In the beginning there was Butch AKA Butchie. That was the family nickname bestowed on me by some unknown family member and other than Charles those are the names I was known by when I lived in Colorado. I never much cared for my given name - Charles - it somehow seemed too formal even way back then. I was Charles in school (Carlile School) and Butch or Butchie at home and in the neighborhood. The summer before my 10th birthday we packed up and headed west to California.
Our home in Hayward was delayed and so we lived in Los Altos with my dad's parents until the builder finished our house.We even changed the house we were purchasing and ended up with a different address than originally contracted for. I didn't mind the wait though as my grandparents had a pool in the back yard and my grandfather drove a really cool old - really old - car he named Charlie to the train station daily to ride to San Francisco to work. He was in the magazine publishing business and a huge baseball fan. We went to quite a few Giants games at Seals Stadium in downtown SF.
On the day we had to register me for school my mother and I crossed the Dumbarton Bridge from what was known as the Peninsula to the East Bay and into Hayward to Southgate School to get me registered. While she went into the office to make me official I hung out on the playground. When asked my name I simply said Charles. One of the kids said "Hi Chuck" and from then on Chuck was my name. My last name went from Higgins to McConvey, which always confused kids that knew me in Colorado in later years on Facebook.
It took a few years before I inherited another family nickname - Bubba, which came about because my brother and sister, 11 and 10 years younger than me could not pronounce brother. That was a fun nickname because of a gentleman named Charles Aaron Smith AKA Bubba Smith - an All American and All Pro defensive lineman. When I made the varsity football team my buddies in the stands would yell "Kill, Bubba kill" - that was fun and to this day my brother and sister call me Bubba and to their 5 kids I have always been Uncle Bubba. Plus, I have grand nieces that know me as Uncle Bubba and several new grand nieces along with a grand nephew that will call me Uncle Bubba.
I picked up what has become my most common nickname with the advent of the Internet. When I first ventured onto the web, when a site asked for a nickname I started using Shackman - logical because I worked for over 30 years at RadioShack. That one stands to this day.
When I first joined a blogging group a decade or so ago the members of the group called me Music Man because of my propensity to include music clips in my blog entries. I still do that though the current group calls me Shackman.
There are a couple of limited use nicknames - Charlie and Chas. They are limited because to my ear they only sound right when used by people that use them - to Brian Scott I have almost always been Chas and to Dave Hitchcock I am Charlie. Also somewhat interesting - to me at least - is I have never been called Mac but that is my brother's nickname. It was also my grandfather's nickname. For some reason it never caught on with me.
One thing about being a Chuck though - whenever the Name Game comes on people tend to either giggle or cringe
That's my quick shack take on this week's topic, be sure to check my blogging compatriots blogs for their take.
I forgot over on my blog to include The Old Fossil I just realized. But to me, Bubba really did for you and you got it more organically than most! Now I get to also cast you as Charlie Higgins. This blog idea is generating more fruit than I imagined!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Bubba! Don’t forget you have several GRAND nieces and nephews that only know you as Uncle Bubba❤️
ReplyDeleteyeah I thought about that too - will edit it LOL
DeleteMy nickname for you is, of course, Shackman. The man with a shack.
ReplyDeleteMy own? My grandparents who brought me up for the first few years of my life (and what happy years they were) called me "Little Sunshine" on account of both my sunny temperament and smile. This permutated into Sonny. I didn't know my name was Ursula till I started school at age six/seven. The whole, close and wider, family kept calling me Sonny. After my beloved grandmother died (I was eight) I couldn't bear it any more such was my grief because being called Sonny reminded me of her too much. From then on I became Ursula. Until, decades down the line, a few years ago, on some family occasion, I was greeted by one of my aunts I hadn't seen in the interim and she said "Sonny?". Indeed. It made me happy to be remembered as such.
My favourite "nick name" the last twenty eight years? "Mama".
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My uncle Chuck was nicknamed Sonny -I think it was a simple extension of son and I suspect many women share the same favorite nickname as you
DeleteI always thought that Chuck was short for Charles but before I wrote in my post on this topic, I searched for the origin just to be on the safe side and discovered that Chuck is also a legitimate full first name. https://www.sheknows.com/baby-names/name/chuck/#:~:text=The%20name%20Chuck%20is%20an,bearer%3A%20American%20singer%20Chuck%20Berry.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this post, I went again to explore and find that my original feeling was indeed correct too and now I feel that I should have been a little more careful in my research. Had I been, I would have mentioned your name in my post.
I have always known Chuck to be a nickname for Charles and I do not know a single Charles LOL
ReplyDelete