# Cruel childhood nicknames and their effects **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 16, 2006, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970 "2006-06-16T18:20:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/41 "2006-06-19T07:04:21Z")
Mine were Genie (based on my name), Beaker (based on a facial tic I had, which resembled the Muppet character of the same name) and Brainiac (I was ok with this one). I’m sure I gave as good as I got, so I have no room to complain about cruelty. In college, my nicknames were Captain, Captain Picard and Captain Picard of the Startship _Festiva_, again because of my real name (and the car I drove). Being a Trek fan, I was cool with all of these. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/42 "2006-06-19T12:06:32Z")
Mom used to call me The Titless Wonder. She later claimed not to know how much it bothered me, to which I say: :rolleyes: She also called me Vern. This started right around the time Jim Varney was doing those “Hey Vern, it’s Ernest” commercials, plus my real name is Julia, which morphed into Jules, which became Jules Verne. I like Vern just fine. ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/43 "2006-06-19T13:46:57Z")
Stemming from an incident on the last day of 6th grade that involved a couple of bored kids and a Ouija board, my nickname was “Satan”. It wasn’t bad at first–I kind of revelled in it–but eventually I realized that I’d never get a date with a nick like that. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/44 "2006-06-19T17:31:38Z")
Cruel names? I am not going to repeat what some kids called me in school - it still makes me tear up and I’m 40. Their effects? I’m a freakin’ mess. I have zero self esteem. What ISN’T wrong with me? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/45 "2006-06-19T17:49:04Z")
Around 7th grade was when the teasing really started for me. I mean all day torture sessions. It doesn’t help that shortly before this age my dad died, my brothers were diagnosed with a terrible disease and my grandparents were starting their slow slope towards the grave and my mother was taking care of them and working full time and there was no attention left for me at home. School should have been a safe haven for me. A place to grow, but …) It started when a new boy came into our school and constantly teased me every class about my name. I mean, every fucking class. During quiet times and tests and everything. Passing in the hall way. In gym. At lunch. Sometimes on the way home. sometimes at church on weekends if we passed. It was like some retarded stalker was after me. Can you imagine being called Joan Please Dei pronounced Die 50 times a day? Looking back on it with the 20/20 vision of an adult, harassing me about my name like he did really was some OCD. I was a default in his brain for YEARS, which, in away, is flattering, yet creepy. And naturally, kids being lemmings, just copied him. He was very popular and I could not understand why exactly someone like him who was such a spaz and a dork and asshole could actually have friends and even a following. While a quiet shy girl who became very quick with one liners was el solo lobo. It did not help that my mom would try to console me by saying, " He probably likes you." and I did try to be a friend to him and for one day in all those years we had an interesting conversational truce, but he was the quisesstial jerkoff from grade 7-12. I would have to say that single handedly this guy alone helped me develop my sense of humor. When a teacher asked me what the F stood for for my middle name I said, " Fuck off. Joan Fuckoff and Dei" Did I mention I went to a catholic school, and no, I didn’t get in trouble, as the teacher knew how bad teasing would be and let it slide. YAY me! I should send him a thank you note. ---
**Author:** ![Grossbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba8739/32.png) [@Grossbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grossbottom)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/46 "2006-06-19T18:55:36Z")
I was Stinkfish. This other kid was so pale he was practically an albino, so everyone just called him Whiteboy or Whitey. There were some other good ones, like Tutu (kid’s last name had “two” in it) or Hellspawn (kid’s first name was Damien). Nicknames were cool where I came from, at least if you had a decent one. If your nickname was derisive you just had to make it into a badge of honor, that was all. If you got tagged with one you could either ignore it or embrace it, but acting like a pansy meant you’d be marked for futher abuse. Old friends still call me Stinkfish. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/47 "2006-06-19T19:16:59Z")
My son is very bright and after winning an award in the fifth grade some kids started calling him “smartypants”. He was complaining about to his dad who replied " Well, do you know what the opposite of a smartypants is? A dumbass. You choose." We rarely swear in our house and this reply shocked and delighted a 10 year old kid. Next time he was teased he replied “I’d rather be a smartypants than a dumbass”. That worked. 😃 Me, well… Jr. High was a cruel time for me (a little chubby, glasses, awful clothes etc etc) and frankly, I’m pushing 40 and still trying to recover… ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/48 "2006-06-19T19:20:19Z")
[QUOTE=kambuckta] But on the other hand, it can also be a positive, because it is only kids who make a blip on the kiddy social-radar who get nicked. Spare a thought for those poor youngsters who are deemed too insignificant to even warrant a nickname. [/QUOTE] After spending the 6th grade as a social pariah with a terrible nickname who had to eat lunch every day with the teacher, I think I would have opted for insignificant and blipless on the social radar. My parents moved when I was in the 8th grade and I had an opportunity to start over in a new school, it was bliss. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/49 "2006-06-19T19:31:53Z")
[QUOTE=Missy2U] Cruel names? I am not going to repeat what some kids called me in school - it still makes me tear up and I’m 40. Their effects? I’m a freakin’ mess. I have zero self esteem. What ISN’T wrong with me? ☹ [/QUOTE] I already posted but forgot to answer the part about its effect on me. I have to agree with **Missy**. I didn’t have an official nickname at school but I went through a lot of picking on about my breast deficiency. I’ve talked about it here so many times I’ve begun to feel like a bit of a whiner, but it truthfully did affect the way I felt about myself and hence the course of my life. I still struggle with my self-esteem, but I’m better now than I used to be. (( **Missy2U** )) ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/50 "2006-06-19T20:51:01Z")
[QUOTE=soulmurk] but eventually I realized that I’d never get a date with a nick like that. [/QUOTE] Try getting a girl with the nickname Supernerd (one of my friends). Guy had a terrible crush on me, but it wasn’t happening. The name has stuck too–we’re in our 20s now and still call him Super/Supa/Soup\*. Oh, and he has a GF now 🙂 \*Yeah, it keeps getting shorter. Wonder if I could get away with calling him Sue? Should try that sometime… ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/51 "2006-06-19T22:22:37Z")
My seven year-old daughter’s name is Katrina. She prefers Katy, thank you very much. Maybe when she’s a few years older she’ll accept the recent infamization of her name a little more stoically and call _herself_ “The Hurricane.” ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/52 "2006-06-19T22:41:03Z")
[QUOTE=Rigamarole] That’s funny, because young people call each other dog _all the time_ now (as a general way to end every other sentence much like “man” as in “last night I was soooo wasted man”). More often spelled “dawg”, but said the same way. [/QUOTE] “Dog” is definitely not the same as “dawg.” I guess the expression “ugly dog” to refer to an unattractive female has died out in the last 20 years, but that’s what it meant in the 70’s (and the term “dawg” wasn’t around back then, at least not among middle-class white kids in the suburbs). ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970/53 "2006-06-19T22:43:03Z")
[QUOTE=Kizarvexius] My seven year-old daughter’s name is Katrina. She prefers Katy, thank you very much. Maybe when she’s a few years older she’ll accept the recent infamization of her name a little more stoically and call _herself_ “The Hurricane.” [/QUOTE] [hijack] My 8 year old is Katy also (we decided she needed a full name- Katherine) but we usually call her Katy or Katrina as a long nickname. [/hijack] cool! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruel-childhood-nicknames-and-their-effects/360970.md?page=2)