Monday, May 16, 2011

Nicknames

I'm a huge nickname person. Always have been. It's strange because people rarely...if ever have nicknames for me, but I love having them for others. When I was in high school all of my closest friends had a name that was uniquely theirs that only I called them. Sometimes they were something as simple as calling Brian, Eddie. Strange? I guess, but his middle name was Edward and though NO ONE called him Edward--he was Brian, to me, he was Eddie. I had another friend and he used to wear these Dickies overalls (does that date me?). His name was Richard, but to me, he was always Dickie. I'm not really sure what, if anything this says about me. LOL. That I liked having something that was only for me and each person, but I did. (in my defence, a lot of people used the Dickie nickname).

Now, when I write I find that nicknames are always popping up in my books too. Sometimes they just happen by accident. In my collab, WIP the boy spills a drink on the girl's t-shirt. She's not happy about it and makes sure to tell him. He thinks it's totally not a big deal and just to get on her nerves, he suddenly starts calling her Hanes (the brand of T-shirts). It just kind of fell from my fingertips. It wasn't something I planned, but something that found itself on the page.

In another of my books, the boy calls her girl MC, Sunshine because she's always grumpy and in another, he calls her Woodstock because her parents are hippies. I'm realizing it's kind of my thing. LOL.

Do you like nicknames in real life or in the books you read or write? If you're a writer, want to share one of your favorite nicknames in a book you've written? Readers, what's a nickname in a book you've read that stands out to you?
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

24 comments:

  1. Wendy HigginsMay 16, 2011 at 6:11 AM

    Oh man, I know there are book nicknames, but I can't think of any...it'll come to me later.
    I LOVE nicknames! There's something so intimate, fun, and special about them. In high school, my circle of friends called me Sookie, which was way before the time of True Blood. Even all these years later I still feel warm and fuzzy when one of them posts on my FB wall calling me Sookie, haha. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kelley VitolloMay 16, 2011 at 10:34 AM

    Aw, love that!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Abby StevensMay 16, 2011 at 11:13 AM

    I'm a nicknamey person, too. Actually, my whole family is. I rarely get called by my name because everyone calls me what my baby sister dubbed me years and years ago when she couldn't say my name properly yet.

    My characters have nicknames, too, but they tend more toward shortened versions of their names rather than characteristics or observations. However, I love how you nickname! That's so cool. Too bad that kind of nicknaming doesn't come naturally to me, because I like it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kelley VitolloMay 16, 2011 at 11:32 AM

    We have done the shortened name thing when a young family member can't said the name right. I'm KK because my nephew couldn't say Kelley. I can't believe I forgot about that while writing this post. LOL.

    Glad you like the nicknames. Just let them come naturally. Sometimes they will and sometimes they won't. That's what I've noticed.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Marsha SigmanMay 16, 2011 at 1:47 PM

    How weird that I don't do this when I write but I do it all the time in real life?

    I don't shorten names, I add to them. I call my friend Jessica 'Jessica Jolie' when she's all dressed up, or 'Jessie James' when she's in a bad mood.

    My friend Chris becomes 'Chris Brown' when he's angry or 'Christopher Walken' when he's acting creepy.

    Maybe I'm watching too much TV.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kelley VitolloMay 16, 2011 at 2:12 PM

    LOL. I love the names, Marsha! I've made some names longer like that too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. K.V. BriarMay 16, 2011 at 2:38 PM

    Hello, I'm KV, and I'm a nickname addict. Whoosh, it feels good to get that off my chest! LOL :) I love nicknames for character and in real life. It feels intimate somehow. Each of my kids have about five nicknames that they get called on a regular basis.

    My little girl gets called Tate and Tatey which is far away from her actual name. When she was a baby she'd sleep rolled up in a little ball on her knees, reminding me of a potatoe bug (at least that's what we call them here in Utah, I here they're also called rolly pollies). It went from Potatoe Bug to Tatey Bug to Tatey to Tate, LOL. She still says its her favorite nickname and she's almost 4!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Miss ColeMay 16, 2011 at 2:59 PM

    I give out lots of nicknames to the children I work with. In my novel, my lead occasionally calls her friend "posh boy", but only in very specific situations.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Kelley VitolloMay 16, 2011 at 3:30 PM

    KV, you and me both! LOL. LOVE Tatey's nickname. That is too cute!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Kaylee BaldwinMay 16, 2011 at 5:06 PM

    I love nicknames. Growing up I had several (red hair somehow inspires people to all kinds of nicknames), but I usually go with the shortened name. All of my friends call my husband "Jer" instead of Jeremy because that is what I call him whenever I talk about him--and what's funny about this is that he hates shortened names. He wanted to name all of our kids names that couldn't be shortened, but I've found a way (hehehe).

    I just noticed in my last book that I do it to my characters, too. Every single character has a shortened version of their real name that I have them go by. I think I need to shake things up a bit. Thanks for the fun post.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Tina MossMay 16, 2011 at 5:45 PM

    I'm the same as you! I give nicknames to everyone! I give so many nicknames to people that I sometimes forget the person's real name. Oops. It creeps into my fiction as well.

    ReplyDelete
  12. TrishaMay 16, 2011 at 9:51 PM

    My MC in my contemp romance pretty much has a different nickname from every one of her friends ;) It's very rare that anyone calls her by her full first name.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Alison MillerMay 16, 2011 at 10:24 PM

    Love Hanes! And I love nicknames in books. I believe they add another level of richness. I've had a Bender, a Mookie, a Rookie, the Incredible Hormone, and more. Perhaps I like nicknames too much. :)

    Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Kelley VitolloMay 17, 2011 at 12:28 AM

    Thanks, Kaylee! Glad you enjoyed the post!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Kelley VitolloMay 17, 2011 at 12:28 AM

    Tina, LOL. That's me too. It's much funner to make up our own names for people rather than use their own ;)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Kelley VitolloMay 17, 2011 at 12:29 AM

    Trisha,
    Love that different people call her different names.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Kelley VitolloMay 17, 2011 at 12:31 AM

    Alison,
    Glad you like Hanes! Bender is so cute! I also have a Rocky! LOL. She accidentally hits the boy MC so he calls her Rocky after that.

    And there is no such thing as liking nicknames too much :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Sarah NicolasMay 17, 2011 at 10:21 AM

    My roommate and many of my friends from college call me "President" because I was president of our sorority for three years. It always catches people's attention when they hear it.

    ReplyDelete
  19. DJ D.May 17, 2011 at 1:29 PM

    DJ is actually a nickname, so I've always been fine with nicknames. :-) In books, if they're used well, I don't mind them either, but there was one book I couldn't get past the first 2 pages because every single character had a nickname. In this instance, they were more of a hinderance than a fun character trait.

    ReplyDelete
  20. SarehMay 17, 2011 at 5:05 PM

    I don't really give my characters nicknames, but I do shorten their names. Like Anastasia is called Ana sometimes. Although sometimes Krystal will be called Krys by her boyfriend and Anastasia calls her older sister, Victoria, Vicky (even though I doubt she'd be called that in the 15th century).

    In real life, some of my best friends have nicknames. I'm Sarbear, then there's Shay, and Bre, then Ky.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Kelley VitolloMay 17, 2011 at 5:34 PM

    LOL, Sarah. That is cute.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Kelley VitolloMay 17, 2011 at 5:35 PM

    DJ,
    Yes, too many can be confusing!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Kelley VitolloMay 17, 2011 at 5:35 PM

    Syrah,
    I have a friend Tara who I sometimes call Tarbear.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Jolene PerryMay 26, 2011 at 11:06 PM

    I can't believe i missed this post. As someone who's read a LOT of what you've written, I can't think of a book where you DON'T use a nickname! And I LOVE it!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)