- "Battleship"- My 4th-grade soccer coach called me this because I mowed people down (many of you will readily believe that this was through obliviousness as much as aggression).
- "Dakota" - My 5th- and 6th-grade soccer coach called me this because my name is also a state. Sometimes he would call me other states too (Carolina, Kentucky...).
- "V"--on my high school soccer team. Also sometimes "V-baby" or "V-8." "V" is not bad as a nickname, but it has never caught on otherwise. (Although, as a joke, some of my classmates in the teacher ed program call me "V-Dogg.")
When I was little my name was Ginna. My parents fully expected that I would always be Ginna (like the grandmother I was named after), but it annoyed me that nobody could spell or pronounce my name (always spelled or read as "Gina"). So in 2nd grade I decided I would use my whole name, and refused to answer to anything else (it has been pointed out to me that such behavior would not have been tolerated in many other families).*
Some of my friends have called me Ginny, but I really really hate that name (rhymes with "ninny"). Just a few particular people have permission to call me that because the way they say it (or the history of it) makes it ok. One person called me "Ginna" in college, but I don't think she's called me that recently. I liked how she said it too.
WHen I went off on my afore-mentioned Asian odyssey I tried to go back to "Ginna," but when people called me that I felt 6 years old, which isn't a good thing when you're all by yourself on the other side of the world.
A couple years ago I toyed with the idea of changing my name to Jenna. Sort of a combo of "Ginna" and "Jen," a name I like and that always seemed sort of strong and capable. My real name seems sort of socially inept/oblivious, bookish in a bad way, geeky and goofy and nearsighted. Wait a minute, that describes my most negative image of myself on a bad day--maybe it's me I dislike, rather than my name...
Someone in Nepal commented that "Ginna" sounded to him like "djinn," an angel or spirit in some part of the world (apparently there are numerous dogs and helicopters named "Djinn," according to the Google image search)(also via the Google image search, I realized that "djinn" is the source of the word "genie"--duh). Anyway, I kinda like that...
A djinn:
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(complete with various isms)
OK, sorry this post was a bit long and perhaps dull..... but I found that trying to always post fabulous stuff means I don't post much at all.
Next week i have to go to Tucson and visit my family, and I"ve just found out that XE won't be there. :-( :-( More on that another time, I guess.
* (That's not as bad as the times when I was younger...or maybe not...and used to "become" someone else. First it was Mrs. VonTrapp and then Princess Leia. In both cases I would not respond unless addressed as "Mrs. Von Trapp" or "Maria," and later, "Your Highness." I would "go away" (literally leave through the front door) and be "replaced" by one of these alter egos (ringing the doorbell with a story about how I arrived, e.g., my spaceship crashed and I'm running away from storm troopers). I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that my family indulged these little whim(sie)s......)
2 comments:
ok, so should greg and i change that link to "the djinn blog"? "blog of the djinn"? "vir-djinny's blog"? i'm having too much fun here. heh.
just tell us what you want there, dear, and we'll change it.
You don't have to change it--it's really not a problem. I have to go by that name all the time every day. I'm used to it.
If you wanted to change it, anything is fine. "V" or "Birdfarm" (that's a pun on my last name--when I was in second grade, a teacher said, "oh, your name means 'birdfarm'!" and I always thought that was kinda funny) or... anything. Your suggestions are fine too, although calling myself a djinn seems like asking for trouble....
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