Your nicknames tell your story

Jun 7

With the one who gave me my favorite nickname

Please don't ever call me Debbie ....

… that is, unless:

You knew me when we were both kids.
You did? Then OK, you can get away with it. You didn’t? Then, nope, don’t do it.
You are family.
You’re not? Sorry, then … negatory on the Debbie usage.
We love each other big-time (…and you let me call you one of your childhood names).
Note: There are only a few who fit into this category. Are you one of those? If not, fuggedaboutit.
You put "Uncle" in front of it.
Yeah, that's right, Uncle Debbie.

Uncle Debbie is one of my all-time favorite nicknames.

The name was bestowed upon me by my eldest niece when she was just a little squirt. Not a full-fledged toddler, and no longer a baby, Casey was just starting to talk, and she didn't understand the difference between aunts and uncles ... and one day she just started calling me Uncle Debbie.

It was so adorable, and it seemed like the perfect match for me … so we didn't correct her.

And it stuck.

Now, more years than I care to count on, I'm Uncle Debbie to the "next generation" of nieces and nephews, as well as my sibling's friends, and the friends of said nieces and nephews. As well as the friend’s parents, my cousins kids and their friends, my grand-nephew, and god knows how many others.

I feel like the name was meant to be mine, and my niece simply channelled it from the cosmos.

It was as if the universe was saying: Here's who you get to be: the quirky, fun auntie who has cookie decorating parties and sleepovers. The one who tells fart jokes in Scottish accents to 5 year old boys, cause: Shrek; the one who draws and paints and makes a mess while the parents are out (and cleans up in time for their arrival home). The one who plays Wii Just Dance until she feels like she could probably take the show on the road; who takes nieces to bead stores to make fabulous bracelets; who takes the baseball loving nephew to local minor league games; who teaches them all the finer things in life like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Princess Bride, and “dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge”; who listens to stories of crushes when Mom and Dad have clearly had enough. The one who sends goofy GIF texts for no reason … and the "uncle" who buys journals and encourages you to use them. (Two of them have ... but I haven't given up on the others.)

Uncle Debbie is a name I was born to, before I even knew it.

Exploring nicknames is a great way to do a little memory-mining, and it's one of my favorite exercises to do at Writer Babe workshops.

Last time I counted, I had about 30 nicknames, so there’s a lot of story-mining I could do there. How 'bout you?

Try this at home: Write a list of all your nicknames you can think of, and write out the stories your nicknames tell about who you are.