What's in a name?*

Ah Sawyer, the king of nicknames, how we wish we were as clever as he. But alas, we do not have multiple writer's comprising our wit. Le sigh. Now on to the blog.

This past weekend was the ultimate weekend of nicknames. Four young women were privileged to receive new and mean names.

Contestant #1 - Elaina "give me as many nicknames as you can" D (last names restricted since this is a public blog). Elaina just received the nickname of Monster Truck not even a week ago, but on Saturday night she received the name of 'Butterface' as in the "We like everything about her Butterface" origin.

Contestant #2 - Anne "I never had a nickname' B. Anne was crowned with the name of Sweet Spirit.

Contestant #3 - (That's me!) Jessica ' I lost count of the nicknames' Donbro. After incorrectly quoting Mean Girls fourteen million times in a row (It's not "that's the fugliest skirt I've ever seen' it's that's the 'ugliest f-ing skirt' dang it) I unwittingly resurrected "Fugly" amongst my friends and am now known as "Queen Fug."

Contestant #4 - Caitlin 'I wanna chill with you guys' B. Sunday evening Caitlin got a little jealous that Butterface, Sweet Spirit, and I were calling each other by our new negative names and wanted in. It took some time, but Elaina came up with Dumps - short for Dump Truck.

It got me thinking about nicknames though, especially when Elaina 'monster truck' 'butterface' e-mailed me the next day and was like, "Can my new nickname be L.A.?" It brings up two important questions.

1 - How many nicknames can you have?

2 - Are you allowed to give yourself nicknames and if so, do they really stick?

I've had many nicknames in my sordid past. Paduka, D, D-lite, McCormick, etc., now Queen Fug. I don't know if I have ever tried to give myself a nickname, though I have tried fruitlessly to initiate the usage of 'D' here in Virginia (I guess you can even take a nickname you received in college but can't implement it on the home front). I just feel like you can't really give yourself the nickname and expect it to stick, I think because it's something you really want to happen, so by natural law - it doesn't. I feel like a nickname is started by a friend and then it catches on because that friend likes the nickname so much and keeps using it, sometimes you don't even like the nickname. You think I was all about being called Queen Fug?? Not really, but it has quickly grown on me...mostly because they call me a queen.

I've lost where I was going with that.