BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames

Subject: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Azizi
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 12:58 PM

Though I never post to that blog, dailykos is the website I visit to read about what's going on in US politic news. Imagine my surprise when I read this title on the list of recommended dailykos diaries:

" 'Mudcat' Webb is Secretariat; Dems can retake the South"

At first I thought this was about our discussion forum. But reading it I found out that "Mudcat" is the nickname for a Democratic political advisor and author. Click HERE if you are interested in reading that March 19, 2006 dairy written by lowkell.

However, my point in starting this thread is to ask if anyone else has ever heard the name "Mudcat" used as a nickname before?

Also, did you have an unusual nickname? and What unusual nicknames do you know?

BTW, I was going to add this post to this Mudcat thread on Your Nicknames but it was closed.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: wysiwyg
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 01:03 PM

Azizi, old threads are sometimes closed just for technical reasons-- a PM to Joe Offer often results in their being re-opened.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Azizi
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 01:20 PM

i have a cousin whose nickname is 'juice', i'd never heard anyone call him anything else. but when he was 15 years old he was sportin a necklace with the inital "k" on it. confused by this, i asked what does the letter "k" stand for? he said,"Keith." they just call me juice because when i was a baby i always asked for some juice.

i have another cousin nicknamed 'house' i'm not sure the origin of that one. some people say because he was on punishment and had 2 stay in the house all the time and some people thought he got that nickname because he was as big as a house(he's like football big, not fat big)

another cousin who has a funny nickname, is 'bumper' we always called him that and i have no idea why. bumper's father's side of the family came 2 pgh one summer and his cousin's name was 'spoon' as u can see my family loves 2 give nicknames but fortunately or unfortunately i never did get one. :-D i am azizi's daughter, u can call me blue balloon because my favorite color is blue and i love balloons!

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Severn
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 01:42 PM

When I was growing up a Washington Senators baseball fan, the Cleaveland Indians had a pitcher named Jim "Mudcat" Grant who used to beat us every time. After many years of this jinx, the Senators management passed out little voodoo dolls, I believe it was, to all fans in attendance one day when he was scheduled to pitch here. I don't think it did any good. He owned us!


Hello, Blue Balloon! Glad to make your aquaintence!

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 02:00 PM

I have, in fact, encountered several persons who were called "mudcat" and about an equal number called "catfish." I never knew any of these well enough to know whether it was a generally used nickname, or whether it was only used by the few associates who were around at the time of my meeting them.

An uncle was called "Scoop" by everyone who knew him. I was about 15 before I learned that the name came from a 1930s era comic strip, and about 25 before I learned that his real(?) name was Leonard.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: GUEST,mack/misophist
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 09:39 PM

When I was a little boy, I thought my nickname was supposed to be 'peckerwook'. All my parent's friends seemed to call me that. I was over 20 before I found out what it means.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 03:31 AM

In 2 of the villages I spent my childhood in, almost everyone had a nick name. There was one chap called 'Squeaker' Dunford, and no-one can work out his real name!! Family history researches haven't been able to find out anything, and no-one in the village now can remember his given name.... seems I'm not the first Squeak!

It seems to have been a generational thing, with all the nick named being born round about the first decade of the 1900s. They'd've all been turning to adults round about the 1920s (and I have a picture of 'Jumble' Gill in 1920's football shorts) so was it a product of the era?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 04:04 AM

Sometime in the 20's my greataunt was called Widdy by a very young nephew/niece & this name stuck till her death in 1972.

Her birth certificate & death certificates used her given name, Ruby, but everyone called her Wid or Widdy.

sandra (who doesn't have a nickname)

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Amos
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 09:19 AM

Hey, Blue Balloon!

Welcome to the Mudcat!! I like that handle!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: frogprince
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 11:38 AM

An old family friend had no real given names, just the initials J.C.. it was because of an old practice I have occasionally heard of; the baby wasn't expected to live, and just initials were given. But we never knew him as anything but "Buzz". His baby brother tried to call him "brother", it came out "buzzer", and he was marked for life.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Azizi
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 09:59 AM

My sisters and I were responsible for naming one of my maternal uncles "Wo Wo" . His real name was "Wilbur" but we called him "Uncle Woo Woo" I guess because one of us {I won't take the blame} couldn't say "Wilbur".

That nickname stuck and spread,and soon all of our cousins around the same age called him "Uncle Woo Woo".

****

I also had a paternal uncle whose nickname was "Willie Dilly".
I suppose that his name was "William" or "Wilbur" or something like that but he was always known as "Uncle Willy Dilly" to my sisters and me.

What his friends called him, I don't know. But I bet it wasn't
"Willie Dilly".

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 10:44 AM

Though seldom called that now, my 78 year old mother was known for years as "Goldie" Schulz (and my father was "Bud") -- imagine her delight when she found the series of food mysteries with "Goldie Schultz" as the main character!

I also have an Aunt Toots (Minerva). Again, there are few people who still call her that. (Though the nicknames were still going strong into the '70s!)

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 11:17 AM

I had an Aunt Helen, called "Deetle" by the family. Her sister, Margaret, was nicknamed "Peanuts." My father was nicknamed, variously, "Dollie" or "Moose."

Don't forget Meadowlark Lemon, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and others.

And various well-known folks: James Butler "Wild Bill" Hicock (originally, I understand, called "Duck Bill"), William Barclay "Bat" Masterson, the Earp Brothers (known to some, collectively, as "The Fighting Pimps"), Martha "Calamity" Jane Canary, and others.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 11:42 AM

My mother, whose given name was Eudora...(named after the email program, I guess.☺) was always "Aunt Dodo" to her nephews....but NOT to the world at large!

Some nicknames are cute and/or interesting, but I'll confess, I never saw why some women tolerated, and even encouraged, names like "KoKo" or "Tootsie" or "Bunny" or "Bitsie" or ...well, you get the idea. I see it among some friends and family, but on stationary? At work?

*shrug*

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 12:01 PM

How about "Squirrel Tooth Alice" or "Bigfoot Kate"?

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Azizi
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 12:42 PM

I have a [step]daughter {not Blue Balloon} whose name is Cocoa {she said her [biological] mother gave her that name because she has a reddish tinge to her light brown skin and cocoa beans are red [?]

I also have a son whose got the street name "Chicken" when he was a teenager because his legs were real thin. And even though he's put some weight on, his friends {not me or his family} still call him by that name.

I also have a son whose street name is "Fozzy". He got that name because he supposedly resembles "Fozzy Bear" on Sesame Street [?!]
Again, this is a name his friends call him.

It occurs to me that a person can have a number of different nicknames at the same time but in different groups.

I guess that's proof of how multi-faceted individuals are.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: JennieG
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 05:53 AM

My uncle's real name was Euston Francis Davis, but his nickname was "Coog" until the day he died in his late 70s, nearly 2 years ago. When he was a small boy Jackie Coogan was a child movie star and my uncle apparently looked like him, so he gained the nickname "Coogan", usually shortened to "Coog".

Many people in the town where he lived never knew his real name - even his sons called him Coog.

It's even on his grave marker.

Cheers
JennieG who isn't really a nickname person

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 02:49 PM

I had a nickname in the Army, but it's not exactly repeatable.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 07:41 PM

As a wee kid I had two "Aunt Peggys." It caused me a lot of puzzlement because most ot the other aunts and uncles nicknames were sort of shortened versions of their given names, but one Aunt Peggy was really a Mary and the other was an Ida.

Another aunt was always called "Sid" by her husband, but never by anyone else. It was probably an "inside joke" that was too risque to be explained to the youngsters, and all those who might have known where it came from were gone before I was old enough to have it explained.

John

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: frogprince
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 08:04 PM

When I was in the Navy, you could sorta say that everyone had the same nickname.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Kweku
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 03:28 AM

well in Ghana and Africa in general, everybody has a nickname and it is given to you in either secondary school or in the home.

for instance any Akan in Ghana can be referred to as "K" because of the seven names in a week, six start with K.

as soon as you enter secondary school in Ghana,you are given an option by the seniors, to either pick a nickname for yourself or they will give you one.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Kweku
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 04:21 AM

I forgot to mention that the names given varies a lot and ranges from animals to plants and famous people.some names are traditional nicknames and every year group have somebody given that name.for eg. a name like "killer" runs through the year groups so you have a 1st,2nd and 3rd year student all called killer.

sometimes nicknames follows you throughout your entire life.there was once a minister of state who had his nickname attached to his official name. most of my secondary school mates still refer to my nickname when calling me.and if you are a parent who has a son in boarding house you have got to to know the nickname otherwise nobody will be able to call him for you,because sometimes even school teachers only know their students by their nicknames.

i was given the name "jo kusi". there are others like witch, satan's pants,lucifer,castro,clinton,rasta,tuga,tupac,snoop,spit,goat,army robber,koti,gyata(lion),etc.

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 11:59 PM

A guy I knew was known in the Aussie Army (motorised division) as Snake. When nothing was happening, he'd eat, then find a warm place, curl up and go to sleep!

Subject: RE: BS: 'Mudcat' and other Unusual Nicknames
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Mar 06 - 02:36 AM

Quarcoo, thanks for the interesting glimpse of nicknaming practices in Ghana!

Would you be willing to share what your nickname "jo kusi" means?

Also, you wrote that "a name like "killer" [could run] through the year groups so you have a 1st,2nd and 3rd year student all called killer". My question is how do other students distinquish one student from another who has the same nickname? Is another name or discription attached to it, for instance "little killer" or "terrible killer"? And am I correct in assuming that "killer" is considered a positive name?

I would imagine that a person would not choose a negative nickname for him or her self, but aren't negative nicknames given to people by others?

And just for the sake of curiousity, if you care to respond without getting yourself in difficulty, what are the name and nickname of the "minister of state who had his nickname attached to his official name"?

With regard to so many of the names starting with "K", I believe you are referring to Ghanaian day names as listed in this website:
http://home.wxs.nl/~degenj/ghana1/gh-names.html

Please let us know if the information given on that website is correct. Thank you.

Btw, persons interested in this subject might also want to read and contribute to this Mudcat thread:

Naming Practices & Ceremonies