What's In A Name?

If you were sat at school and a classmate called you Little Pea, would you be offended? How about Semtex? Now that is a bit more like it. Nicknames were not always great fun back in my day at school and I suspect it is the same now, but there are some pretty cool nicknames in the world of sport.

Boxing and UFC are full of nicknames, and usually they are pretty darn cool. After all, whoever is coming up with the name dare not risk the wrath of the guy who will likely punch you if you say something offensive. The Haymaker, the Ice Man, Rampage and El Terrible are just some of the great nicknames knocking about right now which offer pretty fair reflections of what is likely to happen to the chap standing opposite him when the bell sounds.

There are of course some nicknames not exactly designed to strike fear into their opponents but are still cool nevertheless. I am particularly fond of Sid The Kid, The Professor, The Golden Boy, heck even Golden Balls is pretty cool. Those can be a touch misleading at times, but as with many nicknames, there are those that fall into the category of reflecting the personality or the looks of the sport star….none of which I would be too offended if I had been labelled any of those.

Another category and probably the most popular in most sports, are those that derive from the actual name of the athlete. It may bear no relevance to what they do on the pitch, rink or in the cage, but it is just a natural given their name. Manny Pacquiao’s nickname of Pacman is pretty cool and a good example of this. Visualising the game of Pacman does not really give much of a clue about what he actually does, but the guy is just cool and his nickname fits well.

Some are however not so lucky. Audley Harrison was nicknamed A-Force early in his career until several knockouts and embarrassing performances led to Fraudley and Audrey. Pretty unfortunate, but pretty accurate. Many others are just abbreviations which often come from teammates in training.

When I was a kid, we usually just added a ‘y’ on the end of a one-syllable name and that was about it. We were young and innocent in those days so there were no innuendos or anything, just plain and simple. The classroom was slightly different however and I was not always so fortunate. I often embraced my Spanish roots and surname, but it caused me no end of grief at times. The fact there was a popular Hispanic singer called Gloria with a similar surname at the time was simply a recipe for disaster. You can fill the gaps in yourself, but how I prayed for her record sales to plummet and peace and a normal nickname like Bobby would return.

Nowadays, I have a pretty solid set of names. Rob is the usual name and I get a combination of Bob, Bobby and Robby, and when I am really in trouble, I get Robert Christian. I am usually behind the couch or hiding under the table if anybody mentions that one. I have a couple of random ones – Ginger (I have no clue), Lobster and Bobinho, all of which I respond to. Nicknames are funny old things and fighting them never helped anybody. Like it or lump, most of them stick so just embrace them even if it is Bobby Estefan or Gloria.