Bilingual Corner No 3 - Nicknames!

A special badge for all bilingual families.

My friend Rebecca over at two became four made it specially for me!

Last month I blogged about choosing names in bilingual homes. This month I wanted to talk about something similar – nicknames! 

I found out the hard way that nicknames don’t necessarily make sense from one language to the next.

Nicknames are personal and sometimes can be funny, really funny! But only to those that understand the language. It may sound strange to others but only you and your family know how you got it.

Daddy calls mami another name, Yoyi.

Yes, Yoyi. Sounds funny, huh? It doesn't mean anything but its just an example of how it works better in Spanish than in English (it took me a long time to figure out mami had another name!)

Okay, you can all laugh now.

She said abuelito/grandad gave her that nickname when she was a baby and it has stuck with her.

So what do mami and daddy call me?

When I was a baby mami called me her “pollito” or little chicken because she says I was really thin and yellow!

After that she started calling me her “monito” or monkey because I would roll around everywhere.  I’ve seen the monkeys at the zoo and I look nothing like them by the way!

Now she calls me her “gordito” or “gordo” which means chubby because I love to eat and I have a very big tummy! I know, I know, doesn’t sound very nice but in Spanish it is actually a term of endearment.

When mami calls me her “gordito” her voice is soft and gentle, her eyes sparkle and she always has a smile. That’s how I know she says it with love.

Daddy didn’t like her saying that at first, but he understands now that mami is not saying it to pick on me.

Mami had a friend from a country far away whose nickname for her daughter meant something not very nice in English. She decided not to use it anymore, at least not at the playground where others could hear. It must have been a very, very bad word.

So tell us, what are your nicknames? Do your nicknames sound okay in one language but don't make sense in the other? Or make sense in English but not in your second language?

I can't wait to hear your stories!

You know what you have to do:

Think about it.
Blog about it.
Link to my site.
Come back and leave your link.
Read everyone elses posts.
Enjoy!

Bye bye

“gordo”

P.S. Please share with other friends who might want to join in each month. When you come back I will have a little suprise for you!

Bilingual Corner No 2 - What's your name?

Gracias to so many of you for writing about being bilingual and the funny stories you posted for the first Bilingual Corner! Its all just for fun, so this month I thought I would talk about our names! See, I realised that being bilingual not only means speaking two (or more) languages but experiencing different ways of doing things – traditions I think mami calls it.
Let me make it easy for you: 

Mami is from Chile
Daddy is from the USA
Which makes me, Little M a Chilean/American born Brit – cool huh? And that’s a whole lot of different traditions going on there!
 

And so the name selection process began...

When I was still in the waters, I could hear mami and daddy talking about what to call me once I came home. It was a bit muffled, but I could sometimes make out parts of their conversations. I tell you, I knew a lot more than they thought when I finally left. Including my name, Little M!

After a day of non-stop bumping around in mami's tummy, when the waters did eventually stay still (which now I now know means that mami was sitting), I could hear mami say “he is going to have English last name, so I want him to have a Spanish first name, but easy enough to pronounce”

Daddy would then say “Any particular names you had in mind?” then mami would say a few and then they would both just go silent. From what I gather, it took them a long time to finally agree to my name. Mami really wanted a Spanish name and happily daddy agreed too! (As long as it didn't have too many "R" because he has a hard time with those still, hahaha!)

When I discovered my name...

I was so happy when they finally did start calling me by my name, “Hola Little M, its daddy” I’d hear him say, and then again, and again and again. So that’s how I knew he was talking to me!

I liked hearing their voices through mami’s tummy and sometimes I would even put on a little show for them and kick my legs or move my arms around.

More surprises...

After being in the outside world now for 18 months (well, almost) I realised that Little M is in fact a Spanish name, however, we have all discovered that it is also a German, French, Portuguese, Finnish, Nordic, and even Lithuanian name! (Daddy saw that a few biathletes in the Winter Olympics where also named Little M and that made him very very happy!)

So I guess mami and daddy made a great choice  - although I still get funny pronunciations at nursery. Don’t they hear how mami says it? Silly people.
 

Your turn...

 

Now I ask you, do you have a first name that maybe is traditionally used in another country or language? Or the other way around? Is someone else in the family named that? Did you choose it to remind you of where you come from? Does it set you apart? Have you had difficulties with it?

So far, no problems here! I've even met a few Little M's although they were not so Little – and when people hear it, they say they like it!

Write and link...

Can’t wait to hear your stories. Please remember to mention Little M's Bilingual Corner and link back to my blog on your post!

I will add a Linky so you can come back and leave your post so others can read it.