Name Game
Nicknames such as Joe for Joseph or Marge for Margaret fit the dictionary definition of a nickname, but Tootie for Eleanor and Tweeter for Robert stray from the reference books.
Though the origins of some nicknames are obvious, the following nicknames need their stories to be told.
Toddler talkMany nicknames come from a toddler's inability to pronounce certain words. Following are tales of that very situation.Robert "Tweeter" Wiles of Butler got his nickname as a young child. He was called Sweetheart, but the younger children couldn't pronounce the whole word.Tweeter came out of it, and he is still called Tweeter at 80.Pat "Pappy" McGinnis got her nickname from a child in a day care where she worked. Though she's a woman, all of her co-workers and even friends now call her Pappy.Mary McCarthy of Butler doesn't mind her nickname, Dump. Her mother thought her baby daughter's short, chubby toes looked like dough balls. Soon she was called Dumpling by her mother, but two older sisters couldn't quite say the word."All they could get was 'Dump,'" McCarthy said. "People think I should get mad, but why should I get mad? My toes now are real fat and chubby. ... They were actually kind of cute, I think."
As boys, Carl Wise, Clair Kennedy and Ronald Lassinger knew each other well, but not as Carl, Clair and Ronald. To their friends and acquaintances, the young men were known as Peck, Weiner and Peewee.Carl "Peck" Wise, 68, of Penn Township received his nickname from an uncle who loved potatoes."He said I was about the size of a peck of potatoes," Wise said. "That hung on me all my life."Through grade school, high school and 37 years at HPStarr Lumber, Wise was known as Peck."Most people don't know my real name," he said.His friend Clair "Weiner" Kennedy of Penn Township to this day doesn't know how he got his nickname. Notwithstanding, that name stuck as well and the retired man is still known as Weiner at his local hangouts.Ronald "Peewee" Lassinger of Saxonburg said that he was "real small in first grade." At that time, children in first to eighth grade went to school in the same building and played ball together."An older kid said, 'Hit the ball, Peewee,' and that's how it got started," Lassinger said.A retired carpenter, the part-time Florida resident said that when someone calls him Ronald, he doesn't even recognize it as his name.
At Moniteau High School in Cherry Township, students think of their principal as Mr. Maynard S. Harvey Jr.But to Harvey's friends and many co-workers, this principal is Pancho.The West Virginia native has no Mexican heritage, but gained the name because of a friendship between his late father, a truck driver, and a Mexican warehouse worker in Detroit.Harvey's father drove a truck over the road, often to Detroit where he would see the warehouse worker who had a little boy named Pancho. When Harvey Jr. was born, the worker asked Harvey Sr., "How's your little Pancho?""When my dad came home, that's what he started calling me," Harvey said.Pancho may have been an odd nickname for a West Virginia boy 30 years ago, but his siblings rivaled him with interesting given names.Out of the 10 Harvey children, seven of the first names rhyme. Some of the middle names rhyme as well. They are: Gary Wayne, Larry Zane, Harry Lane, Barry Ray, Terry, Sherry and Jerry. The remaining sisters are Vinita and Dreama.Other nicknames in the Harvey family included Butch, Mikey, Sissy and Mo.Terry was called Mo thanks to an aunt who visited Mrs. Harvey after her last two children, twins Terry and Sherry, were born, advising, "No mo kids, Mae."
Diana "Clutch" Meals of Mars loves to drive a stick shift, not only because of its practical purposes, but also because her nickname fills a key role in its mechanics.In 1979, Meals started driving school buses for the Mars School District. The children on her bus crowned her with the name because "I was the only bus driver that could give them a ride in a stick shift without giving them whiplash.""They did away with stick shifts on buses years ago," she said. But she still prefers the more complicated transmission because "When the battery goes dead, you can always push it and get it started."After working for Mars for 13 years, Meals applied to work for the North Allegheny School District. She said that she almost didn't get the job because of her nickname."They thought I ripped clutches out, but then they found out the truth,"she said.<B>No mother-in-law jokes</B>When Kathy Tack of Butler Township gained her first son-in-law in 1994, she got more than an extra face in the family photo. Mark Maier gave her a nickname that would stick with her.Instead of calling her Mrs. Tack, Kathy or Mom, Maier decided "Mil," an acronym for mother-in-law, would suit her better.Since then, Tack has gained two more sons-in-law and all three call her Mil or Milly."A lot of people aren't comfortable calling their in-laws Mom and Dad," Tack said.Maier was not only creative with Tack's nickname, but also gave Tack's father his own special name. "G-Nice" became the name for Grandpa Nice.
Gerald "Chookie" Bennetti of Butler Township came from a family that kept chickens, pigeons and rabbits. His job as a 5-year-old was to feed the chickens.The only way he knew to get their attention was to call out, "Chook, chook, chook." His older brothers soon teased him about it saying, "Hey Chookie, go feed the chickens."Lisa Wahler of Summit Township named her son Rhett to avoid nicknames. Then came the 11-year-old boy's batting instructor, who came up with the moniker Rottweiler, an offshoot of Rhett Whaler, because he thought it would be a tough sports name."I wanted to name him something that wouldn't get a nickname and never thought Rottweiler would come out of it," she said.Margaret "Short Change" Anderson of Eau Claire didn't get her nickname because of being cheap, just from being a little unaware of a custom.Years ago, she and her friends would hang out at a club on the weekends, and the men would put money in a kitty for their waitress. One night, Anderson thought she'd do the guys a favor and collect it for them. Little did she know that she shortchanged the waitress. The name stuck and became her CB radio call name.
