Tuesday, June 08, 2010

A Girl Named Dirty

My dad had a nickname for me growing up -- "Dirty Dancing." This was before the so-horrible-yet-we-all-loved-it movie starring Patrick Swayze, so the name had nothing to do with that.

From what I understand, the origin lies in a commercial that was airing on television when I was little for a doll called "Dancerina." I thought it was "Dancin' Rina" and called the doll that every time I begged to get one for Christmas. My father thought this was adorable and began calling me "Dancin' Rina" or simply "Dancin'"...although, somewhere along the way this morphed into "Dirty Dancin" and sometimes just "Dirty." (Yes, other little girls were their dad's "Princesses" or "Angels" -- it's like mine knew there would be a blog called Brutalism in my future even back then...)

And of course, because he had called me "Dirty" my whole life, I took it as the term of endearment he intended. Although, it was pretty funny when new friends came over to my house and asked me in a concerned manner, "Did your father just call you "Dirty"? (To which I'd reply, "You mean yours doesn't?")

I suppose I should put it in context by letting you know that this is also the dad who re-named our body parts with nonsense names to make drying off after a bath more fun. Arms were "armadillos", legs were "legotomies", feet were "tootsies," your chest was a "chest of drawers" and your butt was a "dufty doodle." (He also called popcorn "tropical popical" and hot dogs "trotty dogs." There was really no rhyme or reason to any of the nonsense language...it was created purely to make us giggle.)

And of course, I have passed this on to my own kid (that we nicknamed "Pants," by the way...Princess really is overdone...), and it warms my heart to hear her calling all of these things by their "correct" names.

What about you guys? Any good nicknames? Or am I the only Dirty out here?

P.S. Spell check just erroneously concluded that dufty, legotomies and trotty were not spelled correctly.

25 comments:

Moooooog35 said...

Man.

Makes me wish I'd spent more time thinking of cooler nicknames for Shithead and Whatsherface.

Doug W said...

as a kid, I was "Crackers" since I could sit down and eat a whole sleeve of premium saltines at once. As a adult, I got "NoShare" for not sharing my beer! But now the wife just calls me "A Hole or Hole for short" albeit lovingly!
Our little one is "Pumpkin" or "Mer Mer" and our son is now "NaNa" since the little one couldn't pronounce Conner and that's what came out.
But alas we have no Dirty's in the Family

YinMetYang said...

My dad still calls me my childhood nickname, LisaBug (or Bug for short) and I used to think it was born from love. Now I just think I annoyed him.

I call my boy "Head" because he had a gigantic noggin when he was born. When he is being particularly bothersome I like to regale him with the story of how hard it was to push his giant head out of me and "You know what part of me you came out, right?"

Chris said...

My father called me "turkey." I think because I weighed 9 pounds at birth. Even though I'm in my 30s, he still calls me "turkey" now and then.

My sister didn't get off as easy. He called her "grinch." Now she hates people.

-chris

Unknown said...

As a child, everyone shortened Jeannine to Ne-ne. As I got older, my brother started calling me Nener, which then morphed to Nener Wiener and finally, to this day, just Wiener. It didn't seem odd to me until I was a college freshman and my brother's fraternity brothers started calling me Wiener. Nice.

Anonymous said...

Dearest Sanchez,

Perhaps your dad could foresee your NetSec future?

To this day, Greff still calls me "dood" - pronounced "dude," though spelled differently. Short for doodle-kazoodle.

We call Sammy "fussy" from when he was a little baby and we had to continually tell the over-worked up boy that fussy Sammies couldn't eat. Not necessarily a great nickname for his future baseball career, but it works.

Fondly,
Dood

Brutalism said...

Moooooog - Those are actually endearing in their own way, too. Although, CPS may not see it that way...

NoShare - Of course your wife calls you Ahole -- you don't share your beer. Or your saltines. And by the way...I'm sure you have Dirtys in the family...they're just not "out" yet.

YMY - Your son must be brimming with character. (A friend of mine swears a mutual friend of ours will never get married because he has a gigantic melon and no woman in her right mind would birth his kids. There may be some merit to that.)

Chris - Thanksgiving must have been traumatic for you. As Christmas must have been for your sister. I don't even want to think about Arbor Day around your house...

Jeannine - wiener, wiener, wiener, wiener, wiener, wiener...sorry, that's not funny.

Bermanator (aka Dood)- How could I forget that I was so lovingly called "Sanchez" at NetSec? It's like I got my nickname in two parts during my life. Hey...if Fuzzy Zoeller can have a sports career, so can Fussy...

Bradford said...

My brothers - named by me - are still Dudalous Bacardsky, Donaldo Stonetti, and Gree Gree Scud. My daughter is "Kisses". Wife is either "Trouble" or "Bumpkin". Wife's nickname for me is "Loser", which explains my low self-esteem.

dilettante07 said...

My dad's friend used to call me Amanda T Boner. I would like to think that he was thinking of the steak, seeing as the last time I saw him, I was about 7. Then again, his mother liked to call my dad "Little Butt", so maybe they were a family of perverts. Sadly, T-Boner didn't stick.

Brutalism said...

Bradford - I'm thinking the family reunion this year just got more fun.

Tante - Didn't stick until NOW you mean, T Boner!

Anonymous said...

I had no childhood nicknames or weird words for things (sadly) however, I am not, from this point on, referring to my "back yard" as a dufty doodle because that is just adorable and a little alarming, both of which are my middle names. :)

Brutalism said...

VA - Dufty Doodle should definitely become more commonplace. It is a really cute term for a butt. Let's make it so.

Doug W said...

Badonkadonk is cute too.........

Straight Guy said...

These nicknames could put an end to harassment of catcalls that women endure (working on a post about that). Somehow "Hey Crackers, I like your dusty doodle," doesn't sound that intimidating.

Though a few listed here might raise the tension, too.

Sarah said...

My friend's mother called her kids "Diaphram baby" and "The rhythm brothers."

Laurie Brown said...

When Corey was little I called him Buddy Dude, or Buddy. I still call him Buddy from time to time. Alyssa was Lissy or Lucy which turned into Lucy Loo, but now its Lissy Bug. Taylor was Tinky Winky when she was little and somehow that turned into Stinky, which is what I still call her. Sometimes its Stink for short. Allegra had a squishy diaper one morning and has since been called Squishy or Squish.

middle child said...

Yeah. My man calls me Beans or Beansly,after some doll? He also calls me Goldie because of all my jewelry.
Your Dad sounds delightful!

Anonymous said...

Dirty - Can we also talk about whose father made us pronounce everything backwards so that I still can't order cheese pizza in a normal way?

Also, why is mine the only name he made LONGER?

kathyconnnolly

The Absurdist said...

One of my brothers had horrible scalp problems growing up so we lovingly (ha!) called him "crusty patches" which was usually shortened to either "crusty" or "patches". Sadly for him this was before The Simpsons started or else he could have totally owned "Crusty" especially considering his wild hair and oversized and somewhat floppy feet.

My newborn daughter, whom I'm calling peanut, has been dubbed "Squeak" by her mother because of her extremely odd repertoire of squeaks, squawks and chortles that sound more like they belong in an 80s video game than emanating from a baby girl. "Atari" didn't stick.

Two of our cats are nicknamed "peanut head" and "chunky butt" because, well... because we have no real creativity. Does that count?

dilettante07 said...

Sarah - I sure hope the "rhythm brothers" are in a band. That is hilarious. I think I would like to meet their mom. I'm pretty sure she is my mother's long lost sister from the sounds of it.

Signed,
Princess Demanda

Brutalism said...

Straight Guy - I think I'd be charmed if a guy told me he liked my dufty doodle.

After I finished spraying him with mace.

Sarah - The Rhythm brothers is fantastic.

Laurie - Those are all great. And I'm sure Taylor knows "Stinky" is also a term of endearment and has also made her friends wonder at times.

Middle Child -- You should probably go with "Goldie" rather than "Beans" in public.

kathyconnolly -- Please. Your "nickname" is longer because he liked you best and had to give you a special name. And yes...I also read all street signs/restaurant signs/titles backwards, too. He trained us to be weirdly dyslexic in a way that makes us good at puzzles.

Jason - You made up for the lack of creativity in pet nicknames for the "crusty" name for your brother.

Demanda and the Rhythm Brothers -- I'm liking it.

Dilettard07 said...

For some reason, my brother and I were referred to--interchangeably and randomly--as "skunkface" and "skeezix." Not sure what inspired the former...latter was one of the baddies in Uncle Wiggly books.

I think I will refer to any future children--interchangeably and randomly--as "mower" and "edger." Maybe in autumn as "raker" and "guttercleaner."

Anonymous said...

My dad's name was Bill and he was very, shall we say, frugal. So his friends called him "Dollar Bill". That made me, his little girl, "Loose Change."

Living Shallow, Living Well said...

I think that's pretty cute- I love adorable Dads who take an interest in their daughter's life.

I was called 'Chunkie' for most of high school, but no I wasn't fat- only about 115 pounds- I think my friends called me that to be ironic?

Brutalism said...

Tard - "Mower" and "Edger" are brilliant nicknames. It is the least the little freeloaders could do. (And "guttercleaner" does have a nice ring...) I remember Skeezix from Uncle Wiggly...I still have my board game from when I was a kid.

Anon - Dollar Bill and the Loose Change -- also a good name for a band.

LSLW - Did you go to school with Chelsea Handler? She calls everything "Chunk" as a term of endearment. She was one of your high school friends, wasn't she?