What's in a Name?

Coined words, phrases and nicknames. . .

In this fast paced world of emailing and texting and IMing, one would think that a fast talker and a quick thinker like I am would not hesitate to jump on the band wagon. And I do love the time saved in leaving out the actual words in the sentences, but my family has a tendency to create nicknames and phrases that are longer than the names and situations they are meant to replace. (This really shouldn't come as a surprise considering my tendency to long windedness!)

Here are a few of Sig's best made up words:

Morether (more)
Churchable (This is like fashionable, but it means appropriately dressed for church. I think it is clever and quick, but I just ruined the quickness with this long winded explanation:)
Lasterday/lastertime/lateryear -- pretty self explanatory
Carshmallow - car completely covered in snow

Here are a few of Hannah's:

Crocatators -- one day she stopped saying alligator or crocodile and combines the two, covers both bases.
B's - Barbies, as in "I going to play B's."
(I would have more for Hannah, but, 1) I can't remember, and 2) she is a big fan of pantomiming until I am crazy trying to guess what she is saying!)

The Parents:

The happiest time of the night - girls' bed time, but we refer to is as "Girls, it's the happiest time of the night. Go put your pjs on." And sometimes we break out in song.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - this is just the general password for escaping . . well, any trap Rob puts me or the girls in.

Bear Trap - any time Rob traps one of us he yells "Bear trap." Generally this involves someone laying on someone and minor suffocation.

Tweet-Tweet-Poop - Must be uttered before the holder of the treat will distribute a treat.

"You are a *insert last name*" - which means you must do whatever I am asking you to do. Generally uttered with force by Rob to encourage hard work, happiness. . .essentially it translates "Never show weakness!"

And our renaming does not end there. Most people and places we know get nicknames. Our girls become Sigbert (I call her this in public and people give me strange looks that clearly say "You named your child SIGBERT?"), Bigs, Big Little, Siggy Biggy. Our oldest became Miss Sass, Sassifrass, Banana Rama. Rob is Roberto, Dr. Science, or sometimes Dwight. I am Jenia, or Hey You, most often moooom. Grandma is Manna (Because Miss Sass couldn't say Grandma) I have a friend named Aki who became Archuleta. Our entire condo complex where we lived for the first two years we were married had only names like: The Cowboys, The Party Boy, The Flight Attendant, The Cranky Man, The Realtor, etc.

Fred Meyer is Freddies, Walmart is Wallies, Jack in the Box became inexplicably Yippy in the Box (Thanks to Sig). It is almost like speaking in code and it is fun when strangers can't interpret.

I have noticed that a good portion of the bloggers out there use nicknames for the people they refer to in their posts. So, I was wondering, what are your nicknames and what is the story behind them?