As with many families, ours has its share of nicknames, though not one sticks out to me for the purpose of this article. It is possible that there are nicknames that are long forgotten. For example, future descendants who try to conduct genealogical research on my generation (or my parents) will never come across our nicknames, except perhaps in this article.
My father had a nickname that he retired several years after he left the military. Because his name was Rhoades, his fellow soldiers called him “Rocky”. Perhaps there is more to this story that Dad has never told me, such as, he drove like a madman on rocky roads. I will probably never know.
When my mother married my father, she adopted the nick name “Dusty”. Going by a nickname is actually the norm for Thais. She simply traded her Thai nickname in for an American one. My father’s family knows her by both nicknames, but probably assumes her Thai nickname is her middle name or actual given name, but it’s not.
In middle school my art teacher discovered the nicknames of my parents during some off-hand conversation and she dubbed me “Bumpy”. It did not take, LOL.
It was only recently that I learned that my great-grandfather, Kenneth Rhodes (Sr), was known as “Kid Chip” in the Navy. This perplexes me. The nickname, Chip, is given to men named Charles, Christopher, or Richard. Nope, no correlation. It could also be given to men who are named after their fathers. Nope, Ken was a Sr. It was also applied to men who were a chip off their father’s block (chip off the ole block). I’m not sure how this would have applied to Ken since his father was Daniel, was in the Army, and was infantry (not a carpenter). Daniel wasn’t even a carpenter in his profession, he was a farmer. Except for the one metal tag in his ditty box, we would never have heard of this nickname.
I am not sure if shortened names could be counted, but if they were, Rosetta Johnson was Rose. We have two Daniel’s, Daniel DeJean and Daniel Rhoads, who sometimes were called Dan. Then, of course, our Kenneth’s were Ken’s or Kenny’s. We have at least two Richard’s that went by Dick. And we have an Uncle by marriage who went by Duke (his given name was Dwyer).
My husband’s maternal great-grandfather, George King Pruitt had a cute little nickname as a child. He was the youngest of numerous children and was called “Baby” by his mother. When it was time for him to come home, his mother would call for him (he was always playing within earshot of home). She would try to call him by his name first and if he didn’t respond (he often ignored the call), she would start to call for “Baaayybeeeee!!!” and he would come running.
Then on his father’s side, he did have that 2xgreat-granduncle, Squire Batey, the one who rode in a goat cart. His obituary states his given name was Woodson, but I have never found any record to support this. He always used Squire in records, which is an odd given name to have.
I am sure that my cousins, aunts, and uncles, have each been known by some nickname at some point in their lives. If so, it was probably used within a tiny circle of friends or family, and has now been lost to memory – maybe even their own memories! If you remember one, let me know.
Our Many Pasts 