many English have a proclivity for nicknames which seem to be bestowed at a very early age and last a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteOld girlfriend's nicknames: 'Lolly' which she still goes by (for Laura), 'G' or Ginger (for Virginia). My dad's for me when I was young were Knucklehead alternating with Sugarbowl due to the shape of my head and ears that stuck out. He and I built a small boat for me that he painted the name "Knuck's" on unbeknownst to me. I hated both nicknames and thus the boat. I used it once and abandoned it forever.
ReplyDeleteA nickname is a gift. Whether given deliberately by the family or unintentionally by a peer, it bespeaks a certain In-ness and inaccessibility to outsiders. A nickname is very prep.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, most of the time. A nickname is usually a sign of affection. But even in the most benign circumstances it can be derogatory. Witness Charlie “Blockhead” Brown.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother read romance novels in the early 1900s and named her children with one family name and one flowery romance novel name. My grandmother referred to her children by their flowery name. My grandfather referred to his children by his chosen nickname. So I have aunts who were called Sam, Billie and Jimmie. Growing up I knew my aunts by both the flowery name and the nickname.
ReplyDeleteIn college, we gave many nicknames and most have "stuck" almost 50 years later.
ReplyDeleteYou're Delta Tau Chi name, is "Pinto."
DeleteA great line from one of the all time great college comedies! Thanks for including it.
Delete"Why Pinto?" "Why NOT!?"
DeleteWhy, "Pinto?"
DeleteMy great grandmother was born in San Francisco in 1899 and was nicknamed “Toad”. Her given name was Julia and she was a beautiful, slender woman. She couldn’t remember who gave her the nickname, but it occurred in early childhood and she was called Toad until she died at 90.
ReplyDeleteThere was a gang, not to be trifled with, that established itself at a local filling station in our town. This, of course, back in the day. During high school I worked at the grocery store next door. Unbeknownst to the gang members my fellow grocery clerks and I dubbed several of them with nicknames, Among others, there was “Jolly” Roger, “Tricky” Dick, and his brother “Dirty” Dave (we have omitted family names to protect the innocent). Some gang members actually went on, amazingly, to lead productive lives. “Jolly” Roger organized mass parachute jumps, including one at the Summer Olympics. “Dirty” Dave owned an auto repair shop in Vermont. But “Tricky” Dick, alas, died in jail. Not all stories have happy endings.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say nicknames are a "WASP" thing; and I certainly wouldn't label George W. as a WASP. His father, perhaps, but not W.
ReplyDeleteSoutherners give nicknames or use to. Episcopalians sure did anyway. were always called by them to, until they got older. I am a DAR from SC but a liberal one! lol Also- George Bush most certainly is a WASP.
ReplyDeleteMy name's Robert. People call me Robert.
ReplyDelete(Shout out to Forrest Gump).
My grandson is named Whitaker, too long for me so he has become Aker and he calls me Lolly. We recently started saying silly poems and he is now Aker Alligator
ReplyDeleteNicknames currently in use in my immediate family: Bubba, Doosie, Tiggy, and Otis. Tiggy and Doosie are my younger sons. I am Otis (although I am a female mom). Bubba is actually my girl dog Josie, but all dogs in our family are a Bubba. My cat (may he rest in peace) was named Jed, but his nickname was Shreddy. My husband and oldest son (both named John) do not have nicknames, as my mother-in-law (older than God and twice as scary) forbids it.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. I was surprised to learn my relatives had real names. My dad and his brother called each other Bertrum, while neither of them had that name.
ReplyDeleteAnd WASP stands for We Always Say Please.