Is your family one that gives most everyone a nickname?  Is it anything goes or is there rhyme or reason for everyone's name?  Are you one with a nickname? Are you okay with it or do you despise it?

In my mother's family, almost everyone had a nickname. They were usually based on who or what the person looked like. For instance, one of my aunts was "sister". She got it because someone said she looked just like her mother and her mother's nickname as a child had been sister.  My mother got hers because she looked like a woman who had that name. The list goes on and on.

With my father's family, it was pretty much anything goes.  One of my aunts called my younger sister "ma" because she said my sister looked just like her (our) mother. For me, she made up a name that I thought was because I was fat. After I got older and found out what it actually was, she was in effect calling me "piece of meat". I didn't like it at the time but thought I should answer to it because I was supposed to "respect my elders". When I found out what it was, I immediately stopped letting anyone call me that and have been in some bitter arguments about it.  They insist and get angry when I ignore them.

Just for the record, I'm okay with nicknames as much as anyone else, but I do think that if one is going to call someone something that isn't their name, it shouldn't be derogatory. It's one thing to tease someone about something they said or did even if it was a long time ago. It's another to be insulting or derogatory.  One of my other aunts didn't understand that. She said the aunt who started it "loved me" and it was a "term of endearment". So I ask ... should anyone be able to call anyone anything if they love them and/or it's a term of endearment? Does that mean you wouldn't care if your husband called you B*tch or W*ore?

She says no because those are bad words to use and disrespectful. Fair enough ... but isn't calling a person a piece of meat disrespectful, too? Or is it okay to disrespect people if you love them, it's a term of endearment and/or they're younger than you are?  Now she says "sorry for bringing it up".

One thing I've found interesting...is it seems alot of young women nowadays have become very desensitized to the notion of being called a b**tch. they see it slung at them on TV and in movies, and the term seems to have lost its power and they view it like a mild rebuke.

I know this is true because I lost my mind at work one day with this young goofy artsy girl co-worker who I have become so comfortable with because she is so kooky, she put peanut butter on my Iphone screen with her finger and laughed and I said "what are you doing to crazy b**tch?!" and I couldn't believe I said that...and she just laughed...and I dont think she was even laughing that i called her  b**tch...that totally bypassed her. she just found my overall reaction funny,.

I had a friend who passed away last year from cancer. His nickname was "Liar Dave". Every time my friends and I went fishing, we always had pictures as proof. Dave always caught big fish...but never had photos.
He'll sorely be missed.
My mentor Bert had nicknames for almost everyone...Austin Mike, Keepin on Tom...he even had a nickname...we called him OFB...(Old Fucking Bert)

When I was a kid my dad used to call me Jesus Christ all the time, as in:

"Jesus Christ, get away from that!!!" or "Jesus Christ stop making all that noise!!!"

Yeah, yeah, old joke, I know.

My stepfather, who was also my uncle by marriage gave everyone in the family a nickname. His oldest daughter was named Nancy but he never liked that name and calls her Susan. His other daughter was nicknamed Pooh Bear due to a little belly as a kid. My sister was called Josephine, a longer more elaborate version of her real name. I was nicknamed Froggy. I had refused to go down a huge slide one time and my uncle had tied my shoelaces together. I was very stubborn and even though I couldn't get the shoes untied I refused to go down that slide. I literally hopped half a mile home. The grandchildren have all gotten nicknames as well. I have a niece nicknamed Conan, like the movies. She used to get in the garbage and make a mess. Conan the Destroyer, Conan the Barbarian, etc.