Oh, the names conversation!

Everyone I've known for any length of time calls me Jess, to the point where it never occurs to me to give people permission in advance (even though I always introduce myself as Jessica). Part of it is that I have a bazillion friends also named Jessica, and most of them introduce themselves as Jess (or Jes) from the get-go, so using my full name at least once is a way to tell us apart.

Call me Jessie and you will get sporked.

Changed my name when I got married for a whole bunch of reasons. (My maiden name is impossible to spell, I got married young enough that I didn't have any professional reason not to change it, people were going to call me Mrs FoneBone whether I changed it or not...) I kept my middle name because it's my paternal grandmother's maiden name (so, same side of the family as my maiden name) and I've always liked it more.

Both of my brothers go by the diminutves they grew up with. Andy is still Andy and Chris is Chris, rather than Christopher. Andy called us "Ra" and "Kee" when he was first learning to talk, and those have stuck as family nicknames.

Nobody can nickname like a granddad!

My paternal grandfather had nicknames for all of the grandchildren they were: Little Missy (me), Little Beaver (my brother), Sassafras, Thumper, and I just blanked on my other cousin's nickname.

people were going to call me Mrs FoneBone whether I changed it or not

Remarkably, I've found this almost never happens to me. Except by one or two of my DH's relatives (the young ones, not the old ones who I think I'd be more inclined to forgive the mistake) who can't seem to accept it despite the number of times they're corrected.

OK, sometimes Anna-boo, but I expect that one will die a natural death sometime before she hits kindergarten.

So far, ALL of Dylan's nicknames are of that kind. We call him Little D, Dylan-boo, Boo, Smiley McBabypants, Cranky McGee, Sweetest Baby In The Whole Wide World, etc etc. Hopefully we also call him just plain Dylan enough so he learns his own name by the time he starts talking...

(I had a cousin who was called Baby Sister almost exclusively until she was about 8, and I'm fairly sure she thought it was her real name, and Marissa was the nick.)

I think the constant spelling of my name has become part of my identity. I do occasionally use a pseudonym for things like reservations, when the whole spelling thing seems too labor intensive. Once I was ordering a pizza with a girl whose last name was Lorberbaum. As she started to dial, she said, "I always order in the name of the other person." Then she looked at me. We ordered the pizza under the name Suzi Brown.

My sister decided to go from Liz to Anne when she was about 12, when some people at school started calling her Lizard. We finally made the change as a Pavlovian response to her screaming everytime we forgot and called her Liz. I know a guy who, in his 50s, changed his name from Don to Jett, because he decided that Don was too pedestrian for a designer.

Hey, Sox, are you or T interested in coming out to Boathouse Row for a wine/beer tasting tonight?

One of the chiros does the dragonboating and her club is having a fundraising event. She "gave" me 2 tickets (which is basically just saying her name at the door) but I only need one ticket. If you'd both like to come I'll just buy another ticket so we're all covered, but if only one of you wants to I have that availability. And if no one wants to well it's her money anyway.

It's from 6:30 - 8:30 tonight. phillydragonboat.com (I think she said it's the St Joe's Boathouse. First one on left you get to after you cross Strawberry Mansion bridge.) Call me if you want to go.

I'm off for a bike ride. Which is good, because I just ate too many brownies. Bad me. My username is my nic for my real name, but in the family I'm Nana and also Peanut. A friend of mine also refers to me as Banana; hilarity ensued when her 7 year old heard it.

Also, tomorrow night is Blind Date. He's given me the task of figuring out where, which does not thrill me. However, he's just had minor surgery, so I guess I'll forgive him at least until I meet him.

Heh. I really like my middle name, it's the maiden names of my grandmothers, and it's hyphenated. It will be quite the mouthful -- Vortex MiddleName-MiddleName MaidenName LastName.

My friends' boy twin is currently Peepy Jellyby (after a character in Bleak House, he is very Dickensian) and girl twin is Bladem (after a "word" she says a lot).

(I had a cousin who was called Baby Sister almost exclusively until she was about 8, and I'm fairly sure she thought it was her real name, and Marissa was the nick.)

My maternal grandfather's only sister (one girl & 4 boys) was called Sis her entire long life.

My paternal grandfather's sister was called Tia (as in, the Spanish word for aunt) by almost everybody except her brothers.

My middle name (my actual, legal middle name, that is, instead of what my family tells everyone what my middle name is) is quite pretty. It's the combination of my paternal grandmother's first name, and her mother's first name. My only quibble with it is that one of my uncles used it to name his daughter, and I have never been overly fond of or impressed by her.

(What my family tells everyone my middle name is? Vegamatic. No, I'm not kidding.)