Andrew / January 8, 2006 3:34 PM

1. "Huffy" - My last name is Huff, so... But it also fits my occasional grumpiness.

2. "Andge" - one of my younger brothers had trouble with his Rs and Ls when he was young, so my name came out sort of like "Anjoo," which was inevitably shortened to Andge. Pretty much only my brothers call me this (I call them Peedge and Dandge in response).

The only people who call me Andy either knew me in high school or before, or don't know me at all.

Jeremy / January 8, 2006 3:54 PM

In the 6th grade I was running through the school halls, one of my teachers yelled, "Slow down, JC". My friends have called me JC ever since.

Baltimore / January 8, 2006 4:19 PM

Bicycle, case I use ta steal bikes

hench / January 8, 2006 5:01 PM

don't really have one. people just call me by my first name, which is ok by me.

Leelah / January 8, 2006 6:48 PM

Leelah - My friend's son Ethan couldn't say Lisa...
At school - Grandmaster P... my humanities kids came up with it.

Baldeesh / January 8, 2006 7:30 PM

I have many nicknames, but here are the 2 most popular:

Meggles - don't know where it came from, but it's been in use for about 10 years.

Crash - due to 2 car accidents in less than 11 months.

Ta da!

MikeH / January 8, 2006 7:40 PM

My first week at college, I became known as Stoner. Now, yes, I smoked weed, but no more than everyone else I was hanging out with. So what started out as a joke caught on in a big way and by the time I graduated, there were people who had known me for years who still didn't know my real name. Not cool coming home for Christmas breaks, and having people call your mom's house and asking for "Stoner"...

Sarah / January 8, 2006 8:01 PM

My friend Erica calls me "Tootsie" "Toots" and "Sugarbooger"--all names that I am fond of. She's the second person to call me Tootsie, so I guess that's a name that's gonna stick.

My nickname in high school was "Smurf". I was a good art student so some of the potheads in my art class asked me to draw pictures of mushrooms for them. I also wasn't allowed to watch the eponymous cartoon when I was a kid. I threw huge parties, which were dubbed "Smurfstock", in my backyard complete with custom built platform and rented PA system for local bands. My mom found out about the first from a coworker, who had seen a flier.

Leah / January 8, 2006 10:41 PM

Mine is boring...

LeahJ

As in Leah Jay.

Nope, there weren't any other Leahs around, it was just my first hotmail address and then I started signing everying LeahJ and when I moved to Colorado, people started calling me that. It stuck.

Oh and some people call me Leelee.

Lisa / January 8, 2006 10:52 PM

I am embarassed to acknowledge this, but "Princess." My Mom started it--as in "Princess Di"--because she thought I was high maintenance. Law school friends chose the nickname for other reasons, too long to explain here. But only my Mom and those particular friends use it. Maybe more people should! :)

Melody / January 9, 2006 6:39 AM

My friend in high school starting calling me Lody one day (La-Dee). She had been listening to a Snoop Doggy Dogg song called - Lodi Dodi. So hence it's stuck to this day. Almost everyone calls me Lod or Lody.

slb / January 9, 2006 8:08 AM

i could really use one, since there are way too many sarahs around. in high school three of my friends and i all called each other "slacker," but sharing a nickname doesn't really work too well. my mom calls me "sarie," which i put up with, because it's my mom, but certainly will not encourage... i guess i'm not one of those people who gets nicknamed, for whatever reason.

Stephen / January 9, 2006 8:13 AM

'S-Squared,' aka 's2,' since my initials are SS. Kind of embarassing that even my girlfriend refers to me as S-Squared.

Sarah, is it just me or does every high school in America have someone known as 'Smurf'? I've known quite a few Smurfs in my day.

Staci / January 9, 2006 9:12 AM

I've had many nicknames over the years, but T-Rex is my favorite. A few years ago, I was going to meet a friend for lunch and noticed it was raining, so I grabbed one of the many umbrellas my editor keeps at his desk and went out. The umbrella I grabbed featured pictures of dinosaurs and was for a child, so I looked a little silly. Upon seeing me, my friend said, "Nice look, T-Rex." When I got back to the office, my editor was laughing about the umbrella I took and I told him what my friend said. For the next few years, the entire editorial staff only referred to me as T-Rex.

Recently, the IT guy in our company changed my phone to read "Staci Fabulous", which is what comes up on my coworkers' screens when I make internal calls. So, most of the company knows me as that now, although I like T-Rex better.

Snatchy / January 9, 2006 9:15 AM

I have two:

Ruggie: Gained because i ripped up my knees doing a certian act on a stage set

Snatchy: I have no idea where my friends came up with that one

anne / January 9, 2006 9:16 AM

I've always hated the nickname "Annie", so luckily that's not one people use nowadays. The weirdest nickname I ever got was "Muffy" at field hockey camp one summer. It was b/c I reminded my counselor of a girl named Meredith she had known the previous summer who went by "Muffy". The total freaky thing was that a few years later I actually met this girl Meredith/Muffy while on a college trip to London. We did look a bit alike, but the whole thing was random and a little unsettling.

mike-ts / January 9, 2006 9:24 AM

Put together these two things:
1) army buds in the barracks, c. 1989
2) premature balding (early 20's)

and you get

"Chernobyl Poster Child" and "Chernobyl Baby"

Kind of inventive, sort-of current events, and kind of lame, but unique. Beats any alternative, I guess.

Archie FlorCruz / January 9, 2006 9:25 AM

My Nickname is Archie. 90% of the people that know me don't even know that's not my real name, it might as well be though considering I've been called that since birth :)

Roni / January 9, 2006 9:34 AM

My folks gave me Roni as a nickname. It's funny because people who know me online don't know how to pronounce it. It is ROW-KNEE or RON-EE? It's RON-EE.

In middle and high school, it was Vern. An insane story. Basically a guy who liked me was writing me a note. His teacher liked to read boy-girl notes to the class if caught. So he thought of Vern as a 'code name' in case the note was found. Somehow it stuck and only a few friends from HS still call me that. I still like that name.

Dutch / January 9, 2006 9:38 AM

No one has used it for a long time (except me, in anonymous screen names), but I had a high school job delivering ribs. Everyone had a nickname, Kins, Koogs, Crash, Micro, etc. etc. Basically, it was just a bunch of teen, early twenties slackers running a restaurant. The week I started I was comparing the baseball card market in the early '90's to the Dutch tulip trade in the 1630's. Apparently the reference was a bit obscure, since I was greeted with blank stares, and the nickname "Dutch". But hey, that was Reagan's nickname, and my family is of Dutch descent, so it sort of works.

Justin / January 9, 2006 9:50 AM

So I got this name from my father and brother that has stuck since I was a wee little. Booze or affectionatly Boozer; seems when I wa, and this is before I knew I was, I had a thing for beer from the can. People wouldn't give to me, I'd just sneak up and start sippin', they would turn around and find a kid in nappies sluggin' thier brew.

sky / January 9, 2006 10:05 AM

When I was playing softball as a kid, my coach started calling me Sky, because my last name is King....after Sky King....only my parents and close family friends call me that.

In college, my roommate started calling me Tracky because she said that was my alter ego when I was hungover and cranky. That is what my closest friends from college call me.

Mostly everyone else either calls me tking or taking, based on email addresses I had at college or what I have at work.

eep / January 9, 2006 10:10 AM

I've been "eep" or "eeper" since I was a kid, because my initials spell out eep. Then there's "El," which is the first syllable of my first name, but only very close friends call me that. Then there's "Needles," which I acquired in college. Not because I was a junkie, but because one of my professors always gave his students nicknames. He wanted to call me "Pinhead" as a play on my last name, but I told him I'd been hearing that since junior high and wanted something new, so he called me "Needles" instead. And finally there's "GWeezer," which was bestowed on me a few years ago. My friends think I'm sometimes channelling an 85-year-old woman because of my crotchety ways, and so that nickname came about as a combination of my geezer-dom mixed with my Weezer fangirling.

Mostly it's just "eep" or "GWeezer," though.

Baltimore / January 9, 2006 10:22 AM

Oh and how could I have forgotten my most recent nick name "Tsumani" its one of my favs

julie / January 9, 2006 10:24 AM

eyebrows- in college during a video critique i guess i raised my eyebrows at a response my professor had. she got really mad at me and told me not to raise my eyebrows at her, or to go out in the hall and do it. for the rest of college all of my fellow digital media classmates called me eyebrows.

julienerd- it was one of my first "screennames" back in the day--simply because i had a box of nerds on my desk when brainstorming for a screenname (and because i am a nerd) i used to run an obscene amount of band websites and over the years people have decided that i'm either "julie the webgirl" or just "julienerd".

Carrie / January 9, 2006 11:09 AM

Rin. My middle name is Lynn and my sister used to call me Carrie Rin. That's pretty much all that my mom calls me. Some of her friends have had to ask my real name because she only calls me Rin. My sister still calls me Rin, too. I think it's a great nickname.

Libby / January 9, 2006 11:18 AM

My real name is Elizabeth, so I guess even Libby is a nickname. Back in my hardcore animal rights activism days I was hlariously known as Liberator. Always floating around are Lib and Libs.

My boyfriend calls me DG, short for "dorky girlfriend." Quite endearing, eh?

Nick / January 9, 2006 11:28 AM

Nickname: Vegas.

Story: Sam, of the now defunct Jinx Cafe, had another Nick in her phone. She was introduced to me as "the guy that used to live in Las Vegas," She appended the Vegas to the end of my name making "Nick Vegas". It stuck

anonymous / January 9, 2006 11:29 AM

A lot of people call me "V" or V-dawg.
My boyfriend calls me "honey child".
My father calls me "Queen Sheeba".
When I was in 5th grade I was called "Johnny 5", because I was good at the robot voice from Short Circuit.

Erica / January 9, 2006 11:37 AM

Roxy after the Redken hairdye Roxy Red.
Eriga (my sister's friend calls me this and we joke about it -- her Cs are lazy. Kinda hillbilly sounding, actually)
E (people are lazy and so am I)
Gator after my maiden name Gallagher, which morphed into Galligator, and later "gator"
Erika. Not a nickname, just a total oversight of the actual spelling of my name. Yes, it's a more modern spelling, but it's not how you spell MY name, yo.

My new fave nickname to give other people is goose. I'm obsessed with this word. My dog Chewie is now answering to "goose" I call him that so much.

Cinnamon / January 9, 2006 11:46 AM

With a name like Cinnamon there is no need for a nickname. When I'm asked "What do people call you for short?" I respond "Cinnamon. I'm short enough."

When people make fun of my name (doesn't happen as much now) I tell them they're going to have to come up with something I've never heard before. Keeps me from getting stuck with something I don't like. Although occasionally my brothers call my CinnaMonster. Self explanatory since I'm the oldest child.

holden / January 9, 2006 12:04 PM

Smallville - for two reasons, one, i guess i bear a resemblance to clark K and two, i grew up in the country.

steven / January 9, 2006 12:13 PM

2 nicknames:

Wonderman - given to me by a friend back in college. My name reminded her of Stevie Wonder, and well...

Moo - one my wife and I both share, given to each other because of a small stuffed cow she picked up somewhere along the line. We only use it around each other. It's my favorite of all time.

j / January 9, 2006 12:48 PM

Many nicknames have tagged me, here's the most recent:

"Big Lid"

A composite nickname derrived from an unfortunate incident where I forgot my helmet at a bicycle race and was forced to use a 1982 dome, and from my repetitive shattering of helmets when thrusting my head into the pavement during the final sprint of a race...

Sigh.

jenwomon / January 9, 2006 1:02 PM

Yogi was a very pervasive nickname from about 3rd grade through high school, based on bad habit of eating other people’s food (I was a super skinny jock and always, always hungry - what can I say). Everyone used it, I believe there are people in my hometown who still don’t know my real name.

Later, my family dubbed me Aunt Mame like the classic movie’s childless, urban modern woman. The latest derivative results in my nieces and nephew calling me Mame-O.

homer / January 9, 2006 1:07 PM

Herman. My parents told me I was adopted, and that was my real name (no offfense to anybody).

Onid / January 9, 2006 1:35 PM

~Ducky-from my friends stepdad. We were in the north woods of WI and I threw a rock in the lake. The rock hit a duck and the duck flew away. Friends stepdad said ,"nice going Ducky" and it stuck. Only my friends from high school call me this. I was at friends stepdads wake last year and someone yelled,"Hey Ducky!!" for the first time in over 7 years.

~My latest one is Chewy due to my tendency to chew on my cocktail straws and have a toothpick in my mouth all the time.

Alejandra. / January 9, 2006 2:45 PM

"Ali" after Ali McGraw star of "Love Story." My mother loves the movie, so that's what my family and longtime friends call me. Everybody else calls me Alex. So you can gauge how long someone has known me by what they call me.

LeahW / January 9, 2006 3:04 PM

Jenni Lee - my dad's fam all call me this. All the cousins (30ish) on that side go by two names.

George - because my first name is so dull, my entire high school called me George for a year. People still occasionally bust this one out. It's what inspired me to start going by my middle name later.

Princess Leia - fairly obvious.

Billie/Bills - a diminution of my last name.

Also, at various times: Jellybean, Pumpkin, and The Red Demon.

Paula / January 9, 2006 3:16 PM

I had an old boyfriend who gave everyone nicknames and I was Pancake O'Brien. Thankfully it didn't stick.

An old roommate called me Twinkie and still refers to me that way.

My brothers used to call me Toots or Schmonz when I was little and (again thankfully) both of those seem to have gone away.

Bill / January 9, 2006 3:46 PM

i had several, some more unfortunate than others:

when i was a young lad: Bubba. i was a big boy, and my dad was raised in indiana, so he decided i was a bubba. thankfully, that didnt stick.

8th grade: Buckin' Bill. our gym teacher tried to teach us wrestling, and i tended to kind of 'buck' like a Bill to get people off me.

College: Dick Ritchie and TV's Bill B-----. The former because I kind of look like michael rappaport and the latter because of my actorly aspirations.

Sarah / January 9, 2006 4:11 PM

Stephen--dunno I've never met any other Smurfs.

anne / January 9, 2006 4:40 PM

Lil' Anne or Lil' A

This is something that both my family and random friends/co-workers have been calling me for a long time, because my name is Anne and I'm little. I'm surrounded my very clever people.

amyc / January 9, 2006 5:43 PM

I've always been Amy C. on accounta growing up there always being other Amys I had to be differentiated from. I've never had anything more colorful than that, except for the crazy things my beloved Jim (a.k.a. jima, a.k.a. Mister Jimmie) calls me.

My brother's nickname, for reasons no one can explain or recall, is Stervert.

Amy / January 9, 2006 6:46 PM

My friend Nichole calls me Ames and introduces me that way so its caught on.
My mom calls me Amy Damy.
My aunt called me Amy Marika which I loved.
The most common is because I share a last name with a certain baseball player, people like to call me A-Rod.
My fried Chad calls me crazy Amy, not sure why.

Steve Gozdecki / January 9, 2006 6:50 PM

My main one, granted by many a crowd over my nearly two score years on this earth, is "Goz."

Oddly enough, my most petulant, unforgiving friend gave me the nick "Bitter Steve" back in 1994. Projection, projection, projection....

april / January 9, 2006 7:29 PM

11-years-old: "Urpie" because my second cousin was too young to pronounce my real name.

15-years-old: "Grape Ape"...my volleyball buddies called me this throughout high school for no real reason.

18-years-old: "Ape Shit" by my best friend...and subsequently by ALL my coworkers at Burger Chef.

Various pet names from boyfriends of the past: "A" as in 'Hey-A-Whadya-say?' EVERY.DAMN.TIME I picked up the phone; 'Lirpa' and 'Smoochface'. Awww.

Robin / January 9, 2006 8:16 PM

My dad calls me Swede, he says it is short for swede haaaht. Also, there is some scandinavian heritage in my family.

My mom calls me Fonz (pronounced "phones") Beelonz.

My boyf has a new nickname for me all the time, but mostly it's Bobbie Ann which I don't get since my middle name is really Marie.

Hal / January 9, 2006 9:35 PM

Hal, self-adopted literally the day after I graduated from high school because my given name "Harold" is so darn dorky.

It became all the more important since I started working for a British firm, as my full given name, Harold Shipman, is the same as England's most prolific serial killer, Dr. Harold F. Shipman.

Dr. Shipman, or "Dr. Death," killed over 200 women and finally had enough media saturation that being named "Harold Shipman" there is now like being named Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy here.

"Hal" doesn't seem to trigger the same uncomfortable pause in conversation that I get when I have to give the name on my credit card for a hotel reservation over the phone. It was a bitch getting my firm to fix my email address and for the few days it took to work through the system, it was wierd hearing (in conference calls) how uncomfortable it made my co-workers over there.

Ray / January 10, 2006 2:56 AM

When I first started going to Burning Man, I figured I needed a playa name, so I called myself Arc because I make and bring neon (which lights by striking an arc through gas). It kind of stuck, and I still use it one week a year.

I'm also known as Dr. Kilovolt on occasion. To know why, you'll just have to see me perform.

Brian / January 10, 2006 6:41 AM

In high school, people called me Tank. Said I was built like a Sherman tank. Umm, ok.

When I got to college, people started calling me Capone. I went to school in Tennessee, and ppl knowing I was from Chicago and looked somewhat like a young Al Capone, I guess the name stuck. Most times my online nickname is either Capone or CaponeX (I dunno, the X just happened somewhere along the way.. I guess it's X for Gen X if it has to have an explanation).

So, yeah, it's CaponeX. :)

Nan / January 10, 2006 9:25 AM

Sam

My favorite character from when I was a wee lass was Sam from Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham

Ann VanMoxie / January 10, 2006 9:50 AM

These days it's AnnVan, for obvious reasons, and since it's a syllable shorter than my whole first name (anyone who didn't know me before I changed my first name has to use my new first name instead of my old one). I've never had nicknames that stuck, really. But I'm always nicknaming people around me. An ex used to call me Sweet Meat, so I use that a lot when greeting other people. They seem to like it.

CVAL / January 10, 2006 9:58 AM

"Corky" Cause' during my birth as I was pulled from the birth canal my dad said it sounded like the pop from a champaign cork

TEKKY / January 10, 2006 10:24 AM

I got my nickname of TEKKY from the hair-metal cover band "HairBanger's Ball". A few years ago I was their guitar tech. However, at the time their drummer's real name was Todd. (same as mine) To avoid confusion, the band started calling me "TEKKY".

Sometimes even my mother-in-law calls me TEKKY.

steve sleeve / January 10, 2006 10:49 AM

steve sleeve - a kid in my PASCAL class in high school (this class was still offered in 1996 for whatever reason) just said it one day, probably because it rhymed. i used it as my DJ name on college radio, and it has since segued into semi-permanent use.

jp / January 10, 2006 11:30 AM

JP -- This has also been amended to "Jeep" or "Jeepers" or "Japer's Block." It wasn't til I met Steve Sleeve and pals in college that I got the nickname, which was given to me by one KCo.

I like it cos I'm not really into my first name (Sorry, mom/dad).

Jennifer / January 10, 2006 12:02 PM

Fern/Fernie

Its just an extension of Jennifer. In college, my pals made up variations, like "going fernando" was "going commando" (when the guys didnt do their laundry.

We also used to party with a guy we named KDR, which stood for "Kennie Drugs Roommate", I didnt ever know his real name.

Trance / January 10, 2006 12:07 PM

I got the nickname "Trance" back in the day when the Dome Room was open, because some guy said I looked like I was in a trance out on the dance floor. Which I might have been. :)

I have also been Murphy, Buckwheat, Too Tall Jones, Tigger, Carrothead, Chickenleg, JB, and JaybeeBaby.

jennifer / January 10, 2006 12:53 PM

jennabiaffra - because I once told my uncle that I was tired of not having a nickname. inspired by the dead kennedys, though he really wasn't into the band at all.

kelly / January 10, 2006 2:28 PM

kooop - i play hoops, kelly starts with a k, and 3 o's are more fun.

fat - after incessantly hearing "i'm so fat!" from girls in the locker room, i jokingly said it one time and one girl started calling me "fatty" which eventually turned into "fat."

deja - my best friend and i were posing as twins on irc in 7th grade and our favorite musical group at the time, blackstreet, had twins deja and taja. since her name is terrah, she got taja, so i took deja. we made email addresses with those names and i've used dejalane ever since.

bam / January 10, 2006 2:52 PM

Thumb - cause I chopped part of one off in a car door back in high school. Those frenchies make one solid car door!

Julia / January 10, 2006 3:32 PM

The only spontaneous nickname I've been given is J-Train. I used to take photos for a local paper and my editor blurted it out one day as I entered the room. I wish more people would use it, s'fun. It prompted one friend to send me some souvenirs from the NYC transit museum (the J Train, geddit?).

Cliff / January 10, 2006 5:07 PM

Growing up my mom and sisters used to call me "bubba". We're from the South... Thank God that one didn't stick.

When I was in the military a platoon sergeant couldn't remember my name and referred to me as "That lieutenant... you know? Lieutenant um, uh, Mudflap! What the fuck ever his name is..." Mudflap stuck until I got out of the military.

No current nicknames.

Ashley / May 8, 2006 10:53 AM

My whole life I have been called Ashbug, bug, or just Marie. Marie is my middle name, but I was called Ashbug because since I started crawling I would always chase after bugs no matter what kind, I always wanted to pick them up. Now I am still called that name to this day.

fernando / June 12, 2006 4:25 PM

As a kid it was "Fern," for obvious reasons and some of the parents of my friends from that time still use it, which is amusing.

"Scotch" is the latest, which replaced "Bastard," so I'm thankful, and is the result of my quest to develop a palate for single malts.