nicknames

Nicknames are funny things... Sometimes they're funny. Sometimes they're just mean - especially when they're unkind and even more so when they're unkind and accurate... But often nicknames are a way we bond with others.

For most people nicknames are casual, and full names are reserved for more formal occasions. (My mother never called me by a nickname when I was in trouble, for example.)

But for some reason the opposite is true of the interaction between my husband and me... I call my husband 'Scott Smith'. All the time. I only call him 'Scott' if I'm annoyed with him and being nasty - or if there are people around that it might sound strange to. (I'm aware that it's kind of an unusual practice, and I have one sister who is absolutely driven crazy by the fact that I use my husband's full name...) And he never calls me 'Emily' either. It's always 'Emily Lemole' - even though my name is technically "Emily Smith" now...

No idea why this is the case... but it works for us.

Inexplicably - or perhaps not inexplicably, but I'm not going to explain them - some of my nicknames are:

William
Willie
Em
Moo
Baby Moose
Geemoo
Emily Lemily
Emilicious
Eems
Emil Belinsky
Danky (or Dank)

Okay, I'll explain 'Danky'. When I was little I heard someone say "dammit!" so I tried to say it, too - but what came out instead was an emphatic, "Dank it!"

I have an uncle who thought it was so funny that he started calling me 'Dank'. It's what he calls me to this day, and I always feel a surge of affection when he says it...