The Art of Nicknames

Baby Blue ,Flips, Primo, Nacho, Wizard, Ally, Maggie, Gucci, Twerkin’ Twins, Steps, Nicki, MItch, Rosie, and Legs. All of these are people, and none of these are there real names. Nicknames are the badges of familiarity we give our friends. Some stick, some don’t, some are irrelevant, some express a person, some are abbreviations, and sometimes we name a group of friends. How we nickname someone is a special bond that should happen naturally – the same way you name a child, but not in the emotionally-attached-kind-of-way. So, how does one come up with nicknames? Well, people can be given a nickname based from five different categories.

1.) By Skills. Lets face it we all know a person, who has some sort of cool talent, and if you don’t then congratulations you’re “cool-talent-guy.” Nicknaming these types of people are short and simple. In my first week of school, I met my friend Justin, who so happens to be a gymnast. As soon as I met him, I asked what he could do, and he flipped. Not metaphorically, or he got offended for asking him to prove his skills. He literally did a backflip in the hallways of the Coughlin dorm building. So, instantly he was given the appropriate name Flips.

However, you can nickname someone by skill sarcastically too. So either you can be really good at something, or terrible something and you can gain a nickname correlating to whatever it is you’re doing. This person I know of- who shall not be named, so lets just call him Bob- was at this weekends homecoming dance, and to be polite could have been a better dancer, but what I admired was how he owned up to his ability to dance regardless of how good he was. Therefore, the name Steps was given to him. So ,next time you are with friends, wait for someone to do something intriguing, and you might be able make a nickname from whatever they do.

2) By traits. This category of names is just as easy to use as the last. Notice something in a friend, and a nickname can pop from it. My friend Myra ,for example, has these pretty blue eyes, so naturally the name Baby blue came from it. Names can also stem from things a person says all the time. For me, the nickname Gucci was given to me. This happened because 1) I am gucci – still not sure what it means exactly, but I’m sure it means good ,and 2) I went on the Emerging Leaders Retreat, and for reasons that even I don’t know “Gucci” became a word I couldn’t stop saying, and Gucci was born,and  remember with nicknames comes great responsibility of remembering the actual names of people. I can’t count how many times I hear the “Gucci” yelled at me across rooms because forget that saying Abel works too, but it’s ok because its all gucci.

3) By group. This category requires you to have more than one friend. So, loners please skip to the next category. When you have that group of friends that everybody is close, and you see them as one big person. Yes, you can name a group of friends, but the name has to reflect the group, and yes the name is broad and vague. I have two friends Jessica and Yvette, and together the three of us are Gucci and the Twerkin’ Twins. I know what your thinking “You sound like a bad hip-hop group that  does bad rip-off songs from Nicki Minaj,” but thats the beauty of nicknames. Whether you give a group or an individual a nickname is suppose to be fun and be taken lightly.

4) Factory Pre-made. These people are easy, and are abbreviations of names. You know how you buy an ipod, and it comes with application pre-installed. Yeah, same principle. For example, if your name is Alexandria, you get to be Ally. If your name is Margarita then you get to be called Maggy. Plain and simple. These are the laziest names to come up with, but when you think about it these people are preset with awesome names.

5) Irrelevant. The best nicknames are the ones that have nothing to do anything. They are the best, and the weirdest. I have friend name Eric, and for no reason I call him Primo. Yeah, its weird, but it stuck, sometimes I forget that his name is Eric.

If you made it this far, you must really want to know how you should go about nicknaming people. So, remember just have fun with, make sure it sticks, and if it doesn’t stick don’t force it. You don’t want to be the person ,who is trying to hard to make nicknames.

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