Nicknames by Which I Have Been Known

Michael-man

Origin: circa 1991 ~ 1995

Creator: Dad

Used by: Dad, Mom, and other family members

Reason: Dad thought it sounded catchy

Reason Ended: My brother started calling me by this name. Apparently, I found it annoying. I asked both of my parents to stop calling me that. 

Mickey, Mickey P, Mickey Park

Origin: circa fall of 1999 (7th grade)

Creator: Ivy P.

Used by: Ivy P.

Reason: Some relation to some angsty movie or an angsty band, can’t remember which, that Ivy had seen.

Reason ended: No goodness-of-fit, didn’t catch on. 

Mikey

Origin: circa fall of 2002 or 2003 (9th or 10th grade)

Creators: Evelyn, Vinay, Alex

Used by: The creators and a few other high school friends

Reason: Evelyn started using it because of the "Mikey, he likes it!" commercial reference. Vinay and Alex played sports, and that's what you do in sports. Take someone's name and add -y to it.
Reason ended: High school graduation. The users were pretty consistent with it through high school. 

Bentley

Origin: 2nd week of Leader-in-Training Training at YMCA Camp Gaines, summer 2003 - Present

Creator: "Yogi" aka Sean Used by: Camp staff at Sequoia Lake, or about 50 Facebook friends

Reason: I went to Bentley Middle School. I wore my shirt to staff training. My counselor thought it was cool that I had a shirt with "Bentley" on it. I was horrified that I got a camp name (which were typically woodsy or related to camp/animals/food/candy/Disney characters) after my middle school.

Reason ended: N/A 

Sunshine

Origin: This one is unique in that I’ve been nicknamed this three times by three separate people. 2005, 2009(?), 2012 – present. 

Creators: Chelsea, Jess, and Tom

Used by: Chelsea, Jess, and Tom

Reason:  The first (2005) was by Chelsea D. I sat next to Chelsea one morning in English class and she said, “Good morning! You smell like… SUNSHINE!” The second was by our very own Jessasaur, although I don’t remember the exact time and location. It makes my heart go pitter pat whenever she calls me Sunshine though. Finally, my roommate, Tom, says “Oh heyyyyy, Sunshine” whenever we see each other after we wake up.

Mike

Origin: circa fall of 2006 - Present

Creators: Inevitably, New Englanders

Used by: Various Colby College residents

Reason: I say "Inevitably, New Englanders" because New Englanders shorten people's names. It's a central tenet of what they do after my years of anthropological study. (I AM GENERALIZING AND JUST KIDDING PROMISE)

Reason ended: N/A It still slips into some of my conversations with New Englanders. Love it. 

Baby Schwartz

Origin: The die table in the AMS quad of Lewis, Henry, Ross, Justin (?), and secretly senior Chad’s circa September/October 2007.

Creators: Ross, Liz, and Lewis, but mostly Ross

Used by: All the die players in the world that I have ever played with.

Reason:  Because Ross was drunk and thought it would be hilarious to give me a name based on my Schwartz. I was thisclose to “Chem-Free HR” and frankly dodged a bullet.

Sparklemotion, Sparkles

Origin: Final hat league tourney of the Portland Summer Ultimate league. July 2008 – May 2012

Creators: Henry, John H., and Liz. Also, Five Ultimate.

Used by: Cobly College Ultimate

Reason: So I wanted really cool ultimate frisbee shorts, and Lauren Pongan knew a significant other of a Five Ultimate founder. He was passing away free stuff, and I got a white pair of shorts with silver sparkles on them. The only requirement was that I “make it dirty.” I played a lot of D that day, and Henry commented on my shorts “sparkled” and kept telling me to run and move. Sparklemotion was born.

Master Schwartz

Origin: September 2008, Mary Low - present

Creators: The one and only Steve Tatko

Used by: Steve Tatko, and sometimes Allie

Reason: Steve said I ran the dorm, which I think overstates it a lot. We also know he loves being formal when the opportunity may call for it.  

Schwartz

Origin: First Oregon nickname, September 2010 - present

Creators: Members of my cohort (Jake and Noah stand out in my mind)

Used by: UO SPSY

Reason: Somehow we all got nicknames for each other, but Jake was a main reason the name still sticks with members of my program currently. I was essentially introduced to all the current second years as Schwartz since I lived with Jake last year. They, in turn, have passed it on to the current first years.

Schwartzy

Origin: If “Schwartz” was September 2010, then “Schwartzy” was also September 2010 - present

Creators: Kenya

Used by: Kenya, her roommate Mallory

Reason: This one was a natural evolvement after “Schwartz” and is predominately used by Kenya and Mallory. If Kenya calls me this, she’s typically in a good mood.

’88, Ochos, Dos-Ochos, Ocho-ocho

Origin: August 11, 2011 - present

Creators: Jason and Patrick

Used by: Jason and Patrick

Reason:  So this date will always stick out on my mind because I was at a conference for my research assistantship that we were hosting. I admitted to J & P that my birthday was the next day and immediately they asked when I was born. I happened to be at dinner with them (who are in their mid-30s) and other members of the project (much older) and they were immediately commenting on how young I was. The other variations on eighty-eight are mainly Chad Ochocinco/Johnson related.

Schwadas

Origin: May 2012 - present

Creators: Jessie and Katie Wadas

Used by: The cousins
Reason: I was feeling left out as all of my closest cousins were changing their names to “Wadas” instead of “Waters” on FB. Jessie suggested this change, and I changed it in support of the youngest cousin, Katie, graduating from high school.