Wednesday, December 21, 2005
What's in a nick-name.... She asked slyly
Today at the public library while looking for books for my kids, a book titled "Sly the Sleuth and the Pet Mysteries" by Donna Jo Napoli and Robert Furrow jumped (figuratively speaking) off the shelf at me.
I was even more excited when I read these opening sentences: (with my apologies to Dial books for Young Readers and the authors as I probably am about to violate some copyright):
"I was born Sylvia. My parents called me Sylvia. My friends called me Sylvia...... Brian couldn't say "Sylvia" He called me Thi. Then Si. They Sly. I liked that. And the name stuck. Now everyone calls me Sly. What's in a name? Who knows"
You see once upon a time before I answered to "Mrs. Duggan" "Mommy" or "Honey" on a regular basis I used to be known as SLY. To a big group of people that is still who I am, though most of them are not people I see much any more. It wasn't a kid named Brian but a fellow college student named Don Shupe, who finally came up with a nick name that I liked. It stuck and felt right, it's what most people called me by the end of freshman year and in fact I think there were some folks who knew my by Sly before they knew my name was Sylvia. It followed me to Graduate school because much of my mail came addressed that way and folks picked up on it.
There are still a few people that refer to me that way and it is nice because it connects me with a part of my life when I was learning, growing and becoming an adult and to all the great friends and memories that were part of that. So for me there is a lot in a name, there will always be at least a part of me that is just a bit Sly.
What nicknames, that you like, do you have? Does anyone still call you by it?
I was even more excited when I read these opening sentences: (with my apologies to Dial books for Young Readers and the authors as I probably am about to violate some copyright):
"I was born Sylvia. My parents called me Sylvia. My friends called me Sylvia...... Brian couldn't say "Sylvia" He called me Thi. Then Si. They Sly. I liked that. And the name stuck. Now everyone calls me Sly. What's in a name? Who knows"
You see once upon a time before I answered to "Mrs. Duggan" "Mommy" or "Honey" on a regular basis I used to be known as SLY. To a big group of people that is still who I am, though most of them are not people I see much any more. It wasn't a kid named Brian but a fellow college student named Don Shupe, who finally came up with a nick name that I liked. It stuck and felt right, it's what most people called me by the end of freshman year and in fact I think there were some folks who knew my by Sly before they knew my name was Sylvia. It followed me to Graduate school because much of my mail came addressed that way and folks picked up on it.
There are still a few people that refer to me that way and it is nice because it connects me with a part of my life when I was learning, growing and becoming an adult and to all the great friends and memories that were part of that. So for me there is a lot in a name, there will always be at least a part of me that is just a bit Sly.
What nicknames, that you like, do you have? Does anyone still call you by it?
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A group of friends from high school call me Ned Bird Dog, in honor of Dan Quayle. My friends are called "Bob Duck" and "Carl Cardinal."
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i used to be called "trash" by my brothers (ya know, instead of trish.) not a name i wanted to stick.
I was called "Lars" by my close friends in high school. In college I got the very odd nickname "Lenzel" when a piece of campus mail came with my name horribly misspelled and my friends found it especially hilarious. At graduation, a dozen people shouted "Lenzel!" when I received my diploma.
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