That's Not My Name
Of all of the things our kids are, innocent is one and hilarious is another!
Some of us have been fortunate enough to spend some extra time with the littlest members of our families over the break and while this can only be a good thing, one topic that fast gained traction around the office was ‘from the mouths of babes' and how they seem to have created these special names for us despite for the most part not having a clue where they came from or what some of them even mean!
Our team shares their family-name fortunes.
‘They call me Bessie!'
My niece & nephews on my side of the family call me Aunty Bessie even though my name is Georga. I know where this has come from though, and some might argue, it's my fault. My middle name is Yvette and given I wasn't able to say that when I was little, I used to say my name was "Georga Bet". This has somewhat evolved over the years to being called "Betsy, Betty and now Bessie"
Our kids all call my mum Granny Oelli because her middle name is Noelle and they used to call my granny, their great-grandmother, Big Granny even though she was tiny. In their minds she was the eldest, so it made sense that she had to be the biggest. You could say the kids in our family are creative!
Mama mix-up
My daughter, Tara, who is 20 months old calls me a funny name, ‘Mama Poochi'. My friends and family call me by my nickname, PooG and she mispronounces that as Poo-CHI. I love that she's started learning to form sentences and identifying that her mama has a name too.
She says, ‘Mama PooCHI and is very proud that she can say my nickname. I am too!
A little confused
Jacqui chimes in and says when her three-year-old looks her dead in the eye and calls her ‘Jacqui', it' kills her but tells us that she mostly does it when friends are around, to fit in with the adult conversation. Tegan has taken on the nickname ‘Aunty Moo' and ‘Aunty Mim' and James can't help but wonder why his daughter is now calling him ‘Naughty Dadda!' He has no idea where it's come from and when it's going to end but he's hoping he is released from her naughty list soon!
Pretty as a Petal
When you can't decide on a 'nanna-name' for yourself because the traditions are taken, you improvise! Jo recalls her family discussing grandparent names and one Nan just couldn't choose. So, she threw it out to the rest of the family and the final result was as pretty as a petal! Her Mother-in-law's nickname for her father-in-law is 'Petal' so she became 'Nanna Petal' which was pretty in itself. But once the kids got a hold of it, they decided that was just too long - of course they did - kids, right? So, over time, she has gone from the clearly too-long Nanna Petal to Nanna Pet to now being 'Na-Pet'. Not sure how she feels about that but she still responds so it can't be too offensive!
If you have a name you'd like to share with us, head on over to our Instagram, or get in touch with our team at editor@careforkids.com.au
