I don’t mean on blogs. I was just thinking about this while I sit here playing a game of Where’s Brinky with Brinky (whose name is actually Brinkley). I understand that a lot of people use some sort of nicknames for themselves or family members on blogs for privacy. I’m talking real life. Are we the only ones who never call our kids by their actual names? Except when they’re in trouble? I think it’s fun to discover what all their secret names are.
I am big on naming the children the names we actually plan to use. Like me. I’m Katie. It’s not short for anything. Just Katie. Jenny’s name is just Jenny, not Jennifer, because we only ever planned to call her Jennifer. She’s a little bitter about that actually – she wishes her name was Jennifer for some reason. Brinkley’s a different story since we passed a family name down to him, so we are actually calling him his middle name, not his first name.
So what are the names we actually use for our kids, you wonder? (Or you don’t wonder, but I’m going to tell you anyway.)
Jenny:
When she’s in trouble: Jenny Carolyn (first and middle names)
Most of the time: Jen or Jenny Jen
Other nicknames:
Baby (I use for both girls, but not for the actual baby, strangely
Reagan:
When she’s in trouble: Reagan Joyce
Most of the time: Reagie
Other nicknames (I call Reagan a lot of different names for some reason):
Baby
Reag
Riggle
Rig
Riggdy
Schnookums
Schnookie
Brinkley:
When he’s in trouble (doesn’t happen much yet): Brinkley
Most of the time: Brinky
Other nicknames:
Buddle
Buddly Bud
Sweet baby boy
Chubbly
I also call Jenny and Reagan “girlies” if I’m talking to both of them together. I didn’t include all the other nicknames that our other family members use (or even that Lee uses), but it’s a long list. And I know I’ll add different names to the list as they grow and change.
So are we the only ones who reserve the use of actual names for when our kids are in trouble?
Linking up with Lovelinks for the first time in awhile this week:
While on the blog, my kids are Thing One and Thing Two, I call them all kinds of crazy names.
Thing One: when he’s in trouble — Eric Keegan! (with emphasis), when he’s not: Boo, “E”, and his favorite — Punkin.
Thing Two: when he’s in trouble — Jason Patrick! (again, with emphasis), when he’s not: Jay, Jase, Jasey, J.P., Honey, and on occasion — Punkin.
I don’t think I’ll ever stop adding new nicknames to the list. I have wondered if I’ll feel a need to call them by their actual names in front of their friends, but so far, I don’t care about that.
We are the same in our house. It has even spread to school & sports. Hardly anyone calls our girlies by their real names. When they are in trouble we skip the nice nicknames and go straight to their first and middle names which sound so “preppy & catholic” at the same time that they know we mean business!
Yes, the real names do mean business, don’t they?
We have a lot of nicknames for our kids too. Both of my boys go by their nicknames, and never by their full names. Ty is short for Tyler, although very few people even know that, and Luke is short for Lukas. But my girl only has one name to everybody except us. She’s our cutie
Mine go by their full names outside the house, but we rarely say them in the house!
I’m so glad you linked up with Lovelinks this week!
Thank you – I don’t feel like I write something worth linking up every week, but I love the community of lovelinks!
I call my son’s all different names too. And yes, their full name including middle is only used when they’ve driven me to the brink. Adrian is called Aidy, Aidykins, Bud, Angel, Bubby, Bubba, Buggy. Finley is Fin, Finny, Finnegan, Finnyboo, Angel face, Bugs, Bugaboo…these tend to intertwine between both boys.
I definitely use some of mine interchangeably with my kids, but we have lots of specific ones, too.
Luke is called “bubby” “Lukey” “Lukers” “baby boy” “big boy” “sweet baby” etc, and so on
Yeah, I think I have way more nicknames for Brinky than I listed here
I have had to use his whole name more often lately as he’s getting into everything!
On teh interwebz, I call our kid Monkey. At home he goes by his name, or “Pooper.”
Classy. I know.
Nothing wrong with that – my husband often calls the baby doo-doo pants
I call my kids stinky, sweet boy, smelly belly. Yeah. I should probably stop. They might get a complex.
I felt the same way this morning when I told my oldest that she was looking greasy and really needed a shower
My husband and I hardly ever call our son by his actual name, haha!! He’s Monkey, LBB (Little Baby ), Baby, Susu (Arabic for beloved) and only when he’s in trouble, do we pull out the actual name.
Gestating baby is now LBS (Little Baby Scrumplet) and I’ll probably call him Baby too!
I definitely use Baby for all the kids, but not as often with the actual baby, strangely.
I call Cedella ‘Monk’ or ‘Monkey’ or ‘Ella’ most of the time. We knew we would call her ‘Ella’ when we picked the name. Guess it comes from me being Alexia but everyone in my family calling me Ali. Like to the point where some of my family members don’t know my name is really Alexia. And even funnier, my husband is named Michael and HATES being called Mike. He prefers Michael. For me a name has to have a nickname. I like the option to go ‘Ali’ with friends and family and ‘Alexia’ when writing and in business situations.
I think you often go with what you’re used to – maybe the fact that people always asked me what Katie was short for should have made me give Jenny a longer name. But it didn’t
Yes completely! Will is only William when in trouble, other than that its Will, Wills or not so random but too hard to explain Puffin. Real names are meant for discipline!
Exactly!
We’re a nickname kind of family. Moira is Mo/Mo-Mo most of the time while Maeve is usually Maevie, Shiny or Shine (derived from Sunshine). I call my husband Bry or Babe, while I’m usually Jac.
I call both my girls sunshine sometimes, too – forgot that one! We’re a definite nickname family.
For some reason, I — the Miss L everything — have a think for P’s. I call my daughter a different P word every time. (get your minds out of the gutter). It’s Petunia. Poopsie. Pocahontas. Peanut. Peanoo. Piyike. Pipsqueak. And her official nickname, Pickles. It aggravates the Piss out of her, but I think she secretly loves it.
Her REAL name is Lora Leigh. I wanted to name her Loralei, but my husband hated that. So this was a compromise. I figured she could call herself whatever she wanted — Lora, Lora Leigh, Lora Lei, Elle… She calls herself Lora. But I call her Pickles.
I think it will really embarrass my daughters when I call them by their nicknames around their friends as they get older – and I’ll not so secretly enjoy it
Not in my family. We all get called by our real names AND the nicknames! You never know what’s going to be yelled from the bottom of the stairs!
You already know my daughter’s nickname is Donut. But the lesser known nickname is Goobs (short for Goober). Aren’t we sweet parents??