Following a marathon email session, I realized that my email signature varied throughout and was ridden with several nicknames. I won’t go into the details of each nickname (for the sake of my own embarrassment and to spare you the boredom), but the lengthy list includes variations and abbreviations of my actual name (lex, lexi, elx) in addition to endearing/created names (songbird, etc) that have been assigned to me over the years.
As the names float above me in a cloud of self definition, I wonder how I do not have multiple personalities linked to these various names. However, I don’t feel overwhelmed or misdefined, but rather proud of the many selfs that I wear like a wordy Scarlett Letter t-shirt.
The concept of the nickname is one that intrigues me greatly. Some of us walk around being referred to by our last name, our middle name, an abbreviation of a lengthy name our parents’ gave us without the thought of the obvious nickname path, names that are earned from embarrassing stories, etc.
Nicknames are also endearing terms that are created and shared between people that are close and spend enough time together to occasionally veer from the legal name. At the same time, fabricated names can also have negative connotations, and are often voiced during the painful middle school years.
Overall, the nickname genre that fascinates me the most is the single letter name. On occasion, I come across a friend who has heavily abbreviated his or her name to a single letter: Madeline to M and Jack to J. I happen to enjoy the single letter nickname, as it alludes to a rockstar quality and a certain confidence that comes from knowing that you will be recognized by just one letter (maybe the tags in their clothes were heavily monogrammed as a child. oh moms’ and their permanent markers).
Even though I enjoy the one letter nickname, I am not sure if I could or would want to sign off as “A”. There is a lot of pressure to leave the first letter of the alphabet as your signature, not to mention the fact that I have never been fond of the angularity of the uppercase “A” (I often sign my full name with a lowercase a, as it’s more visually appealing).
I seem to have ignored the concept of a short nickname with this lengthy post, and will now bring it to a close. What are your thoughts on nicknames?
My nickname actually became my name. When I got married, I took my wife’s last name and, in the process thereof, changed my middle name from Joesph to Dashifen. I had used Dashifen, and the diminutive Dash, online and among friends for so long that some were surprised to find that it wasn’t my name. In the end, it became my name and I’m not sure this comment has a point beyond that.
I do have lots of nicknames too since I passionately hate my birth name ‘honey’ as it is really. So people call me ‘hon’ or by my name but wherever I am I invent names for people to call me like ‘one’ (without the ‘h’ and ‘y’), shen after my email, yenyen which sounds so asian (backwards of the last three letters of my name)…