Welcome Wednesday: Do you have a nickname?

[#1]

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

A few community leaders were have a conversation not too long ago about nicknames. If you had one, where you got it and is it something people still know you by?

My question for you this week: Do you have, or have you ever had a nickname? Can you tell us about it?

For myself, I’ve had a couple. Growing up my parents always called me Jamie (and in fact they still do to this day). In High School, I started going by games to be a bit more formal. In my College years, I had a group of friends that I played video games with regularly , and our game of choice was Starcraft. I got the nickname “Jimmy“ as a loose connection to Jim Raynor, one of the characters within the game.

When I graduated and started looking for my first job, I found a great start in a customer support position for a company that made issue tracking and version control software (no it wasn’t Atlassian). I had applied as “James“ to be professional, and my first day as I was being taking around and introduced to the team, this guy came up from behind me yelling “JIMMY, I didn’t know you were working here?“. One of my college gaming buddies and I had applied at the same company and started a few weeks apart.

As much as my employment record shows I was employed as James, everyone called me Jimmy. Additionally, just by luck every company I have worked at has employed (even for a brief time) someone I have previously worked with, and the nickname has continued to follow me.

Alright, it’s your turn, I’d love to hear your stories in the comments below!

Have a great rest of the week!

[Manoj Gangwar]

Yes, I do have a nickname. It's given by my friends.

Mannu

[John Funk]

You just had to go there, didn't you @Jimmy Seddon   haha. 

With a last name like Funk, you get all kinds of nicknames. Betting @Summer Hogan  has the same experience. 

Early on in my last job my boss at the time called me The Broker because I was functioning as a Technical Project Manager for our internal Platform and Web Systems teams. There was lots of gatekeeping and negotiating with the Dev teams  haha. 

[Joanna Weber]

Hi *waves*

I'm usually called 'Jo', which is a common contraction of Joanna, though a couple of Polish-speaking friends have called me 'Asia' before (which is the Polish diminutive form of Joanna). In terms of nicknames, my favourite was 'The Energizer Bunny', which was given to me when I cranked out a lot of mods for the game Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, back in the day.

[Sue Wilson]

Nicknames? Oh my!  Any & every variation of Susan you can think of (Sue, Sus, Su, Suzy, Suzy-Q).  In high school, they nicknamed me "Smurfette" due to my small size, blond hair, and cheery disposition. '-)  It stuck with me throughout my entire high school 'career'.  I've also been called the Energizer Bunny throughout my life, mostly by family.  I can't sit still for anything.  If I'm not keeping myself busy at work and at home, I'm fidgety and will find things to do to keep going.  Many years later, my batteries have drained a bit, but I'm still giving the bunny a run for his money! :-D  In the work world, if customer facing, I go by Susan.  To my colleagues, I'm Sue.

[Dave Mathijs]

Personally, I don't like it when people call me 'David' or 'Davy', just call me 'Dave'. Every once in a while people call me 'Mathijs' because it is a more common first name in The Netherlands.

[Chris Iacovelli]

My last name is a mouthful when pronounced and you usually hear people stumble with "I CO, eye CO, I kha, Ike-something".

Ike is what I ended up with in my early 20s. I wear it as a badge of honor as my father's nickname was Ike as well.

And no, it does not stand for I Know Everything, because i don't; I just know enough to be dangerous.

[Amanda Barber]

My parents called me Mandi May (mostly my dad, who still does occasionally!) I think the more common "nickname" I go by these days is Mom, Mommy, Mooooom. 😅

Love seeing everyone's nicknames! I do wonder what makes them have such fantastic sticking power - is it the name? the receiver of the name? the people giving the name and therefore pushing for the name to stick? 😊

[Jaime Capitel _resolution_]

My full name is Jaime Antón González-Capitel Martorell. Dangerously long, as it doesn't fit in most online forms outside my native Spain.

So I go by Capi, short form of Capitel. Interestingly enough, Capitel is already a nickname that was given to my great grandfather, and my grandfather and his brothers made part of our official family name.

Funny part is, nobody remembers anymore why my ancestor was called Capitel. Some say it was because he hit bowls in the head when playing bowling; some say it's because he was a constructor and workers would make fun of the fancy words he used; my grandma swore he found a Roman ruin during a hike.

What's your favorite?

[Getjan_lammers]

Hahaha, my nickname is also my Atlassian community name.......it was firstly mentioned when i did a summer of camp counseling being a swim instructor in USA.

Ever since i took it as a good characteristic........and use it as well i icebreaker games.......my initial is also G so it fits.

[Getjan_lammers]

ooops just now i realise it chnaged to my real name......sorry my nickname is Friendly Giant.....200cm tall and not aggressive....hahahaha

[sarah_jerkins]

My friend's little girl tried to pronounce my name - Sarah.  She tried and came up with Sabby.  So, now I'm auntie Sabby! LOL!

[Tesha Vogt]

My first name is often mispronounced. The correct pronunciation is TEE-sha but I've heard just about everything even people adding letters to it such as "Theresa" lol. Anyway, back in high school the people who eventually became my friends jokingly called me "T-Dawg" which I'm guessing was simply easier to remember than my actual name....and to this day every once in a while I'm still referred to as such. It doesn't bother me because I can sure think of worse things to be called ;P

[Patrícia Fortunato Montenegro]

Hahaha, funny story @Jimmy Seddon!

I have a nickname; the main of them is Patty since I was a kid! And I also have a song here:

Dougs Song to Patty , LOL!!!

😃❤️🙏🏽

[Anthony Morais]

Yes, since my name is Anthony, it's easy, it's Thony
But talking about why my name is Anthony is because my father is a big fan of actor Anthony Hopkins hahaha

[Amanda Barber]

Oooh, @Patrícia Fortunato Montenegro - that would be another good post for another day. I'd love to see everyone's songs about their names.

Boston | Amanda 

[Summer Hogan]

Yep, you are right and I definitely have some @John Funk! "Sunshine Lemonade "is the one that is most prominent, but most people in my life don't know the story behind it. When I was in high school I used to drink a lot of lemonade. I loved lemons and still do! I was also a very bright and energetic person so my friends started calling me Sunshine Lemonade! I consider it a term of endearment! 

Other ones are Sunshine, Sunny, Summertime, and Somer (a mispronunciation of Summer). I also get blamed for the heat a lot since I live in Sunny Arizona where in the Summertime it can get up to 120 degrees. 

And I cannot forget the name my mom calls me when she is mad. When my mom is upset at me either as a kid or as an adult she calls me by my first and middle name, "Summer Ann". 

Great topic and question @Jimmy Seddon! You have such great questions! 

[Trudy Claspill]

I had a younger cousin who had trouble with the "TR" sound in my name and for many years called me "THudy".

But that isn't really a nickname.

My brother, on the other hand, got stuck being called "Peanut" by many in the family until well into his teen years. I was told it was because he was a small baby and the doctor said he "looked like a little peanut", but who knows if that is really true.

[Patrícia Fortunato Montenegro]

Hahahah, great idea @Amanda Barber 😄😄😄😄!!

Thanks for sharing Amanda's song, LOL - the movie is also great!! Hahahahaah!! ❤️

Have a wonderful day!

[Randy O_Neal]

When I first entered elementary school, I was held back a year because of when my birthday fell (early September).  I was a big child at 5; I was about 60% bigger than my peers in Kindergarten at 6.  By the time I was in third grade, I was close to 2x the size of some of my peers.  Credit good genetics, good food, and fresh air, I guess.

The guys I played with on the playground would routinely complain about getting roughed up by me; for me... all I was doing was participating in the same general rough-housing that all 9 to 10 year old boys did.  By the time 3rd grade ended, I picked up the nickname Horse (cause to them, I was as big as a horse), and it stuck with me through high school.  They skipped me over 4th grade and sent me straight to 5th grade... mostly out of concern of the other boys in the school, I guess.  But the name stuck, and to this day, many of my former HS classmates still refer to me as Horse.

I guess it's an interesting coincidence that I now work in the horse racing industry, lol.

[Thorhalla Gudmundsdottir Beck]

In some circles I go by Tex, and many people only know me as Tex (or find it very strange to use my real name). I often use this as well when conversing with foreigners because my given name, Þórhalla, is not very non-icelandic-speaker-friendly 🤣 It was my husband who started it when we first met because he had someone else with the same name in his phone contacts and thought that he'd differentiate me by naming me Tex. I have no idea why. 🤣 After twenty years it is well and truly stuck. 

[Ernst Fortunits]

In der Schule wurde ich wegen zwei vorstehender Zähne Hase gerufen, das passte mir uberhaupt nicht. Später wandelte sich diesr Spitzname in Fuge auch das passte mir nicht.

Beim österreichischen Bundesheer wandelte sich mein Nickname in Ranger das ist eigentlich schon lange her. Aktuell führe ich keinen Spitznamen. Grüße sendet Ernst aus Wien.

[Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_]

Lol, nice topic @Jimmy Seddon

I had quite a few nicknames due to the first and last names, some of which were/are Tomi, Tobo, Tom, Tommy and such. Lastly, people started to use Tobi and that's the same nickname my dad had in his younger days.

I have one funny situation where one of my sports teammate called me Tobijas (which is similar to the name Tobias) for like 6 or 7 years. While we were driving in a car one day, heading for a tournament, someone else called me Tomislav (which is actually my name) and she was like "Who's that???" 😅

[Sam Ware]

One of my nicknames is Werebear.  From the Army, with the last name Ware and they said I was as big as a bear so Werebear (spelled correctly).

[Falbaqami]

I had a nickname which was really long time ago and it was keyboard 

cuz when i was young I've open a lot of keyboards for know there build and try to fix them 

[Aruesiri Excel]

mama is my nickname