Nicknames

[OldGreyEagle]

Eamonn's post mentioning nicknames got me thinking, how do we end up with the monicker's some of us carry? My son, the renown YoungSpikedEagle is a case in point. Early on in his scouting career he got tagged with his last name as his sobriquet. It was common to hear the other scouts call out, Bobby, Mark, Paul, SpikedEagle, get some firewood. That bothered me a little, I went over the deep end when an adult leader asked me, quite innocently I am sure, if I thought my son would like to be on the camp honor guard. Except he said, "do you think SpikedEagle would like to be in the Honor Guard". Yikes, I had the adults calling him with his last name. I exploded, I told him he has a first name and it was to be used. I think I seriously scared the guy with my rantings. Another adult came over and wanted to know what the fuss was about as we were scaring the scouts. I explained, and I think I had the two of them understanding my point when a third adult came over, oblivious to the proceedings and wanted to know if anyone had seen SpikedEagle as the adult was doing the snow sports merit badge with him and he had some time for the discussion portion. The other two looked at me and I started to laugh so hard I had to sit down, sometimes you have to learn you can't stop the tide from comming in.

His last name stuck as his nickname to the point a few years later new scout parents would ask me what his real first name was as the new scouts didnt know, they all called him by his last name. Now he works at Wal-Mart as a Kart Korraler, and proudly wears his last name on his name tag. Oh well

 

BTW, had a friend in high school ended up with a nickname of Itch, it was derived from his first name which is Steve, any guess as to how that came about?

 

Anyway, what nicknames do you have in your troop and why?

[acco40]

Nicknames are strange beasts - you can't really give yourself one. Many are not complementary. Some individuals take great offense to being identified via a nick name. Some take great pride in it.

 

I generally abide by the BSA "no nicknames" rule. Some exceptions do occur. One Scout has a given name of Thomas but want to be called TJ. Is that a nickname? One Scout was picking up the name of "stinky" at our recent summer camp. Even some of the adults used it. As could readily be surmised, the Scout put up with it but did not like it. I never used that reference and highly encouraged others to stop. Others love the attention a nickname brings them.

 

As an aside, one of the SAs is jokingly called "Two dogs" from that old crass Indian joke. It is more of an inside joke and that name is only uttered by adults in the confines of the adult patrol site. Some men (most) never grow up!(This message has been edited by acco40)

[OldGreyEagle]

Any guess as to how Supreme Court Justice Whizzer White got his name? And no NJCubscouter, you cant play, PM me if you feel the need (please?)

[Laurie]

My nickname at day camp from age 10 through 15 was Dingbat. Sounds offensive, but it came about because I was always leading the others in song (others being 200 younger girls at a time) and in skits. Nothing bugged me more than a couple hundred gloomy-looking kids, so I could -- along with a couple friends -- get the group going but still maintain enough control to avoid the pushing and shoving. Because most of the songs were loud and action songs, because they tended to be silly, even out and out zany, I was dubbed Dingbat at some point. I wore the name proudly because it was meant in only the nicest way. The only problem with it is that most people never knew my true name. Even the bus driver knew me as Dingbat, so when the kids got rammy, he's holler, "hey Dingbat, can you get a song going". My mom wondered why my voice was virtually gone at the end of each day. I talk a lot, but during camp I sang almost all the time. Leading hikes, around the campfires, at the opening ceremony and the closing flag ceremony, on the bus... In junior high I was nicknamed Legs -- tall with short uniform skirts, I didn't mind since it started with some cute guys One son is now Magic Markers in school and Golden Foot to his soccer team. The littlest was Scoot for a long time because that's how she like getting around best -- and her nickname made her laugh. She's now Princess and truly thinks she is one--though she can spit in a most UNprincess like way thanks to her older brothers Nicknames, when not given to hurt others, are such fun to me.

 

Oh no--there's a BSA no nickname rule? I had no idea.(This message has been edited by Laurie)

[Big_Dog]

If there is a no nickname rule, they should have informed us at woodbadge. There, I was Big_Beaver instead of Big_Dog.

 

bd

[LPC_Thumper]

National has a No Nickname rule??? Sorry guys I need chapter and verse for that one. I can understand not being negative with names, but...

 

As for my name, I got it in High School. Ever seen the movie "Bambi"? (I was the guy that always had the new girlfriend... any way one night my friends were giving me greif about being twiterpated... and Thumper came up)

 

Later in life I developed a limp, and I actually thump when I walk. When I did Woodbadge the staff wanted to use nicknames for us, and a High School friend started using the name. The staff were really careful to ask before using the name. Taught me a lesson.

 

When I was a SM all my boys had nicknames (this was 15 years ago). Rule was you came up with the name for someone else, you asked them if they wanted it, and then with their approval they were used. Many of them still use those names today... We had "Hack Saw" (the kid was trying really hard to be a basketball player, but could only foul out), "Lug Nut" (after a flat on the way to an event) "Elf" (young man was always ready some fantasy book), "Flash" (His real first name was Gordon. I thought that's what it was based on. I just learned last year that it was REALLY based on a swim suit "malfunction" from his first summer camp, his first campout. I think you understand)

 

We used them all the time. The parents had to figure out who was who. The troop is sponsored by a church and many of these kids families knew each other before they went Scouting.

 

I'm not trying to pick, I'm just trying to understand. Thanks!

[Fat Old Guy]

I have few objections to nicknames. Many Scouts in my troop wind up with nicknames at Summer Camp that pass out of usage once we return home.

 

I can't think of any Scouts that have nicknames that are in common use.

 

[scoutmom]

I like Eamonn's nickname for his wife. "She who must be obeyed" I wonder if I can get my staff to start calling me that?

[JimmyD]

We have one kid with the nick name "tubby". The kids call him that, the leaders don't but i have asked him if it does offend and he's told me ever single time no. He doesn't seem to mind it. As long as the kid doesn't care, I don't see a problem with the other kids calling him by his nick name.

[Eamonn]

I happen to like nicknames a lot. I answer to a lot of different names. Both my brother and I call each other Mick. We have done so for as long as I can remember. His real name is John.

OJ is OJ at home, his Grandmother does call him Oliver. (Named after Saint Oliver Plunket.) He gets Ollie, Ooge, Juice. When we named him we thought that when he got older he could choose if he wanted to be Oliver or be James. So far OJ seems OK with him.

Finding out someones old nickname can be a lot of fun. My best friend who isn't a relation but OJ calls Uncle Mike and I normally call him by his last name confessed a year or so back that at school he was known as Bozo. He said it has something to do with football??

My Mother was always called Babs her real name was Mary-Alice and very often in Ireland the youngest child is called Babs or Babby she was the oldest.

One that does puzzle me on this side of the pond is why John is Jack?

Eamonn.

[Fat Old Guy]

Eamonn,

 

Are you sure you don't mean Jim Plunkett :-).

 

I wonder about many diminutive forms of names. John/Jack, Edward/Ted, Margaret/Peggy.

 

I also wounder how names like Ashley and Leslie are mostly male on one side of the pond and femal on the other side.

 

I also wonder who, who wrote the book of love.

[SR540Beaver]

My older brother called me Hotrod. I think it probably had to do with the number of speeding tickets I got as a teenager. In college, I was Batman to some of the girls because they thought my car looked like the batmobile. The guys in my dorm called me Dad because I was a junior on a floor full of freshmen. I'm now known as Uncle Bub within my family. I have a twin brother and we called each other Bubby and Buddy when we were mere tikes. As we got older, we would greet each other with "hey Bub". My nephew would hear us say it and I auomatically became Uncle Bub to him when he began talking. It stuck with all of the other neices and nephews and great neices that came along. My Mom even calls me that when the kids are around. I wear it proudly! I did have a girl that referred to me as Studmuffin, but we'll leave that for the campfire some night! LOL

[boleta]

Although I can' remember where, I have seen the no nickname rule somewhere.

 

In 2000, my son was one of only 2 boys to join his Troop that year. They had been in Webelos together. In late June the troop went to summer camp. The friend (somewhat fat) got the nickname of Momma Bear by a group of older, mean boys. They were told (by me) to stop when I discovered this no nickname rule. They didn't until the 2nd or 3rd time.

 

The friend dropped out of the Troop and Scouting by September.

[Fat Old Guy]

I've looked through my collection of Scoutmaster's Handbooks (also called Handbook for Scoutmasters) and I can't find anything about nicknames.

 

I think that this might be one of those Scouting myths. For one thing, it doesn't make any sense.

 

If a kid is called "Roscoe" because he like to talk like Roscoe P. Coltrane, what's the big deal. That's a far cry from calling an overweight kid "Orca" Actually, I had a friend in college whom we called Orca and he was rather proud of the nickname.

 

On the other hand, there was the guy who was known as "Chunks" for about a week and he really didn't care for the name (the name came from excessive drinking and the consequences).

 

I've observed that derogatory names that are applied to friends only last about a week.

[Fuzzy Bear]

I believe that nicknames are a symbolic gesture to express the worth or the depth of a person. The Indians used names to give reference to sum up who the person really is. The American culture, as I know it, tries to distance itself from others by not using nicknames either out of respect or lack of familiarity.

 

If we were closer knit, a large family, a tight neighborhood or a small town, then we would be named by others for our deeds or lack of them. To use a nickname means that there is support as part of the relationship. The abuse comes from using the nickname without the bond of friendship.

 

FB