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Embarrassing Nickname
But they still had to use that as the comic book title, didn't they?
"The idea, as I understood it, was to give a kid a nickname appropriate to his appearance or eccentricity of behavior, the crueler the better. A kid with warts, for example, might be known as 'Toad' or 'Frog' or simply 'Warty'. In the course of time, the warts might vanish, but the nickname would remain, continuing its work of warping the kid's personality and kicking holes in his psyche. Nicknames were fun."
— , "The Last Flight of Homer Pidgin"
It may be a nickname with a horribly embarrassing story behind it or something family members or lovers use only when they're alone (in which case it overlaps with ). It often describes a character's appearance or lack of ability in one area or another. Sexual prowess (or endowment) is a common one. Because it is embarrassing it can be a .
This is not a the backstory behind the nickname can also apply to a harrowing event from the character's past like a
- they simply need to be ashamed of the nickname they are now burdened with.
is this trope defied. May overlap with . See also , , , , , .
&&&&open/close all folders&
&&&&Advertising&
One of the "switching to GEICO" radio ads has a tough biker guy informing the announcer that he thinks "Fuzzy Bunny" will be a good bikers' moniker for him from now on. The announcer then begins to protest that he really doesn't want to be called—
Biker: Too late! The name's already stuck... Fuzzy!
&&&&Anime & Manga&
Kei and Yuri are officially codenamed the . However, due to their unfortunate and accidental tendency to leave a place MUCH worse then it was when they arrived, they've earned their infamous and much-better-known nickname: the .
In , the Alpha Quintesson is called "Alpha Q" for short. Say it out loud a few times...
Early in the first season, Lelouch uses his Geass on Knight Jeremiah Gottwald, making him do very dishonorable things and then calling him "Orange", just to . The nickname sticks, however, and nearly drives Jeremiah mad later, but he learns to not give a damn by the second season, shortly before ascending to
As for Lelouch, his friends at Ashford frequently call him "Loulou"... though he doesn't seem to be bothered by this.
Kyohei Kadota is given the nickname "Dotachin" by Izaya, whom he despises as well as the nickname. His friend Erika will occasional refer to him as Dotachin, getting a mix of responses back.
"Shizu-chan". We dare you.
closely guarded secret is that her official nickname is "Pink Sorceress". It is actually supposed to be a magical title akin to , but she is extremely embarrassed about the "pink" part.
Lina has lots of others that go with her awful reputation. Among them are "Bandit Killer" and "Dragon Spooker".
Nana Mizuha in
is named the "Demon Lord of Guttony" because of her
was called ""/"Little Ghost" in childhood thanks to the . When
figured that out and used it to refer to Tamahome, he got sent to orbit. No, really.
The K in Evangeline A.K. McDowell's name stands for Katherine, but
shortens it to "Kitty". She doesn't like it at all. In the sequel , this is actually used to show how dangerous Dana is since she calls her Kitty and she doesn't get angry. . The only person who was ever given permission to call her that was her adopted son Touta (although there were time travel shenanigans involved).
And Rakan refers to her by the even more embarrassing . Her next spell comes close to "accidentally" killing him.
Allen Walker in
is, if you ask , named "Moyashi" ("Beansprout," in English). He does not appreciate this, and the nickname is one of the reasons Kanda is one of the only people in existence
can't get along with. Not that he cannot hit it back to Kanda by calling him by the first name.
If a character meets Yachiru, they'll usually end up with an Embarrassing Nickname. Orihime is "", Rangiku is "", Uryuu is "", and Ikkaku is "". Aramaki is variously called Maki-Maki or Whiskers, and doesn't like either.
Hitsugaya hates being called "Shirou-chan" by Hinamori, but has the grace not to retaliate with the nickname he used to give when they were younger, which was "Bedwetter Momo".
Mashiro calls Ichigo "Berry-tan".
hates it when people don't call him by his real name, but he can't be bothered to change that. He never does mention his real name either way, throughout the 9 novels, and the preview of the 10th novel. And the anime, the songs, CD, games, etc. In the 9th novel, Sasaki points this out rather blatantly, and teases the readers with Kyon, by claiming it's a royal and imposing name.
hates to be called "Dee Dee", a reference to an unfortunate childhood incident with a Plusle & Minun. Once we find this out,
looks less playful and more , both by the fact that he hung the Embarrassing Nickname on her in the first place, and that he keeps using it. Under her original Japanese name, Hikari, the nickname was "Pikari" because of how the shock made her hair sparkle. But in the dub, she's called "Dee Dee" because the sparkles looked like "Diamond Dandruff".
There are a couple of examples from the
Protagonist Aizawa Kakeru is saddled with the nickname of "Mr. No Goal" due to his , which makes him predictable for the opposing team's goalie.
Nakatsuka Kouta predictably earns the title "Mr. Sexual Harassment."
Mikael totally hates when people misspell his name, calling him 'Kaeru-san' (Mr Frog) and he always tries to correct them.
His teacher, Raphael on the other, doesn't seem to mind at all being called 'Haeru-san' (Mr Growing Out)
Bit Cloud starts calling the Tigers/Saberfangs Team "Fuzzy Pandas". Somehow, the nickname sticks whenever Bit and the Blitz Team run into them, and the team itself goes on an emotional roller coaster ride best described as comic relief for the rest of the series. In a , towards the end, the Saberfangs face off one more time against two members of Blitz Team...and the Judge Bot refers to the Saberfangs as the "Fuzzy Pandas Team". All the Saberfang Zoids
as one and are KO'd as a result.
Jiraiya from
is at first annoyed when Naruto calls him Ero-sennin ("Pervy Sage" in the English dub), but almost immediately thereafter, allows him to do it when they are alone. But he still gets annoyed when Naruto does it in front of others.
In , Agon's nickname for Unsui is "Unko-chan", which can mean "Little Shit" or "Girly Little Un".
It's part of the series title, but Barnaby really doesn't like being referred to as "Bunny"/"L'il Bunny"/"Bunny-chan" by his crime-fighting partner Kotetsu in . He eventually chooses to give up on complaining about it but he never accepts it completely. Its embarrassingness is so extreme it can apparently restore Barnaby's memories of Kotetsu after they'd been forcibly wiped by the series
via a NEXT power Hilariously, though, it seems the name has caught on, enough for the mechanic who maintains Barnaby's hi-tech suit to add a rabbit-shaped logo onto it.
In , a girl named Naruko Anjou is nicknamed "Anaru" as a child, a contraction and shuffling of her first and last names. As a teenager, she's incredibly embarrassed by it. Why, you ask? Remember, in Japanese, there's no difference between a "l" and a "r"...note&
One minor character in
got the nickname of "Perizoma Mask" due to an unluckily placed bandage he received as part of Mitsuhashi's realization he could stand up to bullies (
In , Tsubomi is given the derogatory title "The Weakest Precure in History", due to the fact that, when she first transforms, she spent the entire moment just running and flailing.
Yutaka Itazu in
got his nickname of "Panties" due to him becoming a total recluse who walks around only in a shirt and underwear after losing his only pair of pants.
In , Hiromi calls Akihito "Akkey". He gets embarrassed by that, mainly because it sounds like a nickname of a washed-up idol to him.
In , Kousuke, Shino's uncle, hates it when a pawn shop clerk calls him "Richardson," since .
In , the Heavenly Dragons Ddraig and Albion get nicknamed "Breast Dragon Emperor" and "Butt Dragon Emperor" since their hosts Issei Hyoudou and Vali Lucifer have fetishes for breasts and butts respectively. Both dragons are so embarrassed by this that they go into a
whenever it is mentioned.
doesn't really like Yuki referring to her as "Mii-kun".
Earning one is what inspires . Aki is well-known for giving these to her suitors as a way of rejecting them. As a child, he was called "Pig's Foot" when he tries to confess to Aki (he was chubby as a child), and decided to dedicate his life to getting in shape so he can make Aki fall in love with him, just so he can reject her.
&&&&Comedy&
Greg Davies (of
fame) has a routine where he introduces a flipchart introducing the
such nicknames
had, and all the childishly minor incidents that each one .
&&&&Comic Books&
In one of the
comics, we see that Wedge Antilles' childhood nickname was Veggies. He ◊ when his childhood friend Mirax calls him that, although she tells him not to use her childhood nickname, Myra.
Deliberately invoked in
by Pilar "Scaredycat" Lisieux and William "Scatterbrain" D they gave each other embarrassing code names as part of a dare.
In , Dr. Yagyu calls John "Peachy", after Momotaro the Peach Boy. John himself teases the Soviet Colonel Novikova by calling her "Novi-cakes."
A version of the McGregor story told in the "Folklore" section below occurs in an Issue #14. A rather sad-looking guide talks about all the things he helped to build inside a building...and then someone calls out, "Hey! Bill Chimpfucker!"
Then there's the first President seen in the series:
(as in we never learn his real name unlike his successor, Gary "The Smiler" Callahan). The name was given by Spider Jerusalem as an apt description of his attitude, and it apparently stuck too well, as the man himself laments: "Because of you, everyone calls me 'The Beast' now. The press, my staff, my own fucking children."
Played with a bit: Sonic, Knuckles and the Chaotix are introduced to Knux's baby brother. However, once they realize that the kid's gonna be nicknamed "Kneecaps", it's Knuckles who flips out after Sonic and the Chaotix (including Knuckles' girlfriend) burst out laughing.
"The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia", it reveals that the Acorn lineage had nicknames for its kings. Of them, three of them had nicknames connected to bad choices. Those were Theodore the Bereaved (he lost his first son due to an accidental shooting), George the Foolish (nearly eradicated his own army in a foolish attack) and Maximilian the Cursed (getting hit with bad moments after bad moments after Robotnik exiled him in his coup.)
would often insist he be called by his actual name and not "Captain Marvel". (Despite the fact that it was the title of his own comic.)
: Daily Planet editor Perry White
being called "Chief".
Matt Murdock intensely disliked being called "" as a child (he was perceived as a bookworm by his classmates, and they called him that ), but through the logic of comicbooks chose to call himself just that after gaining superpowers...
The name "" was actually originally a derogatory name that Otto Octavius' co-workers called him behind his back, a pun on his actual name inspired by the four- he knew about it, but barely cared. After the accident that bonded the invention to him and granted him mental control over it, he adapted the insult as his nom de guerre as a way of showing contempt towards them.
: The Penguin's nom de guerre also began as an insult. He was teased as a child because he was fat, short, and had a big nose, not to mention that his mother insisted he always carry an umbrella, because his father died of pneumonia after being caught in the rain without one. "Penguin" was a common insult. After his mother died and her long illness cost him so much that the bank foreclosed on their store, he tried to turn to crime, only to be laughed at by a gang of thugs who used the same insult. Fed up with it all, he decided t he dressed like a penguin, customized his ever-present umbrella into a high-caliber firearm, went back to the gang, gunned down their leader, and took over, completing his .
is usually flattered by people who call her The Jade Giantess or The Glorious Green Glamazon. However, calling her "Shulkie" is a good way to get a fat lip (or worse).
X-Man Fabio Medina got saddled with the nickname "Goldballs" due to his power to create the same. He begged his teammates to stop using it or it'd stick. He eventually claimed it as his X-Men codename.
A mutant named Hachiman was sent after the Geraci crime family at the time when
became their don. Because he uses an axe alongside with his mutant powers, he has gained the nickname "Hatchetman", which he resents.
In , Daken tells Sunfire that in Japan he's seen as an embarrassment and they gave him an appropriate nickname, "Hot Sake". This is particularly insulting because only low quality S the heat helps conceal the flaws.
: Eugene Thompson's nickname "Flash" was changed into one in one of the sillier
during Brand New Day. Originally it had been used in reference to his
, now it became a reference to a case of premature ejaculation on a high-school date.
&&&&Comic Strips&
Jon Arbuckle's brother "Doc Boy"note& in . He does, however, prefer that to "Iguana Gums", another nickname he used to have.
In , Sally's nickname for Linus was "Sweet Babboo"... and he didn't like it one bit.
In , Cooper frequently refers to his boss, Stuart, as "Zucchini Head".
&&&&Fan Works&
In the / crossover The Queen Who Fell to Earth the dragons like to give non-riders descriptive nicknames. Until she became a rider, Hermione's nickname was "Fuzzy One," while Sirius' is "Smelly Dog."
In the short , Pilot Jorge Strauss got his nickname "Dropper" because he accidentally dropped his weapons shortly after take-off in a training flight in his A-10 Warthog, while trying to retract his landing gear.
does not like to be called Mettie.
: Knuckles is nicknamed "Fuckles" (though no one other than Shadow says that to his face) while Silver is nicknamed "Preacher".
has Socrates refer to Stupendous Man as "Stupey".
fan fiction , Pinkie Pie gives Scootaloo the nickname "Loo-Loo". Scootaloo is not amused.
In the / crossover , Applebloom reveals that Scootaloo's mother calls her "her little pumpkin-doodlebug" while trying to convince Scootaloo that she's really Applebloom (Applebloom having just found out she's a
In , Heinrik, one of
brothers, has the nickname, "Heinie," while Johan Jorgen, a pirate, has the nickname "Jo-Jo". The latter responds to the former calling him by his nickname by threatening to respond in kind.
doujin, , Himeko Tsuruta gets annoyed at Awai calling her "Tsuru-hime", a reference to her name and her
with her best friend and
Mairu. After telling Awai to stop, Himeko reluctantly accepts Awai calling her "".
In , because of Celestia's heroic act of jumping down the mountain ridge to save a pegasus foal without any wings, the pegasi started to call her 'Pink Plummet'.
she later used that nickname to bruise the pegasi's pride for not stepping up to the challenge of being chased by her.
In , the protagonist is given the nickname of Bones by his father, which he obviously hates. Soon, even Princess Celestia is using this nickname to mock him.
In , Faith refers to her Watcher, Diana Dormer, as . More than once a character has noted her nickname doesn't refer to her initials.
fanfiction, Asami is dubbed "noodles" by Iroh due to an odd metaphor regarding the development of international relations and technology, and her place in it.
In , Phoenix has the really funny-sounding nickname of "Phoo-bird", something she doesn't like being called in public.
Pittan from
hates to be called "Pit".
: "Shepard's Strikers," the name that the media gives Shepard's crew in this
crossover. Shepard himself doesn't care for it and Emperor Valerian is dubious, though everyone else seems to like it.
a goblin who soiled himself during a dragon handling class becomes known as "Crappy".
: Marik from the Abridged Series calls Bakura either "Fluffy", "Florence", or on one occasion "Kitty".
In , at the end of the fight against Lucifer, Satan demotes him to "Lucy".
In , Klein had the misfortune of getting stuck in the titular game while playing his test character, whom he named "BallsDeep69." He's had to correct people about his name so often that his guildmates think "My name is Klein!" is how he says hello, while Kirito () calls him "Balls" or "Ballsy."
Defied by Agil, who goes by
in this story but doesn't seem the least bit embarrassed by it, and it's the only point against him qualifying as the
in the game. No explanation has been offered for his choice of online handle, so it's unknown whether he got saddled with it because he logged in under his wife's account, or he chose it because .
In , Lydia discovers that, because of the events of , she's known by various ghosts as "The Mortal Bride." She doesn't like it, although by the end of the story she's willing to make use of the implied threat it carries.
Tim Drake, after surrendering the Robin mantle to Damian Wayne sometime between
has been using "Red Robin" as a
ever since. By his own admission, he hates the title, and Connor Hawke and Stephanie Brown both lovingly crack jokes about him sharing his title with a burger restaurant.
&&&&Films — Animation&
In , Max hates it when Goofy calls him "Maxie" because it's childish and he's trying to make a good impression on his girlfriend Mona.
Dawn calls The Bog King "Boggy Woggy Kingy Wingy", much to his frustration.
&&&&Films — Live-Action&
In , the title character hates being called Bugsy, which refers to his temper. The
Bugsy Siegel did not like the name either.
"Babyface" Nelson in
hates being called Babyface, as the real man did.
In cut scenes of
Episode IV: , Luke is called "Wormy" by his friends on Tatooine. You can see why he dropped it later.
: Both in the film and in , Michael Oher hates being called "Big Mike", because he originally wanted to be a basketball star and basketball stars aren't supposed to be that big.
Inverted in ; Indiana Jones, aka Henry Jones Jr., hates being called "Junior" by his father, Henry Jones Sr. His father, in turn, can't understand why his son likes being nicknamed after the family dog.
Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen from . In fact, calling him 'Mad Dog' is a
In , Smithson Utivitch was rather disappointed to learn that the while the Nazis know his squadmates as Aldo the Apache and the Bear Jew, he is known as "The Little Man" amongst his enemies.
In , when William Thacker takes his new girlfriend, film mega-star Anna Scott, to a dinner party with some of his friends, the friends make sure that Scott knows that William's nickname in college was "Floppy", and that the situation was not pretty.
In , Nick is called "Shooter" by a lot of people. It refers to a previous incident in which he accidentally shot and killed a bunch of tourists, which he is still haunted by.
In , Aaron is called "85" by the inmates. It refers to his IQ score, which they found out when they took a look at his personnel file.
: Boner Garage (although she doesn't think it's embarrassing).
In , the main villain Boris instantly gets pissed off if he is called "Boris the Animal".
In , "Cousin Sissy" is revealed by Angel to be one for Simon Skinner, though it turns out .
In , Morris keeps on calling Oskari "Small Shoes", much to boy's displeasure, as small footprints are the first thing he notices about him while tracking him.
In , Oliver Chamberlain earned the nickname "" due to his
being shaped like a 6. He got so annoyed that, as an adult, he had it removed via laser surgery. When Oliver is replaced by a blank, which uses an unaltered copy of his DNA, he is spotted due to the mark returning.
In the Norwegian film , Artur pokes Alma in the leg with his erect penis, earning her the nickname "Pikk-Alma" ("Dick-Alma").
In , Chuck Norris' character is lauded as "Hero" by the press for catching the
known as "The Terror". He hates the nickname because he only caught the Terror through dumb luck after nearly getting himself killed and still suffers from post-traumatic stress.
In , Iron Man calls in his secret weapon, Spider-Man, by calling him "Underoos."
&&&&Jokes&
A young man is walking through a small village one day and decides to stop by a bar and have a beer. He walks into a bar, and sees a grizzled old man, crying into his beer. Curious, the young man sits down and says, "Hey old timer, why the long face?" The old man looks at him and points out the window, "See that dock out there? I built that dock with my own two hands, plank by plank, nail by nail, but do they call me McGregor the dockbuilder? No, no." The old man continued, "And see that ship out there? I've been fishing these waters for my village for 35 years! But do they call me McGregor the fisherman? No, no." The old man continued, "And see all the crops in the farms out there? I planted and have been farming those crops for my village for nearly 45 years! But do they call me McGregor the farmer? No, no." The old man starts to cry again, " "
&&&&Literature&
In , Gepetto is also known as "Polentina" (because his
makes him look like he's wearing a plate of polenta, a sort of cornmeal pudding, on his head). He .
In , one main character - a fat, socially awkward boy - is
by his nickname, Piggy, which he hates.
Milkman from Toni Morrison's
is called this his entire life after a neighbor caught his mother breastfeeding him long after he was too old to be breastfed.
In , friends and family keep calling the main character "Fat Charlie," even after he's lost weight. But that can happen when your father is a
god who sang the world into existence. His nicknames tend to stick.
Mrs. Weasley from
is forced to admit that her husband calls her "Mollywobbles" when they are alone, in .
In the same book, Lavender refers to then-boyfriend Ron as "Won-Won."
In the stories of ,
of the Drones Club have nicknames of this sort. In some cases, however, the real names they have replaced are even worse.
novel Heavy Weather, Lord Tilbury is annoyed when Galahad Threepwood, who knew him in his youth, calls him on his old nickname, "Stinker".
In , there is Boontsie (Stacey), Sunshine (Dawn) and Shannie (Shannon).
In , Lheor hates being called "Firefist". Unfortunately for him, people calling him like that is a
in the first book. It turns out he got the nickname when a malfunctioning plasma cannon exploded in his hands during the most traumatic event of his life.
novels, Wedge's first astromech has the designation "Mynock".
"Are you called Mynock because you draw a lot of power?" Urgent whistles and tweets were translated to a scrolling line of text at the very top of the screen. "A pilot once said I screamed like a mynock when we were in combat. A slander, Commander." " No one likes to be thought of as a space rat."
In a later book, Wedge finds out that his screaming in battle is indeed distracting, and .
the reason why Arvid moves to America is to escape the rumors that he had sex with a cow, and the nickname the rumor earned him — the Bull at Nybacken.
Several characters in
have unusual nicknames, like ?Irrelevant? Chris Fogle, Ms. 'Iranian Crisis' Neti-Neti, David 'The Young Man Carbuncular' Wallace, and Diablo the Left-Handed Surrealist.
is named for the small-for-his-age protagonist's Embarrassing Nickname, Fletcher "Half" Moon.
Touchstone in . Mogget gives him the name, and Touchstone finds it quite annoying, (it's a fool's name) — yet .
Fisk's oldest sister calls him Nonny in .
: John has been transported from Earth to the world of Basawar. In the Basawar language, John sounds rather like Jahn, which is a word for an animal with a tawny coat, John is blond, and when he says his name, people take it to be a c he is repeatedly sneered at for that. John is willing to put up with it because of his habit of extreme self-effacement. Eventually, after John becomes part of a Fai?daum fighting unit, the commander insists that he has to have a more dignified name, and settles on Jath’ibaye. It's a symbol of how much more humanely the Fai'daum behave than most of the rest of society.
In , names have power, so Harry enjoys giving silly nicknames to powerful entities. The more imposing the adversary the sillier the nickname - the Knights of the Blackened Denarius, a group of people possessed by fallen angels, become "the Nickelheads," and the skinwalker so powerful and so fundamentally wrong that looking at it with magical sight sent Harry into hysterics became "Shagnasty." This habit nearly gets him killed when he tries to nickname Archangel Uriel "Uri," since the "el" in his name refers to God. (However, Uriel is fine with being called "Mr. Sunshine," as it doesn't involve warping his actual name. This implies that Angels in the setting are particularly vulnerable to manipulation of True Names, which is one of the characteristic Magics of the setting. Dresden really should have known better.)
is rife with nicknames that are badass out of universe, but are hideously embarrassing :
Tyrion Lannister has been scorned his entire life for being a dwarf, and does not like to be called The Imp.
Meanwhile, his brother Jaime has never lived down being The Kingslayer.
Poor Brienne. "Brienne the Beauty" is a cruel nickname given to her because she's so homely.
Rumour has it it's best not to call Oberyn Martell "The Red Viper" within his hearing.
Aerys II Targaryen's thoughts on being given the
have gone unrecorded, however...
Lord Walder Frey is called the Late Lord Frey because of showing up to a battle when it was almost over, assuring the winning side that, of course, he had intended to help them the whole time. It's also appropriate in light of his refusal to die, his heir having died of old age waiting.
Sam's first nickname is the -esque Ser Piggy. His second nickname, on the other hand, is
(though the poor guy's managed to convince himself it's an ).
Conversed in . Lord Chesterfield warned, well, his son never to do anything which mimicsnote& would use to give him one. That's why he regarded perfect manners, style etc. as so important.
In Bernard Glemser's The P.R. Girls, Sue, who is the head of the department of public relations for a major Hong Kong hotel, is woefully called upon by a Chinese girl who keeps saying, "Oh, Miss Sue!" This causes people to give her the nickname "Missue" which she hates.
The titular
hates being called "Artie". He allows his mother and Juliet to call him that. And later on, Holly calls him by it, which causes him some confusion.
's wife Maria calls him "Horry." Hornblower doesn't like his first name anyway, so when Maria starts calling him that he's rather mortified. (Not that he says anything about it.)
isn't overly fond of being called . And then in the Beginnings short story "A Call to Arms'', we meet Lieutenant Travis Uriah Long, whose nickname progressed from Travis Oolong () to Travis Tea, until it reached it's current form: .
On her first night, Beka of the
trilogy gets nicknamed "Fishpuppy" because she gets tripped headlong into a pile of fish offal. The whole neighborhood finds it hilarious and the baker even makes her a couple of fish-shaped loaves, to her mortification. (Though she still takes the bread.) Later she's embarrassed to be called the complimentary "Terrier," but she grows to like it so much that Pounce accuses her of preening. She's also not fond of "Bloodhound" at first because of the exhaustion and emotion she went through.
The title character is actually named Dan Chambeaux, and hates his nickname because it makes him sound like a decrepit, rotting "shambler", not the well-preserved specimen of walking dead he is.
Inverted by the weather wizard Thunder Dick, who actually chose to be called that. He's perfectly happy with his nickname, but everyone else finds it understandably embarrassing.
In Flashman and the Redskins,
is adopted by an Apache tribe and, due to his horseback skills, is named White-Rider-Goes-So-Fast-He-Destroys-The-Wind-With-His-Speed. Unfortunately for convenience it's shorted to He-Who-Breaks-The-Wind or . Given how Flashman farted his way down the Valley of Death at Balaclava you could say it's appropriate.
series, the Northern
get their names based on some distinguishing feature or act, and those names aren't always badass:
In the original trilogy, the
of the group is accurately if insensitively dubbed Forely "The Weakest".
Caul Shivers got his name because in his early days as a warrior, he got up during the night to urinate and fell into an icy stream. He later jokes/claims that the name was given becaue , which ironically, eventually turns out to be true, given the
of Shivers' life.
In his POV, the
Curnden Craw initially connects his nickname to the fact that things
when he was younger. However, later on, it is revealed that the name derives from the fact that after surviving his first battle, he almost died at the feast after after choking on a chicken bone.
In , bullies transform the protagonist's name from 'Ishmael Leseur' into 'Stalepiss Manure'.
: Tiza's apprentice mentor, Sathel, calls her "cocoon" because she is not a full fledged mercenary. This never fails to provoke a blush and a protest from her.
: Konstancja calls her daughter "baby chick". When Witkacy uses it, he's told to never ever say this again, and that Konstancja is only allowed to do that because she's Wiktoria's mother.
In , the vampire Veruca is nicknamed "Froggy" because the only animal she can shapeshift into is a frog. Her real name is no better, meaning "wart".
When they were both kids, Safi used to call Leopold "Polly". When they meet at a ball, years later, she calls him Polly again and he's horribly embarrassed, being as he is now a young adult and the heir to an empire. So, obviously, she keeps calling him that in publi.
Esme dislikes the title "", as she considers it too childlish, but everyone who's heard of her uses the nickname, including her boss.
Pinead (In reference to 's own dislike of the nickname that became synonymous with Doug Bradely's portrayal of the character) has become this to the said Cenobite in . Saying it to his face is the last mistake the truly foolish tend to make.
&&&&Live-Action TV&
: Wesley was "Head Boy" at Academy. He seems blissfully unaware of the connotations - which is understandable, as Head Boy (and Head Girl) is an extremely normal title in British schools.
, "". B.A.'s mom still calls him "Scooter" because of his fondness for scooting a toy truck across the carpet when he was little. Murdock keeps bringing it up throughout the episode.
Petyr Baelish grimaces slightly when Arya asks why people call him "Littlefinger."
Tyrion dislikes being called "the Imp," but owns it regardless. He even takes some pride in the sobriquet "Halfman" given to him by the mountain clans. He only takes real offense to being called a "twisted demon monkey."
Jaime detests being called "Kingslayer," particularly when it comes from men like Ned and Robert whom he views as hypocrites since they fought a rebellion against said king.
Jon seethes at the name "Lord Snow," until Tyrion tips him on how to deal with it.
Theon plans a
to avoid being remembered as "The Greyjoy Who Ran," but the ensuing events culminate in him becoming "Reek."
Lord Karstark declares that Robb should be called "The King Who Lost The North."
Walder "the Late Lord" Frey earned his moniker for his tardiness at the Battle of the Trident.
In , Lois sometimes calls Clark "Clarky" when she is annoyed. It gets even funnier when
picked it up.
: Danielle is known as
at school. She came up with the nickname herself, but only because it was nicer than what people were calling her.
In , Niles begins to tease Daphne about her childhood nickname "Dappy" and is about to tell Martin when Martin responds "Is it worse than 'Piles'?"
On , the gang finds out that Rebecca's college nickname was "Back Seat Becky".
"Foxhole Norman" from , which says all you need to know about his . Bill Guarnere is occasionally referred to as "Gonorrhea" (but mostly as "Wild Bill").
is made of this trope.
Mose: Hey Coconut Head, would you mind not calling me Mose? Coconut Head: Sure, Jennifer. And hey, would you mind not calling me Coconut Head? Mose: Get a decent haircut and we'll talk.
In the pilot episode, Bill's mom writes a love note on the outside of his lunch bag in which she refers to him as "Little Man."
In one episode, Sam gets nicknamed "Dr. Love" after he's unable to identify any parts of the female reproductive system in health class.
Michael from
was forced to admit his grandparents called him Moosh-Moosh.
And the counselor, Mr. Lee, was called "Ugh", as in "Ugh Lee" ("Ugly"), but all the campers only call him "Ugh," probably to keep him from getting too mad.
On , it was revealed that Skeeter's horrifically embarrassing elementary school nickname was "Sugar Booger."
Howard's mother and eventually Bernadette call Howard "tushie-face," something which Leonard immediately posts to Twitter upon hearing.
When he was picked to fly to the International Space Station, Howard wanted a macho nickname among the astronaut group so he programmed Elton John's Rocket Man as his cellphone ringtone and had Raj call him while he was in a teleconference with real-life astronaut Mike Massimino. Unfortunately his mother chose that moment to tell him to come and eat his Froot Loops. Guess what his nickname turned out to be?
Sheldon was mortified when Penny found out that his "Meemaw" (Grandma) called him "Moonpie."
Two words: !
Or just try the episode where a coffee barista writes down Barney's name as "Swarley" and everyone calls him that for the rest of the episode. They also call him .
In , after making out with a guy under the bleachers in high school, poor Phoebe ended up with the nickname "Freebie."
Chandler's old girlfriend calls him "skidmark". He also was called "Sir-Limps-A-Lot" for a year after getting the tip of his toe cut off in an accident during one Thanksgiving.
Monica was also called "big fat goalie" when she played field hockey.
Julia Roberts' character in one episode was called "Suzie Underpants" up until High School as a result of Chandler lifting up her skirt during an assembly when they were both kids. When she encounters him again as an adult, she concocts a revenge scheme to get even with him.
: "Nips," Tony's less-than-flattering nickname for his girlfriend.
Michelle: Stop calling me "Nips", Tony. Tony: It's a funny name! I've seen a few nipples, Nips, and yours are fucking hilarious.
Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas. A nickname so loathed, protesting against it was one of the last things he did before killing himself. Presumably nicknamed as such because his father and older brother were both nicknamed Dick and liked to torment him.
The Principal's son, Vincent, is nicknamed
by his peers.
Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan. The origin of the nickname is explained in the original novel and film: she gets it after a sexual tryst between her and Frank Burns (during which she implores Burns to "kiss my hot lips") is broadcast to the rest of the camp over the P.A. system. Weirdly, in the series some of Margaret's old flames are familiar with this nickname, suggesting that she may have earned the same nickname independently of the 4077 in some unreferenced and unrelated .
Burns himself is frequently referred to as "Ferret Face", a name that apparently originated with his own brother.
Also from the novel/film there is "Spearchucker" Jones, whose nickname has a very embarrassing backstory (and it's not the one he gives, either). However, he seems to accept it in good humor.
In the episode "Magic Bus", to Hyde's horror, the gang learns that Jackie (his girlfriend) calls him "Puddin' Pop".
Then, of course, there's Eric's "Dr. Pee Pee."
Eric also gets called "Foreskin" from time to time (his last name is Foreman). In one episode, it's revealed that
Donna started that one, not knowing how much it would stick.
Also, "Tater Nuts" for Kelso.
Rick Castle's ex-wife refers to him as "kitten". Then
overheard.
Castle: I definitely saved your life. And you know what that means, don't you? It means you owe me. Beckett: Owe you WHAT? Castle: Whatever I want. And you know exactly what I want, don't you? You know what I really, really want you to do... never, EVER, call me kitten.
In another episode, Castle jokingly answers the phone by saying, "No-Hassle Castle." We only hear his side of the conversation, but apparently Beckett threatens to start calling him that.
Detective Ryan is sometimes called "Honey Milk" after his revelation of the drink his girlfriend sometimes makes him at night.
Mr. Rumbold on
had the rather unflattering nickname of "Jug Ears".
Arthur "Two-Sheds" Jackson in . He's a composer who once told his friends that he's thinking about buying a second garden shed, so they started calling him "Two-Sheds". To his dismay, everyone asks him about the sheds.
"Fat" Neil.
"Tinkle Town", Jeff's nickname from when he was a boy.
: Horatio's fellow midshipman of a bully calls him "Snotty" and
his wife Maria "Horry". The first one is clearly meant to be offensive, but Maria genuinely doesn't know that he dislikes it.
Lord Flintshire, a.k.a. Shrimpie, from . He's a perfectly dignified sixtyish British aristocrat. Apparently his siblings also had sealife-themed nicknames, but he got stuck with the really bad one.
On , Danny's nickname for Lindsay, "Montana," started as one of these. Lindsay disliked the constant reference to the fact that, unlike the rest of the team, she hadn't grown up in New York, and considered equivalent to calling her a hick. When Danny realized how much it bothered her, he stopped for a while. Eventually, as the two of them got closer, it became an .
On , CJ's Secret Service code name is "Flamingo," which is presumably a reference to how tall and thin she is. Some of the men try to reassure her that a flamingo is a beautiful bird, but she always replies, "No, it's a ridiculous-looking bird!"
When introduced, the vampire Spike was said to have been known as "William the Bloody", which seems to be one of those . A few seasons later, we learn that it was given to him when he was an effete, meek, mama's boy due to his "bloody awful" poetry.
The Anointed One's nickname "The Annoying One," courtesy of Spike.
Anne gave herself the name Chantarelle to sound more mysterious. She later gets extremely embarrassed after discovering that "Chantarelle" is a type of fungus.
In , Tony DiNozzo comes up with
for his fellow agent Timothy McGee almost . None of them are very flattering. McGee is particularly ashamed of "Elf Lord" (his online gaming name).
In one episode of , Mike reluctantly tells Carol that his was "Hot Lips" in high school.
gives us Reginald Endicott "Broccoli" Barclay. Captain Picard orders everyone to knock it off with the nickname — .
Jinks also picks up the nickname 'Poopypants' due to being a bit more serious and less prone to goofing off than his fellow Warehouse agents. He loosens up over time, but never manages to lose the nickname.
: Newly-hired maid Celine is promptly (and arbitrarily) dubbed "Chair" by family matriarch
Bellacourt. In a later episode, head butler Peepers threatens to re-dub her "Water Closet" if she doesn't toe the line.
In , Cornell Stokes absolutely
being called "" to his face. Doesn't stop his own men from using the name behind his back. Mariah Dillard also doesn't like being called "Black Mariah" either.
In , Foggy Nelson's girlfriend Marci Stahl has given him the nickname of "Foggy Bear".
: Danny gave Jeri Hogarth the nickname "J-Money" when she interned on Rand Enterprise's legal team.
In , Bubbles occasionally has given Jimmy McNulty the nickname "McNutty".
&&&&Myths & Religion&
A Dark Ages viking king whose Northern English fief was located in York was called Ivar the Boneless. No-one knows why: it has been suggested that he was really limber, or that he had cartilage instead of bones, or that he was legless, or maybe he had erectile difficulties. He was renowned for wisdom, as well as for being a berserker on the battlefield. One of the theories is that he had brittle bone disease, like Samuel L. Jackson's character in
and Joker in .
&&&&Music&
According to 's "Introduction Song", the members of the band's nicknames are 'Wee Short-Arse' (Eric), 'Garbage Guts' (Brent) and 'Old Dogs Balls' (Andy).
drummer Christoph Schneider went to register with the German copyright agency he found there already was a musician registered by the same name. Guitarist Paul Landers suggested Schneider to register using the nickname "Doom" because they liked . In later interviews Schneider has stated that if he had known the name would be printed in every booklet of every CD he ever played on, he would have picked a different one.
&&&&Pro Wrestling&
"Nugget" for , thanks to .
once referred to Crash Holly as "Elroy Jetson", and fans began chanting "El-Roy" at Crash, much to his dismay. He eventually came to embrace it later on.
To anyone who didn't know the context, that he had gone an entire year without anyone in
kicking out of it. "Mr. Small Package" was such for .
This happened once where
"Goat Face" in regards to his massive beard. This went on to become the
and now it's stuck amongst the fans. Bryan... .
Cheeseburger used to be an anonymous member of the ROH ring crew until he Rhett Titus and
designated him such as out of belief he needed to eat one. It quickly caught on with the fans, who started chanting at him whenever he appeared, and he used to hate it, until Cheeseburger T Shirts became a top seller
ROH but also .
&&&&Radio&
Doug Berman, the producer of , has many. And Ray lists most or all of them during the credits of the show:
Ray: Our esteemed producer is Doug "The Subway Fugitive" "Not-a-Slave-to-Fashion" "Bongo Boy" "Frog-Man" "Punkin Lips" "Cute-Cute-Cute" Berman.
&&&&Theater&
Li'l Bit and Uncle Peck from .
Li'l Bit: In my family, if we call someone Big Papa, it's not because he's tall. In my family, folks tend to get nicknamed for their genitalia.
&&&&Video Games&
: "Why does everyone call me Fella?"
: The Horned Reaper tends to get called "Horny" a lot...
, as the personal
of , get the nickname "Cheshire" bequeathed upon him. It's better than most, but he still hates it.
gives Dr. Nefarious (yes, the one and only) the nickname of "Snookie Wookums." Yes, he hates it.
's main character, Chibiterasu, is a magnet for these. He gets one each time he meets a new partner. They are, in order: Mutt, Squiddy, Pooch, dude/boy and Pork Chop. His reaction to each one is priceless.
In , while she mostly doesn't mind, the nickname "" does unsettle Litchi a bit.
On the other hand, Noel does not appreciate Tao calling her "".
Taokaka also calls
"Butter Boy" and
"Butt Lady".
In a non- case, Tsubaki once gave Jin the nickname "Jinny the Kisaragi", which gave him some manner of irritation. Kagura caught on and started calling him "Jinny" as well, .
In , John MacTavish is nicknamed "Soap". Given how , it must make people wonder how he got that nickname. Also, after being promoted into Captain in part 2, he never mentions his nickname, and thus after being addressed by Captain Price (his senior in part 1) as "Soap" after saving him from the gulag, MacTavish's subordinates could be heard asking "Who's Soap?" Captain Price even lampshades this trope by asking in the first game "What the hell kind of name is Soap anyway?" It's a British nickname, meaning he was straightedge, never got in trouble. Squeaky Clean.
In , Palutena refers to Pit's
Dark Pit as "Pittoo"note&, in order to tell them apart. Dark Pit is obviously annoyed by this, especially when
on a regular basis.
In , Vyers has the "Mid-boss" nickname given to him by Laharlnote&, in yet another example of
on that series. It doesn't help that, from that point on, everyone in the game start calling him by that name, and his name on the dialogue box changes as well.
Hubert is granted the affectionate title of "Little Bro" by Pascal. Probably doubly sucks as Hubert has a raging crush on her.
gives the Persona 4 characters a series of embarrassing taglines for the fighting tournament, like "Sister Complex Kingpin of Steel" for Yu, or "The Carnivore Who Discarded Womanhood" for Chie.
There's , an MTT Brand Burger Emporium employee who got his nickname from an embarrassing mishap involving him trying to smuggle burgers out of the building in his pants.
Asgore is also known to Gerson as "Lord Fluffybuns". When you first meet him, he can't remember why, but promises it'll come back to him eventually. In the , he finally remembers that it came from Toriel having a case of .
In , Morrigan affectionately(?) refers to Demitri Maximoff as "Demi-Demi". He used to get furious about it (since he's trying to kill her and achieve complete rule over their realm of Makai), but games like
reveal that he's gotten used to it and protests her use of it more out of habit than actual outrage.
EVE Online has a 'live with the consequences of your choices' policy, and thus won't change a character's name for any reason, even if it is one fan-created wiki tells the story of a fearsome pirate that chose his character's name poorly, and was stuck for eternity with the name 'Buttpipe'.
Duncan Wu from
has a bad history with this. In his youth his
earned him the moniker "Duncan Donut" and his
got him the name "Drunkan Dump". When forced into the shadows, he recieves the handle "Gun Show" for his (admittedly rather impressive) collection of hardware. He hates the name, but resigns himself to it.
&&&&Visual Novels&
Charlotte calls Mary Kitty once or twice, resulting in this. Later, M starts calling her Kitty as well right before the minigames involving monsters chasing her start, prompting her to yell at him for calling her such a thing.
Komari starts calling Kurugaya Yui-chan. Not only is she horrified with this nickname, she doesn't even realize she's been referred to at first because no one ever calls her by her first name.
The combat system rests on the fact that winners are supposed to give embarrassing nicknames to the losers. As the only way to get rid of a nickname is to reach the top of the battle rankings, this gives the impetus to keep fighting.
In , Hisao comments early on that he's never liked the nickname "Hicchan", which Misha typically uses when referring to him, and his parents once use on a note, but never objects to it after that.
&&&&Web Comics&
In , PeeJee's full name is Penelope Jennifer. Her father later reveals he chose this name just so he could call her Penny-Jenny. Needless to say she loathes it.
Subverted in , in which one character goes by the nickname Twinky, which most sane people would consider embarrassing. The fact that his legal name is Clive S. Lewis may or may not have something to do with it.
In , Richard hates being called "Dick". Although it seems to be growing on him...
In , given that Roan is called the Abomination, .
even though Mac is an innocent
who doesn't realize it's a problem — with
to underscore.
"Mr. Poodle of Noodles."
: For Ace, this crosses over into
territory, since Nina and her sister, Layla refuse to call him by his name. Nina insists on referring to him as "Puppy"
While her sister refers to him as either , or more commonly,
A fairly early
story arc involves several people Yeagar had bullied as a kid forming an organization to seek revenge. The "injustice" suffered by the leader, Borthomew MacForte was being given the nickname "Fart-Foot McPoot" in reference to his embarrassing foot odor.
follows Air Force tradition in saddling pilot characters with embarrassing callsigns, with the main character Capt. Ken Dahl being called "Barbie," which he thinks is just a joke about his name but actually comes from an incident where he sang "Barbie Girl" over the radio to an entire air base.
In , Lisa is yet to enjoy any of her older brother Mike's names for her. The ones we hear are Betty, short for Elizabeth, which is not Lisa's name, and Lassie in reference to her BDSM collar (which, if it wasn't for Mike's ignorance to the collar's significance would be down right offensive).
In , Diane's nickname is . She .
gives Porrim Maryam the nicknames "Pomary" and "Popo Merrygamz". Porrim suggests a better moniker, so Latula comes up with a third one: " Pornstar". Porrim wisely goes with the second option.
Saitama, the eponymous , doesn't react well to being called "Baldy". Which apparently is part of his given Hero Name - "Caped Baldy."
Dilvan "Teapot" Ceylon in .
&&&&Web Animation&
The Custodian of
is called Little Kitten by his fellow Custodes, even after they find out that he's their Captain-General. As he has , "Kitten" turned into his
as well and even Alfabusa uses it out of videos.
: Strong Bad hasa whole host of embarrassing nicknames for his
Strong Sad, including
("I already told you I don't wanna be called that anymore. !"), "", and "" ("I don't even get that one.").
&&&&Web Original&
In , the protagonist Alison sees "Al" as this, since it's a holdover from the days of fighting o shorter names meant quicker reaction times. And now her crush continues to call her that, out of sheer habit.
In , Corliss, , calls you G-dow (you joked that your name was Grok, Destroyer of Worlds. She believed you and calls you by those initials) and calls Gavin Gav-Gav.
Daphne Diller, the indestructible private eye in , does not like it when people call her "Daffodil".
has a pal, Gabe, who shows up in several of his videos. Toby has dubbed him Gabebuscus, which unfortunately sounds a lot like Gaybuscus. The face Gabe makes when Toby calls him this indicates that he, unlike Toby, is not amused.
Ghost from
Radio hates being called a "hambone". It's ironic since Ghost initially used the term to make fun of people who he deemed to be fat, lazy moochers who contributed nothing to society. He encouraged his listeners to use the term in public whenever they saw a "fat, jelly ass", but the trolls who call into his show during the Radio Graffiti segment began to use the insult against him.
reveals that his mother used to call him Mimikins when he was young. Went back to bite him at the end of the LP.
In , the superhero Lady Photon is usually referred to by the media as Photon Mom, which she loathes.
In , Marcia Shyneet believes that Slacker Magician is an embarrassing nickname, since it gives anyone the idea that Marcia's a slacker. However, Seth and Kohaku thought it was interesting and gave Marcia a pep-talk.
's version of
was nicknamed "Cockchafer" in college.
During the Phantom Blood shorts in , Jonathan calls Dio Debu note& during his attempt at coming up for a nickname for Dio. Dio finds it embarrassing because he does not like being called fat and suggests that Jonathan should call him Chanel instead.
's online name had quite a snowclone effect with many of his fans calling him a number of things like "Calsqueezy", "Caltripod", "Calfrozen", and "Calpringles". It got so far that
Peter in . His nickname, "Pedro," doesn't sound embarrassing—but he hates when anyone calls him that. The implication is that it reminds him of his huge screw-up at the end of the prequel, .
&&&&Western Animation&
Okay these are pretty terrible: Fenturd, Fentoad, Fentoenail, and the list goes on. Yep These are some of the title character of 's many very disturbing/embarrassing nicknames. And those are half as bad compared to the nicknames like Invis'o-Bill. The one he hates the most. There's also "Froot Loops" for the resident
Zuko ("Zuzu").
Flashbacks in
show that Toph was still calling Aang "Twinkle-Toes" when he was 40, despite his protests.
One episode concerns Tino picking up the nickname "Pumpkin Pie" as its B-plot (which tied into the A plot of Tish's name being used ).
In the second season episode "Vengeance", Carver is given the nickname "Pickle Toes" as the result of a prank, much to the delight of Lor.
In the episode, "Homer's Enemy", Homer gave Frank Grimes the nickname "Grimey", which he hated. Eventually, he was buried under that name.
In another episode, Lisa pretends to be a boy and is given the nickname "Toilet".
In "The Crepes of Wrath," Principal Seymour Skinner is called 'Spanky' by his mother, prompting laughter from all the school children.
On , Lucius really hates being called "Lucy".
team gives their new sniper recruit Calvin the nickname of "Fumbles" and humiliating him because of his clumsiness when introduced to the team. He responds by defecting to Cobra, , (except Duke, who he leaves alive, when Duke starts pleading to be killed too, saying "") and saying .
In one episode of
where Doris threatens to reveal why Duke's nickname in college was "Puddles".
is nicknamed 'The Time Bomb' in the episode of the same name due to her competitiveness and "explosive" temper costing her the race all the previous times she's entered the Galactic Conjunction 6000.
Luke Cage, in , hates getting called "Power Man".
: In his youth, Dennis the goldfish, being small for his age, was nicknamed "Dinky".
In "" and "", three male
Pegasi call Rainbow Dash "Rainbow Crash" and Fluttershy "Klutzershy".
In "", Rainbow Dash gets a chance to fly with the Wonderbolts, but after an accident on her first day gets stuck with the nickname "Rainbow Crash" (again). She spends the rest of the episode trying to erase her bad first impression, but then learns all the other Wonderbolts have embarrassing nicknames from when they were first starting out: Soarin is known as "Clipper" from clipping his wing on a flagpole, Fleetfoot is known as "Flatfoot" for stepping on Spitfire's hoof, Misty Fly is "Daisy", Surprise is "Slowpoke", High Winds is "Hoof-in-Mouth", and Spitfire tells Rainbow "you don't want to know what they call me" before .
: In the episode "The K9 Kid", police academy dog Sarge refers to Squirt as "Pizza Breath", a nickname he gained by eating out of a pizzeria dumpster while living on the street.
: the title character's codename is the less-than-manly "Duchess". His spy-boss mother claims it was randomly generated, and the fact it was also the name of her beloved dog is .
In , when the girls learn the story of the team before them, Hay Lin begins to scribble down their names (Cassidy, Halinor, Yan Lin, Kadma and Nerissa) and use their first initials to come up with C.H.Y.K.N. (pronounced "chicken"). She can't help but wince at that.
An aversion in
where the main character prefers to go by his nickname
rather than his fairly normal birth name
episode , Mr. Cat refers to Kaeloo as "Priscilla", for whatever reason, which she finds embarrassing.
Kaeloo: My name is not Priscilla!
&&&&Real Life&
Many famous gangsters hated their nicknames.
Bank robber George Nelson hated to be called "Baby Face." Bit of a , actually. He tried to get people to call him "Big George" Nelson, but, seeing as how he was , that never really caught on.
"Bugsy" Siegel and "Bugs" Moran. Their nicknames referred to their tendency to "."
Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd
"Scarface" . He liked to claim that his scars were war wounds, but he really got them in a knife fight as a kid.
James "Whitey" Bulger really hates being called his more famous moniker since it was given to him by the police because of his platinum blond hair, and always instructed those close to him to call him "Jim" or "Jimmy." Since being caught, convicted and put in prison he's apparently
and now asks that fellow inmates call him Whitey, presumably for the celebrity factor. Also one of many reasons Howie Carr has his unending hatred is that he continually calls him Whitey .
was the childhood nickname of Roman emperor Gaius Caesar, (it means something like "little boot" referring to how he'd been made a small Legionnaire's uniform for when he went on campaigns with his father as a child that including a tiny set of boots) which he reportedly disliked.
Some time later, there was an emperor who had the nickname "Caracalla" after a type of cloak he was fond of wearing. Though he didn't care for the nickname it was p if his nickname had reflected his personality in any more profound way, we'd be talking about
People with Italian last names that begin or end with "cucci" can end up being called that by people who aren't familiar with the slang term it sounds like. Embarrassing indeed.
Along the same vein, Yonah and Yonatan are common Jewish names (the Hebrew versions of Jonah and Jonathan respectively). Boys with these names often end up with the nickname .
hated when people called him "the King", believe it or not. Raised a Christian, he would tell anyone who did that
Military pilot callsigns are usually this, either based on an
or a pun on their name. If a nickname sounds great at first, there's usually a story behind it that will make the pilot blush. The more heroic or impressive callsigns people think of when they think of fighter pilots are reserved for people who have earned their fellows' respect.
In the Air Force, 'Slag' sounds like a pretty bad-ass name... until you realize why nobody wants it: It's an acronym that stands for Screams Like A Girl.
In Britain it also means dirty whore.
And in metallurgy terms it refers to the waste byproducts of the smelting process that you throw away.
Sometimes inverted if the person has an embarrassing name. 'Pink Floyd' was Commander P 'Big Man' was Commander Chubb, the CO, who did not get to choose his own name so chose to fit the name.
and the demeaning meanings behind them.
"Mangler" sounds great, until you learn it's not based off his combat prowess, but off an incident involving a hot tub, alcohol, a good-looking woman, and .
Since the US astronaut corps was originally all-military, it shouldn't surprise anyone that astronaut nicknames/call signs follow this pattern.
Brian Davison, drummer from the proto-prog group The Nice, somehow acquired the nickname "Blinky", which he wasn't too fond of.
Silent film comedian
disliked his nickname and discouraged anyone from calling him as "Fatty" off-screen.
Fraternities are known to do this. It can vary from friendly ribbing to nigh-on hazing depending on the fraternity and chapter.
Much like in the
example, if someone has earned a derogatory or embarrassing nickname while serving in the military, they probably have done something to deserve it. This is more prominent outside of the Air Force, where nicknames are less common and epithets are usually earned.
The Hash Names of members of the Hash House Harriers are usually chosen to fit this trope.
Professional snowboarder Shaun White has sometimes been referred to as "The Flying Tomato" because of his long red hair. Reportedly, he hates the nickname.
Swedish king Erik Eriksson, who reigned in the mid-13th century, and is widely regarded both by modern and contemporary sources to have been a very good king, and whose reign was marked by peace, law reform and prosperity, never managed to live down his birth defects, and went to history as Erik the Lisp and Lame.
loathed the nickname "Wacko Jacko" with a passion, as the tabloids named him that while
about his life. If you wanted to be affectionate, calling him "Mike" was better.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/main/embarrassingnickname