What’s in a (Nick) Name

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I’ve been called a variety of inventive nicknames since I was a little girl. Of course there are the family only nicknames that are too embarrassing to mention, but the commonly used ones from mi familia are “Girl” and “Goose.” Girl because I’m the only female child in the family but don’t ask me how or why I got stuck with Goose, I have no idea.

In truth I always disliked my name because of its lack of nickname ability. Shannon isn’t like Jennifer or Jessica where you can just cut off the last part of the name and bango- there’s a nickname. Shan just doesn’t seem right, though my kindred spirit, Tristus has called me Shan since we were teeny. So, I kinda felt left out of the nickname circle, that is, until high school and the origin of “Shaba”.

My new identity came into being thanks to a note on a paper plate. My bestie Sazza (Sarah) left me a good luck note on a paper plate as she left my house in the morning after a sleepover. I had a diving meet that afternoon so she wrote, “Good Luck Sha-Ba!” And to this day has no idea what prompted the spontaneous nickname. It stuck. The rest of my close knit friends started calling me Shaba, and soon even my Dad had adopted the nickname. I even made everyone “Shaba Loves Me” tee-shirts for Christmas one year. It makes me happy. It’s fun to say, pronounced Shaw-baa, and has a friendly feel to it. Since then many varietions of Shaba evolved, Shaba-bobba, Shaba-mamma, Shaba-bobba-romulous, Shabliss, and my favorite, Shabalicious.

Then in came Boyfriend. He’s not a fan of Shaba. He argues that it’s not an appropriate nickname because the sound isn’t close to my original name, Shaw/Shan is quite a difference. So he developed his own, Shan-o-bam. And soon Shan-o-bam was shortened just to Bam. It’s cute. It’s something we keep just between us, and it’s nice to have a pet-name that doesn’t make me sound like an infant or a food.

So there’s the nickname breakdown in a nutshell. Feel free to cut down on the typing and address me as Shaba, or, you know, as my professional title, “Supreme Emperess of the Universe.”

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