NICKNAMES I HAVE KNOWN . . .

      In conversation with a brother after the recent post, Kar-rak-ters, I mentioned that the nearby mill village we had known when  youths was " a colony of Kar-rak-ters".  He replied, "You could tell by the nicknames!"  Since then I have been musing about some of those (sometime) colorful names ...not all from that village ...that I have personally known.  
    But , first, some 'definitions'.  According to Wikipedia, nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place. . . . A nickname is sometimes considered desireaable, symbolizing a form of acceptance but can often be a form of ridicule."  These can include allusions to physical characteristics such as height, weight, hair color (or lack),etc.; personality;  titles; or lifestyle, along with other origins.
     In the musings and meanderings that follow, examples of all the above (and more) can be seen:  Runt really was the sibling of Arthur (aka, Fat). For reasons unknown to me, her husband was Slew.  Claiborne was also known as Pune (for Puny, Small) because he was a large man. When I was around three years old, I called his mother, Other Mamma, because she was so kind to me. In the same town, another large man was Tadpole (a small frog).  My maternal grand-father didnot move fast, hence his moniker, Speed.  A grand-son (not me) with a similar modality of motion on the basketball court was tagged, Lightning.  I never knew why Mr. Atwater was Turtle.  His brother was Dink, and their sister, Lillie Gander, became, Goosey. A distant cousin, Charles, was always Bones because he "didn't have a lot of meat on his bones" ...he was skinny. A former neighbor became Spring because, another neighbor said, "her butt springs when she runs."
    The amateur  (or 'sandlot') baseball team (a mainstay within that culture in the early, mid-twentieth century) in that village was itself a colorful composite of nicknames: Turkey, Shrimp or Squirt (same man...diminuitive in stature), Shike, Dub, Doc, Firty-Free (he could not pronounce the diphthong "Th" when a youth), and Shine. 
     On my highschool baseball team, the pitcher was Chubby (rather rotund) and the catcher was Tiny (6'6").  The center fielder was known by his hair color, Red. Our red-headed second baseman was Rusty. Our bald coach was Curley but was not shorn by a utility player, Razor.
    Some nicknames given in childhood persist: one cousin's  'hero' was  frontiersman, Kit Carson, but from his youthful lips that became Kit Kotton. In the event he had been born a girl, another cousin said that his parents had chosen the names Roberta Josephine.  So for sixty plus years, he has been RoJo.  My nephew had difficulties pronouncing his name, Joseph, when a small boy: "My name is Do-Dup", now almost forty years later usually abbreviated simply to Dup.  Dad's desire to attach to one of my brothers the name of a friend of compact size, Bunchy, never stuck. Probably because my brother's physiology changed.  Sonny and Junior, now in their  70's, were tagged early in life.  Trey lives nearby. Leo became Sister after he failed to convince my dad that the girl he was holding hands with was his "sister".  My sons were fortunate that Michopher and Chris-el didn't stick, except for the neighbor's child who could not pronounce "Michael" and "Christopher".
     Several of my college fraternity brothers and pledges had descriptive nicknames: Sunshine, Sully, Sweat, Squirmy, Chetchie, his brother was Little Chetchie, Slick, Rough-house, Bolo, Coon, and Wolfie.   Another, Shep, had no acquaintance with Bo-Peep (who was also the father of the aforementioned, Turkey) nor with Slingshot.  
     Back to the mill village: An otherwise nice man, Cakie was not always a Sweetie Pie when teasing me about my cousin's beating me up.  His grand-son, Corky, lived nearby, as did Goo, the brother of Hobo. Champ got his life-long nickname after whipping the school bully.  I don't know whatever happened to Hobo.
   Then, there were the brothers...Jaybird (father of Shrimp/Squirt),
Babe, and Sir Sidney ( sometimes aka, Cute to his wife. They were the parents of Champ.). To my knowledge, their brother, Lewis, never had a nickname. Their nephew has been known since  boyhood as Kilroy, the ubiquitous World War II watchdog. 
   Within our mom's family, there were: Codger, Grassie (for 'Grass-Widow', a long ago euphemism for 'Divorcee'. She and Harvey (Morris) parented RoJo), Monk (short for 'Monkey', the family comedienne. She was Babe's wife.)  Her twin (Kit Kotton and Cootie's (!) mom), Skin was , what else, 'Skinny' as a young woman.  Her husband, Weesie, was brother to Shube or Shubert (for Rupert).  Mom, Leona, became to many in the family, Cora, after a childhood friend's mother.  When I became an adult, dad and I frequently addressed each other as Wax, an often-occurring mangling of our surname.  (Otherwise, I have never had a nickname...of which I am aware ... other than Satchel (by which I sign the blog) or Ziggy, that I use in playing "Words with Friends". I am a psychotherapist and that one is meant as a playful reference to  Dr. Freud. Most of my friends have just called me by my surname.) Youthful grand-nieces and -nephews, unable to pronounce my wife's name, Loretta, have variously called her Baretta, Mizretta, and Littleretta. The father of three of those children was (is) known as Mouse.
    As noted above, some nicknames were given because of physical characteristics, and, again, some were cruel: Shakey, Hammerhead, Jughead, Sleepy, and Mule.  Shorty was Slew's younger brother. No undergrads ever addressed the Dean (with the large proboscis) by his unflattering nickname, Hosenose. One of my dearest friends became Fireplug because his short height disqualified him as a Moonfixer. 
     Others denote occupation: Before becoming a Preacher, Gale was a mortician, hence, Digger (for those old enough to remember a radio character, "Digger O'Dell, the friendly Undertaker"). When a boyhood friend became President of a nearby college, I sometimes addressed him as RevDocPrez.  He didn't seem to mind. I do not know if any of his patients ever addressed my surgeon brother as Sawbones.  In college, many thought that Dr. LeVey was so rigid because he was also Colonel (again, not in direct address).  When I was a parish minister, I began calling one good friend, Bishop, and he reciprocated by making me Mayor of the unincorporated village where I lived.
      The most cruel nickname I ever heard of, however, was Bas for the son of an unwed mother. Poopsie-pie, in my Army Basic Training Company, was a frequent target for Sarge's sadistic humor.  And, I sometimes wonder if Nip ever met Tuck and how the owner of the pool hall became Friday.  Chubby sometimes 'explained' his absences to a naive teacher as his having an appointment with Dr. Friday. She never knew that it wasn't a medical condition.  But then, maybe the propensity for giving nicknames is within itself a "medical condition".


    ( Do you know, do you have, a colorful/unique nickname?  I would welcome hearing of them if you care to leave a 'comment'.)

    Satchel