Ah, Shakespeare. I have an undying love for him. While I’m not going to bore you with why I love him, I am bringing up names. Nicknames.

Most of us have nicknames and if you say you don’t that means you probably just don’t like yours. My nickname at home is Fruit. When we were kids my cousin James somehow managed to call me Juicy Fruit after the gum. I don’t really remember why, but only the Fruit part stuck. My sister is the main one who refers to me this way. She even has some of her friends calling me that.

We call my husband Joef even though his name is Joseph. When Joseph and I started dating my son was not quite two years old and couldn’t pronounce his name correctly. He would call him Joefus. No matter how hard he tried to say Joseph it always came out as Joefus. Now a large part of my mother’s family call him Joef. It’s what I call him too.

As for my kids, Gavin is also known as Nacho. Razalyn is Lou Lou and Augie is Bear.

Gavin became Nacho when I was still in the hospital after delivering him. My sister (name giver to most) started calling him Gavin Nacho. Not really sure why. Something to do with the fact that his name ends in an N and nacho begins with N. I don’t remember exactly. Needless to say eleven years later he’s still Nacho.

Razalyn’s name, Lou Lou, was also given to her by my sister. I have no idea where it came from. I think it was because she would call my nephew Ryken Roo so somehow this became Razi Lou Lou. I don’t know lol

Augie became Augie Bear while we were still in the hospital with him. I gave him the name. He was just so cuddly like a teddy bear that I started calling him Augie Bear. It stuck. Even the kids and teachers at his daycare call him Augie Bear.

I like the idea of nicknames. I feel like everyone should have one. Hopefully not for a teasing reason, but if you’re lucky enough to get one out of love, keep it. It shows someone cares.