Birth of a Nickname

All of my life I've wanted a nickname. My given name is Judith, and everyone calls me Judi. Steven tells me that is a nickname. Uh, no. That's just the shortened version of Judith.

I didn't play any sports in school, so no chance for nicknames there. I was in choir and band, but "Soprano" and "Flute Player" just never rolled off anyone's tongue. I have two older brothers, you would think these two yahoos would have been able to come up with something/anything?

Sadly, no. They just pretended they didn't have a little sister.

I went through high school, college and the first forty years of my life without a nickname. I met Steven and as he told tales of his friends, I realized that everyone in the world, other than me, has a nickname. His was Mabel. He has a friend, Paul, whose nickname is Horris. Chris is Kramer. There was a kid in his school they named Wub. My grandmother would speak of her siblings, and I would get so confused. They all had two or three different names. I grew up thinking there were about fifteen kids in her family. (I kid you not!) I mean, the list goes on and on. My brother Jeff is known as Jamie, and my other brother is known as TJ. Me? Judi. Plain old boring brown haired AVERAGE Judi. No nickname Judi.

I started complaining about this plight a few years ago. Some friends of mine even attempted to come up with a few names. Here's a few that never stuck: Chicken Crap and Zippy. Steven said they wouldn't stick, because there was nothing behind them, no story, no history. And he's right. When it's not natural, it just doesn't work.

Then, came along this little guy. I knew him before he could talk. I knew him before he could walk! He couldn't say Judi, and so he began saying JuJu. And guess what? It STUCK!! And, I finally have my nickname. And I love it. It came from one of my favorite little boys. As many of you have noticed, I use the moniker for all my on line postings. My friends and even my family have started using this as a term of endearment for me. It makes me so happy to have a nickname.

I wasn't going to put this picture on here, but the fact that this expression on my face didn't scare the child away from me made me realize how very much I love that my nickname came from the mouth of this babe.

My nickname giver was in town this weekend. I hadn't seen him since Christmas. (his mean mom and dad moved to Oklahoma for stupid Air Force stuff!!) He came to the top of the step and yelled to me, "JuJu!!!" Awwwwww. That made me feel so happy to hear him call my NICKNAME.

And, really, JuJu is so much better than Chicken Crap.