what is in a name?

In dreaming up a name for our second child, we have been discussing the topic of nicknames a bit. Every kid on the planet calls Renee, Nae, and while I'm fine with it overall it is caused me to think a bit more about names in general. Then again, Renee has the most absurd nicknames that her dad and I have given her, Nae seems downright normal. It seems a new one pops up every week. We hardly ever call her Renee...well, unless she is bee-lining for the stairs and we are trying to get her to slow down and turn around long enough for me to jump my pregnant ass up and get there in time to stop her from diving down head first. Because she would dive down head first. She's fearless like that. Have I mentioned that we don't have gates on our stairways? I don't know if I have but APPARENTLY OUR HOME THAT WAS BUILT IN 1947 'Just isn't built for baby gates.' Don't worry, I'm not bitter.

On to my real point of this post. Have you noticed how the rambling, off-point rantings have returned now that I am again with child? There is something about this whole pregnancy thing that causes me to lose my whole train of thought in the middle of sentences. And I bitch a lot more. Like infinite amounts of more bitching. About everything. I sort of like it...almost like I have permission to say all of the bitchy things that I usually try to hold back for fear of making people mad. I apparently don't care if I annoy people when I'm pregnant. Did you hear that? I just found something good to say about pregnancy! Please hold while I go write it in BabySki2's baby book that I haven't even considered buying yet. 'I like being pregnant with you because I get to say all of the bitchy things on my mind without a care in the world that I will offend people.' 

I'm curious to know, does everyone else have absurd nicknames for their kids or do they actually call them by their given names? I am a wee bit concerned that she'll grow up thinking her name is Mu Shu Chicken. I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING, WE CALL HER THAT. Like every single day. More than once.  

Her names:
- Mu Shu Chicken
- Moo Goo Guy Pan
- Boo Boo
- Honey
- Sweet pea

What are your nicknames? Are they result of your name or just randomness like Mu Shu Chicken? My dad has ALWAYS called me Beaner. Or Bean. I think I could probably count the number of times my dad has called me by my given name on one hand. It sprouted from 'Gina Beana' when I was a small fry and it stuck. Hence the name of this here site. Bean for me. Ski for Ski. Get it? Off subject again, CRIPES. If you have kids, what do you call them? Are there nicknames that have come out of your kid's name that you didn't see coming? Do you use their nicknames more than their real name? 

Comments

[anne]

haha- love the nicknames you have for Renee! We are the same- pretty much everyday I call Ryan something different. We have some main nicknames we use for him regularly. Will any of them stick? I have no idea! For some reason I feel like Ryan's dad and I are the only ones who are allowed to make up nicknames for Ryan- I guess I'm weird like that. Anyway, the names we regularly call him are: Ry Guy, little manny, the mandibles (?), love pea, little dude. And I also have been known to call him these things: lovey, love, love-dove, starry, starlin, mister, chickilito...there are many more. They just pop up:)
My nickname from my dad is "po". Apparently I was called Twerpo, and that was shortened to Po. That's the only nickname I've ever had. Oh, except for awhile in college I was dubbed Alcohol Anne. Wait, did I just admit that?

[Tanya]

Well I do NOT have kids yet! But I can relate to the nickname thing with my parents... When I was born the first thing that my dad said to my mom was "She beautiful and looks like a 'baby cakes'" (not sure what that means exactly haha) but the nickname sticks, they have called me 'Cakers' ever since. And its a nickname I don't mind, yeah it's childish and I'm 20 but I like it because it was something my dad made up, and I have to admit, I'm a daddy's girl! So Gina, next month at bunco if you shout out 'Cakers' I will turn and know exactly who said it haha :)

[Leslie Collins]

love the nicknames. they are too funny. we have a crazy list of names for reyna, too. a few? bug, bug-a-bini, teeny weeny bug-a-bini, punkins...there are many more.

i always wondered where beanski came from. thanks for sharing. :)

[Kim P]

This is a hilarious post to me...wait until you hear why! When I was pregnant with Natalie, we met a couple of kids at the park - a brother and sister - who were named (get this) Gina and Geno. No lie. From that day on, Nick and Dylan insisted that we would name the baby Gina if it was a girl. I didn't think much of it because I was convinced we were having a boy. Uh, Natalie came along and the boys called her Gina for like a month! Finally, I told them there was already a Gina in the family (thank you), so we had to pick something different which is why we chose Natalie! (BTW, this is how we started reading your blog regularly. They wanted to know who this Gina person was).

As for the others, we've always called Nicholas "buddy" and "peanut". I called Dylan "bean" (short for jelly bean) for awhile, until the neighbors across the street got a dog who they named Bean. Natalie is usually "princess" or her daddy calls her "angel". And all of the kids have been called "stinker butt" at some point...for good reason :)

[Jill]

I don't think that Greg and I envisioned having a daughter who is known almost exclusively as The Goose. Even by her grandparents. She is usually only referred to as Lucy when I am talking about her to non-family members. Elliott started off calling her Moosy but moved on to The Goose or just Goose. I think I'm alright with it because it happened on its own - sure we called her Lucy Goose in the beginning but 'The Goose' has really stuck. And it seems to fit her. I think and hope it will only ever be a nickname that family uses.

We called Elliott 'peanut' 'little dude' and 'fists of fury' when he was younger but we don't really call him anything but Elliott now. Well, there are some days that he gets called other things but that is a whole other story...

[jenny]

my grandpa used to call me punkin. that's about it for me. my hubby's family used to call him boo. i have no idea where that came from.

i call tucker lots of things including: tuck, honey, stink, stinker, little dude, bud/buddy, sugar...i'm sure i'm missing a few!

i love how 'beanski' came together. :)

[MLBDaddy]

Squirmy
Squirmster
Squirmy McSquirm Squirms
Squirmy McDoo's
Squirms
Squizerms
Squizermy
Buster
Buster Boo's
Bust
Buster Bust
Squirmy McDoo's Busters Boo's
MacDoo's
Crankster
Crankster McDoo's
Crankster McCranky Pants
Maximillian
Maximillian Snell
Maximus
MLB