This Week’s Prompt: Nicknames Start Writing

MyRetrospect.com is the place for baby boomers to tell their stories.

Week by week, story by story, we help you capture and share your memories and experiences with family, friends, and fellow baby boomers. Join the community and contribute your stories to our collective mosaic.

Join Now

Nicknames

Nicknames can be a shortened form of your formal name, or have nothing to do with it. They can describe your personality or a physical characteristic, or - ironically - exactly the opposite (an “antiphrasis”). Think back … Whether a term of affection or something else, did you have a childhood nickname that stuck even when you’d outgrown it? If you still have a nickname, or have acquired a more recent one, do you embrace it or wish it would just go away? Share your nicknames stories forward.

Stories on This Week's Writing Prompt

Featured Story

On Nicknames and Wearing Black at Funerals

by Joan Matthews

To this day, I still have an array of non-names for my children.

Readers’ Choice

by Suzy

Shirley, Shirley Bo-ber-ley, ba-na-na fanna Fo-fer-ley. fee fi mo-mer-ley, Shirley! No, that's not the name game I'm talking about.

by Sara Gootblatt

In westerns, Sarah was always the “good woman”, never a dance hall gal.

Loud and Abominable

by Marian

Henrietta was an awkward name for a tiny child ... so the family called her Yettie.

My Name is Barbara…

by Barbara Buckles

Barbi Benton pretty much owned the spelling of her name, and in the 80s, despite the fact that we had the same hairdo, I was [...]

A Rose by Any Other Name

by Laurie Levy

Do I dare to gift myself with my true name of Lauren? Probably too late, and after all, no one calls me “Big Laurie” anymore. [...]

by John Shutkin

Not surprisingly, I was called “Johnny” as a little kid. Didn’t love it; didn’t hate it, but it [...]

What’s In a Name?

by Betsy Pfau

Shakespeare usually has something brilliant to say on a topic like this one: “What’s in a name?/A rose by any [...]

Call Me by Their Names

by Dana Susan Lehrman

My parents named me Dana after two relatives they never knew – my father’s grandmother Dinah who perished in czarist [...]

Other Recent Stories

by Joan Matthews

There is no future reward after caring for an elderly person. Our best efforts end in death.

Prompted By Caregiving

Confessions of a Guilty Caregiver

by Marian

Most of the conventional wisdom for caregivers comes down to putting yourself first, making time for yourself. To a large [...]

Prompted By Caregiving

Nicknames

Nicknames can be a shortened form of your formal name, or have nothing to do with it. They can describe your personality or a physical characteristic, or - ironically - exactly the opposite (an “antiphrasis”). Think back … Whether a term of affection or something else, did you have a childhood nickname that stuck even when you’d outgrown it? If you still have a nickname, or have acquired a more recent one, do you embrace it or wish it would just go away? Share your nicknames stories forward.