Confession: I have been associating with more or less the same group of peers for four years now and I still have friends whose real names remains a mystery to me…unless of course “Dare Care Dave” appears on the Birth Certificate in some hospital in Pennsylvania. What are the origins of the nicknames we give out to peers and why are they given out?
The first category of nicknames that comes to mind are those names issued post hook up experience. Guys become Jackhammer, the Rastafarian, or Cleveland Brown (nice uniform, bad helmet).
We females also contrive relatively ingenious, albeit malicious, names for other girls who take an interest in our past flames. In this case, names such as Cankles, Alien Face, Shake and Bake, Green Goblin, or Frying Pan Face apply.
Then, of course, there is the category of guys that make up their own nicknames. These self-imposed names typically contain some manly implication that former names have failed to achieve. As a result a new T-Bone, PavForce, Dan the Man or Tricky Ricky is born.
There is also the “No reason for a nickname but you got a nickname anyway” category. These names are typically uncreative and have origins that date back to the second grade, like the kid who was dubbed Donald Duck and then be greeted with the occasional quack in passing. Hence Chuck Kehoe, our famed He Said, is dubbed Chuck Sherman for the sole reason of similarity of the common first name.
Then there is the obvious nickname by location. Although unoriginal, this identification becomes very helpful in distinguishing hot Tom from California from regular Tom from Jersey.
Also in this category are names such as LA, Tex, the Canadian, Asian Joe, the Mexican from Claver, Ja-makin-me-crazy, and Commuter…the non-resident from first year. And of course everyone has that friend who goes by the AIM name.
Footnote: For next week Chuck and I will respond with advice/comments to a question or problem a reader sends to us. Please send all entries to “The Fairfield Mirror, Box AA.”
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