Where Have All The Nicknames Gone?

You know what is disappearing today? It's the old fashioned nickname. I don't hear many nicknames anymore and it's a shame. In most cases nicknames are endearing or ennobling appellations (or as comic W.C. Fields used to exclaim when he heard an odd name, "What a euphonious appellation"). I know some kids can be cruel when nicknaming their friends or foes. But on the whole a good nickname stamps a person as a distinct individual and the vast majority are given with good intention.

When I was a boy just about everyone in my neighborhood had a nickname. Celebrities had nicknames, adults, kids, everyone....I suppose this generation is too politically correct to brand others with nicknames. Parents today seem to cut short any nicknames their kids get from other children at school or on the playground. The scream in protest to the school or the other parents that their little one will be stigmatized if the other kids call him "Four Eyes" because he wears glasses or "Fatty" if he shows too much girth. I think the adults are he ones who nip the nicknaming practice in the bud theses days. It's too bad because they erase the stamp of individuality when they do that.

I can't think of any of Jane's friends who has a nickname, and that is the norm today. In my school days we all wanted one. My nickname when I was a little one was taken from a very popular pop song called "Bony Marony". It was about a very skinny girl that displayed more bones than sex appeal. The song said something like, "Here comes Bony Morony...Run guys, Run"! Because I was so skinny my bones showed when I took off my shirt, I got the name in shortened form. I was "Marone". I liked it, my parents didn't object and it was fun to have a reputation as the skinny kid called Marone. Everyone knew Marone.

Too, there were allot worse nicknames among my friends than the one I had. The best was given by my older brother to a kid also with the same name as my own "Jimmy". When too many kids were named Jimmy it was not good for communication. Distinctions had to be made by renaming them. This fellow, the other Jimmy, had a bit of a belly and an even bigger rear end. One day my brother remarked that he had a chubby butt and so named him "Chub Butt". Haha My brother was a comic of sort. I remember him once saying, "Here comes Chub Butt...and he is carrying a full load." All the kids picked it up and would utter it too.

Uh, yes...Chub Butt liked his nickname too..no stigmas at all because nicknames were normal to us. The silly nicknames like we had as kids usually die a natural death as the kids get older or the personality or physical characteristic for which they were named dies. I think the kids that used to get nicknames most often were either the ones who have too common names or who had some characteristic about them that was obvious and too different to ignore. The kids with unusual first names or no distinction didn't get nicknames very often. They seemed to not need one. Kids then understood that most of the time a nickname wasn't given in malice. Instead it was often a form of recognition and affection. As for the kids who got cruel nicknames....it was at least better than being physically attacked and usually was not of lasting consequence to the nicknamed person.

We kids gave nicknames so much then (and I still give people nicknames today!) because we grew up with so many adult celebrities and sport stars who had nicknames. For example, nicknames like "Pee Wee " Reese instead of Harold Reese, the given name of that famed short baseball star were part of the players persona. Take Pee Wee's away and he might as well be naked. Often the nickname is a better fit for the person than the birth name. How about these examples of nicknames compared to birth name?
- "Lawrence of Arabia" (T. E. Lawrence)
- "Madonna" (Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone)
- "Babe" Ruth (George Ruth)
- "Pele" (Edson Arantes do Nascimento)
- "Ringo" Starr (Richard Starkey)
- "Cher" (Cherilyn LaPierre)
-"Twiggy" (Leslie Hornby)
- "Mahatma" Ghandi (Mohandas Ghandi)
- "Mr. Bean" (Rowan Atkinson)
- "The Red Baron" (Manfred Von Richtofen)
- "Dr. Suess" (Theodore Geisel)
- "Jet Li" (Li Laianjie)
- "Typhoid" Mary (Mary Mallon)
- "Uncle Ho" (Ho Chi Minh)
- "Woody Allen" ( Allen Konigsberg)
- "Bono" (Paul Hewson)
- "Sting" (Gordon Matthew Sumner)

Can you say any of the of birth names is better than the nickname? Uh...think about it while I think about a nickname to call you...