Hey everyone! Today we're talking about something that many of you have likely earned, given, stolen or self-assigned over the years: a nickname.
Perhaps you got caught kissing a childhood sweetheart under the playground swing and the other kids started calling you "Sugar-Lips." Or you were so solid and momentum-stopping on the [American] football field that your coach dubbed you "Brick." A few you don't use in polite company. There are probably even some that you don't even know about. And then there are some that really aren't so nice.
Dictionary.reference.com defines nickname as "a name added to or substituted for the proper name of a person, place, etc., as in affection, ridicule or familiarity," or "a familiar form of a proper name, as Jim for James and Peg for Margaret." Nickname is our modern English spelling of late Middle English nekename, from eke (pronounced "eek"), an
Old English word for "also," and name. The N attached to the
front of the word when someone
miscopied "an ekename" as "a nekename," and the nekename stuck. This process, called rebracketing, has led to all sorts of English words in common usage today, including alone (from Middle English "all [wholly] one") and newt (from Middle English "an ewt").* Neat, huh?
However, let us return to what nickname's etymology implies about its meaning: when you're giving someone a nickname, you're giving him or
her an "also-name" -- a name that implies that it is just as good as, or can be substituted for, his or her real name. Suddenly giving someone a nickname seems a grave responsibility! And it definitely puts the way your mom used to call (or continues to call) you her "Puddin' Pie" in a new light.**
Your parents' mushy terms of endearment, the saccharine pet names lovers have for each other, et cetera are a specific kind of nickname called a hypocorism, from Greek hypo-, "under," and kor-, "child." Slap them together and you get hypokor-, "to play the child, to call by endearing names." Typical ones include "honey," "dearest" and "duck," but some of them are nauseating, and others are just plain funny (warning, a bit risqué).
Of course, when these names come from someone who appreciates you in all of your multifaceted glory, they play second fiddle to your name anyway, and when used in conjunction with your real name, they can be sweet. In my experience, pet names are lovely, but nothing beats hearing someone who loves you say your name. It practically sings.
Conversely, to christen someone "fish-lips" or "pizza-face" as an earnest insult is to do more to him or her than a disservice: it is to make him or her into a caricature. A nickname given in ridicule boils away that person's individuality, save for the one characteristic that the nickname represents. And the idea of "nickname" coming from "also-name" reminds us of another fact about nicknames: they have the habit of sticking with us, sometimes even after they cease to apply.
Language is a series of commonly agreed-upon symbols; the word "apple" refers to the real-world fruit because we all agree that it does. Names function in exactly the same way: your name is the word and the sound that signifies you. To your parents, it means one host of things. To your beloved it's every little adorable, admirable and nettling thing about you. To you, it's probably the sound of familiarity, of identity, and of home. So when someone you don't know or don't like tries to give you a degrading nickname, you have the choice of whether or not to accept it. If the nickname doesn't symbolize you, why bother? Or if you really want to vex your would-be namer, don't just accept the nickname -- make it your own. Revel in it. After all, if you've got four eyes, that makes you doubly able to see that your nicknamers are probably suffering, shriveled people inside.
As the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin demonstrates quite literally, it's the true names that have power. It embodies everything about you -- your sense of humor (or lack thereof); your hopes and fears; who you were, are, will be and want to be; your talents and your flaws; whether you believe in a god, gods, God or none of the above; and how you like your tea. All of that rolls up into one little word. What could be more powerful than that?
Take pride in your name, and if you're the sort who likes to give people nicknames, make sure it fits.
Till next time, logonauts.
Information purloined from dictionary.reference.com, The Phrase Finder, The Online Dictionary of Language Terminology and Short Stories at East of the Web
* : As a friend pointed out, the best thing about this etymology is that the Monty Python joke still works
** : You might want to take a look at your mother's cookbooks***
*** : Because the '80s were a strange time, and just about everything made its way into Jell-O****
****: And Jell-O made its way into just about everything
