Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with nicknames

Nickname for a 1950s character

Cool Papa Bell — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:56:56 -0800

Help me name a fictional character -- need nicknames for a college-aged man in the 1950s. Buzz, Scooter, Butch, Jughead, etc... Imagine this male character walked out of the musical Grease, Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, etc. He's a good guy, so give him a cool one-word nickname like a 1950s character.

Buzz, Scooter, Butch, Jughead, etc...

Grandmother Filter

pamspanda — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:52:42 -0800

Grandmother filter: What do your grandchildren call you? What do your grandchildren call you other that Grandma or Grandmother? Did they come up with the nickname on their own or is it a name that you selected to be called?

Does the nickname have a story behind it? Let me know - thank you!

What made-up names does your child use for favorite media?

Mo Nickels — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:51:00 -0800

What made-up names does your very young child call favorite movies, books, games, or television shows? I'd like to compile a list of some of the names that toddlers or other very young children have made up for their favorite entertainment: books, movies, television, games, whatever. I am interested in seeing if there are patterns there of sufficient interest to write about.

For example, my 26-month-old son calls Elmo in Grouchland "Elmo Blanket." Elmo Visits the Firehouse is "Elmo Firefighter." (Firefighter is his name for a fire truck, not for the people who fight fires.) The Muppets were, for a long time, The Puppets. All the Lion King movies are "Baby Lions." Richard Scary's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go is "Goldbug Book." The Wizard of Oz is "Dorothy Dog" (since Elmo has a goldfish named "Dorothy" my son feels the need to say that he's talking about the Dorothy who has a dog). The video game Pacman on my phone is known as "Ducks" (they're yellow and they quack, right?).

Terms of Endearment

Sublimity — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:52:13 -0800

Children nicknamed "mommy" or "papa". What's the deal? I know a few African American families where a child has a nickname like "mommy" or "papa" that, in my experience among white families, would only be reserved for a parent. (I'm white.)

I guess in my mind those sorts of parental nicknames are so strongly linked to adults that it is a bit jarring to me to hear a parent refer to their kid with one of those nicknames.

Is this common in the black community? Is it common among whites (or for that matter, other ethnic groups) and I just missed it?

What's the logic--is it due to a strong resemblance to that parent (if so, I don't particularly see it with the kids I know who prompted the question), or perhaps a particularly "parental", bossy nature?

Do you call your grandfather Bumpy?

23skidoo — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:10:08 -0800

How common is the title "Bumpy" for a grandfather? Like "Grampa Joe" or "Peepaw Frank"... do you say/understand the usage "Bumpy Jackson" for a grandfather? If so, where did you grow up? I've known a couple people in my time who called their grandfathers by the title Bumpy [lastname]... I assumed that it was Southern (or maybe Texan) and that it was uncommon, but not completely unheard of. A short office conversation now has me wondering if it's just some weird thing that a couple of the people I know have in common.

1. Do/did you call your grandfather Bumpy?
2. If so, where did you grow up?

The Gallows, aka...?

Karlos the Jackal — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 02:50:51 -0800

What nicknames are there for the gallows? The guillotine is also known as "The Widow" or "Mary Anne"; the electric chair is "Old Sparky" or the "Hot Squat."

What about the gallows?

(Bonus points if the nickname is anthropomorphic.)

How do I get people to get my name/gender right?

olinerd — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:52:26 -0800

My odd to pronounce/gender-unusual name gives me lots of problems. How can I diplomatically solve all of them? My name is Mikell. It's pronounced exactly like "Michael." But I'm a woman. It's always been kind of annoying -- most people mispronounce it on reading it, and I did have a boyfriend whose grandmother thought he was gay until he brought me home in person -- but now that I'm out in the work force, it's really become problematic.

So, on to the issues!

(1) Pronunciation. I continue to have it mispronounced, and there are some colleagues (both in my immediate job and in other things I'm involved in) who continue to mispronounce it, despite having been corrected by others and having heard me pronounce it the correct way more than once. What do I do about them?

(2) Nicknames. A coworker has decided to call me "Mike." I sign all my emails with my full name, introduce myself to people around him with my full name, and I know everyone else calls me by my full name and he must hear it. Yet, I am "Mike." (Today it was written out in an email from him, which is the straw that broke this camel's back). How do I politely tell him no-thanks to the nickname?

(3) Gender. I work in engineering, so it's sadly often safe to assume that a non-gender-specific name probably belongs to a male. Since mine involves the letters "Mike" I usually get assumed to be male in email and phone messages left for me. When I put up a job posting, most cover letters are written to "Mr. Mikell Lastname." Emails addressed to "Sir." Customers refer to me as "him" when speaking with my colleagues or other customers. Is there a little note I can put in my email signature line that will clear up the gender issue without being obnoxious or making it so much of an issue that it endangers my credibility?

The big issue is that this name thing always puts first meetings at a slightly awkward tone; someone mispronouncing my name or getting my gender wrong right off the bat makes me feel scummy for starting a professional relationship by correcting them (and I know I've embarrassed people when they weren't expecting a woman to answer the phone/door or show up at a meeting). Doing this over and over is really wearing me down, and while a one-off solution is just "Actually, could you call me [correct pronunciation]" or whatever seems obvious, I'm so sensitive to it by now that it feels awkward. Anyone have a good way to solve it?

nicknames given as mangled pronunciations of real names

Lucinda — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 05:40:38 -0800

I'm looking for examples of nicknames given to people by family/friends who mangled the pronunciation of a given name. I apologize if this is too chatfiltery, and delete if necessary, but I'm looking for examples of the above. Like Beatrice Quimby, called "Beezus" by Ramona, or Jesus Christ Allin, called "GG" by his brother. (Or in my own family's case, my mom Ellen was called "Neen".)

The more degrees of separation the nickname seems to be from the actual name, the better. Thanks!

Opposite of Oreo?

chudmonkey — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:33:54 -0800

Not About Cookies: What the opposite of an "oreo"? Okay, so sometimes black people who 'act white' are referred to as oreos and asian people who 'act white' are twinkies.

So what food-related term can I use to describe white people who are "black on the inside" as it were? Are there any foods that are white on the inside and black/brown on the inside?

Yes, it is me I'm trying to describe. Humourously.

What can an old lady call her man?

christinetheslp — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 17:24:32 -0800

If I'm his old lady, does that make him my old man? I recently got married, and since I don't enjoy pet names such as "sweetie pie" or "honeybun," I've encouraged my husband to refer to me as his "old lady" since that's hilarious. But what do I call him in return? The urban dictionary suggests that "old man" is an appropriate term, but I just can't call him my "old man" since that term is, in my mind, reserved for my dad.

So what say you, hive mind? What can an old lady call her man? Extra points for nicknames that could come out of the mouth of a biker or trucker.

"We'll just have to see about that, sport."

dorothy humbird — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 20:28:53 -0800

I'm in search of more classic chummy/fatherly nicknames (sport, champ) to throw about with my S.O., what've you got? My boyfriend and I frequently indulge in calling each other those weird, vaguely patronizing or fatherly nicknames: champ, tiger, chief, etc. I'm a fan of these types of nicknames, in contexts like:

"Whoa, cool it down there, champ."
or
"I'll catch you later, tiger."

Mostly we're both amused by the absurdity here -- they're out of context and a little over the top to begin with (tiger??). I'm looking for more names like this, because I feel like my bag of tricks is pretty empty.

If you have any similarly absurd yet NOT SYRUPY (read: shnookums, hunny-bunny-lover) terms of endearment, you get bonus points. Think classics like dollface, etc.

Looking up name variations

zixyer — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 08:33:12 -0800

I find myself often having to look up several lists of names in a database. I would like to automate the process, but the problem is I'm usually given a nickname or variant on a person's full name (i.e. I'm given "Jim" and the name is "James" in the database). I think the ideal solution would be if I had some sort of list of names with all common variants for each. Then, when I'm automating the lookup, I could look up every possible permutation of each person's name. Does anyone know of such a list or any other common approaches to solving this problem?

Help me find an annoying player name for a point-and-shoot computer game.

jeremias — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 20:36:17 -0800

Help me find an annoying player name for a point-and-shoot computer game. So, occasionally I play Unreal Tournament 2004 online. Over the years I've become just slightly better than average, and so to maximize my skills I'm looking for a player name whose sole purpose is to annoy the person who I've run over, shot, detonated or otherwise destroyed.

In the past my player names have tended to run to the absurd: "Madame Bovary", "Orange Julius", etc. So keeping in mind that the average player is likely in the teenager male subset, help me choose a player name that will get under someone's skin, especially after I've wasted them several times in a row.

Pointy Haired Filter

gnomeloaf — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 09:46:09 -0800

I seek examples of unusual or funny nicknames people in your places of employment have given other people, and how they came to be. Boss names/tales are particularly welcome, of course.

Note: I'm not looking for examples of workplace harassment.

Pet Names

naomi — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 09:29:47 -0800

Inspired by this thread, in which someone confessed to using the same pet name for her dog and boyfriend, I simply must know: What sick-making nicknames do y'all call your spouses, partners and kids?