Go for Barry!

It started with Jemma. We found out that her father calls her Jimjim. (Side note: why do we have a lot of repeat-syllable nicknames in the Philippines - Junjun, Tata, Dodong, etc?) So we decided to call her Jim, which actually sounds like a Bisayan version of her actual nickname. I thought it was cute; it sounded like a guy’s name. So I said, why not have one for everyone? So yesterday we all had new opposite gender nicknames derived from our real names. Confused as to where mine came from? It’s in my surname, same with Dred’s.

Me – Barry
Jemma – Jim
Maya – Mario
Dred – Duncan
Rey – Ria
Joc – Joe
Josie – Jose
Nikki – Nikko
Farrah - Farrell
Maybelle – Bill
Ivy – Ivo
Ralph – Roffa

Yeah I know, Roffa’s a hoot. Haha.

I love my new nickname, because now whenever my phone rings, I can answer it with an upbeat “Go for Barry!” which sounds like “Go for Barney!” which is how my favorite How I Met Your Mother character answers his phone. XP

I like nicknames that get formed within friendships, don’t you? There’s my college friend Jesse whom we call Chu (because most people named Jesus are nicknamed that), my P&G friend Janice whom we call Kes (because her second name is Eden, a cheese brand), and my current colleague Nikki whom we call G, short for Grumpy (coz we call ourselves Snow White’s dwarfs and she is the grumpiest of us all LOL).

As for me, I have three friends who call me “Master” supposedly because they’re scared of me or something, I’m not really sure why, actually. In turn I call them Bibi, Lottie and Anoop and there are funny reasons behind each nickname.

The nice part about having these exclusive nicknames is that the mere utterance forges a bond, maybe even dislodges some memories that go along with the name, with the friendship that it belongs to.

Now I don’t know if these nicknames will stick but in the meantime, go for Barry! :D