Plenty of people go their entire lives without them. Then there are the few who are blessed with them at an early age, and they seem to have the ability to last forever. And it always seems that the worst ones have the best staying power. I’m talking about nicknames.

As a person who is called every variation of my last name, Chuipek ­— from the understandable ‘Chuip-baca’ from Star Wars, to ‘Chuip-a-loop,’ to the completely out-of-nowhere ‘ChuipatitisK’ (don’t ask) ­— I have had my fair share of nicknames. And those are only the ones appropriate for the newspaper.

Nicknames can be simple, from a shortened version of a name like Jennifer to Jen, to using a last name. For Kaitlin Fanning, sophomore in Business, using a last name as a first name is a tradition passed down through family members.

“My dad was called by his last name too because they had six brothers and sisters, so they were all just called ‘Fanning,’” she said. “It’s been passed down for a while. Everyone calls me by my last name, and I have two older siblings who look just like me, so teachers called me ‘little Fanning.’”

Fanning’s nickname started in junior high and then caught on in high school. Before she knew it, everyone was just referring to her as ‘Fanning.’

“It just kind of stuck and everyone calls me it now,” she said. “I just have one of those last names that sounds like a first name. It just comes off the tongue.”

Fanning does not mind being called by her last name, and in fact, she thinks it better represents her personality.

“I like my last name, and it sounds weird, but I feel like I act more like ‘Fanning’ than Kaitlin,” she said. “Kaitlin is such a common name and I feel like I know so many Kaitlins, but no one else gets called Fanning.”

The second type of nickname is the variation of either a last or first name. This is the nickname category that Mack McInerney, sophomore in ACES, falls into.

“People started calling me ‘cheese’ because there is another kid in my fraternity who is named Mack, and so it’s like ‘mac n cheese,’” he said. “It’s not really that clever. Some people call me ‘snacks’ because it rhymes with Mack.”

While his friends might disagree, McInerney doesn’t think they are too talented in handing out nicknames.

“My friends aren’t really as creative with nicknames as I am,” he said. “I’ve just learned that whatever name the person likes the least tends to stick more.”

Finally, there are the nicknames that are not a variation of a first or last name, but come from a physical characteristic or a personality trait. In these cases, only those present at the moment of nicknaming can understand the true meaning of the given name.

Mike McQuillen, sophomore in Business, has these types of nicknames.

“I have a few, but the first one is ‘coach,’ which I got when I was pledging first semester,” he said. “Mainly it came from motivational speeches sometimes when I had a little too much to drink.”

McQuillen developed quite a number of nicknames during his pledgeship, all reflecting a little piece of his personality.

“The other one is ‘dad’ because a lot of people see me as acting older than I am,” he said. “Also people call me ‘Ken’ because a lot of people say I look like Barbie doll Ken.”

While being called ‘coach,’ ‘dad’ or Barbie doll ‘Ken’ could upset some people, McQuillen has instead chosen to just go with it.

“I love them,” he said. “They’re on the back of my t-shirts and stuff so I’ve embraced them.”

No matter how hard he might try, McQuillen might never fully understand how the nicknames caught on.

“That’s the funny thing about nicknames — there’s never necessarily a rhyme or a reason to it. It just kind of happens.”

_Kelly is a junior in LAS._