Nicknames

Gene and I jokingly call Violet cookie monster.  We have no idea where this nickname came from, especially since she is way too young to eat cookies.  It just sort of naturally slipped off the tongue one day and has stuck ever since.  This made me think about all the nicknames I have had throughout the years - and I have had many.  Here are some I can remember:

Kozel- this was one of my earlier nicknames (2-3 years old) and the original version was given to me by my grandpa who called me kozlik (kid, as in young goat) because I used to hop around like a baby goat.  My mom later changed it to kozel (full grown goat) because I was incredibly stubborn (stubborn as a goat is the Russian version of stubborn as a mule).  This nickname actually loses a lot in the translation since in the Russian language kozel is also a nice way of saying asshole.

ARoz -One of my favorite nicknames which originated at my first 'real' job out of college.  A is for Anna and Roz is for Roslovich.  Pretty straightforward.  I later tried to convert myself to AKlay, but that just wasn't working for people.

Babychka - This was actually a nickname given to me and Gene when we first started dating.  Due to our shameless public display of affection and calling each other 'baby' in public (shudder) we rightfully deserved the Russian version of the term, hence babychka.

Cleo - Probably the most obscure nickname I ever had was Cleopatra (shortened to Cleo).  When I came into my 7th grade English class one morning with crimped hair (it was the early 90's - don't judge) my teacher decided that I looked like Cleopatra and from that day forward I was referred to as Cleo.

Bilo - After obsessing over the movie Borat, my friend Sarah and I couldn't stop walking around and saying the phrase, "Bilo, my brazer, he had hair here, here, evryvere."  It was only natural to call each other Bilo, at least for most of 2006. Now it's just a bit weird.

Boo - My high school (as most high schools) was filled with young, hormonal and horny couples.  For some reason, they all felt the need to call each other Boo.  Whether you were the male or female in the relationship, it didn't matter.  Everyone was a Boo.  My friend Diana and I decided that it was hilarious if we called each other: Boo.  Ahhh, fourteen year old humor.  

Roslovich - I think at some point everyone gets called by their last name.  It's probably the least original and most common nickname out there.  When I got married and changed my name, SOME of my friends (yes, you Shprints) felt the need to re-iterate (mostly to Gene) that I am a Roslovich forever.  As it was once explained to me, "we want to mark our territory, kind of like dogs pee on trees....but classier."

Anna Banana - If your name is Anna, I guarantee that you will be teased in elementary school by the little snot nosed kids who thinks it's hilarious that your name rhymes with a fruit.  I never understood it and I was really glad that at some point most kids did outgrow rhyming as a form of teasing.  However this name did resurface again in my college years and I won't name any names, Andrey Golubev.

Bananchik - This is actually an iteration of Anna Banana that I don't mind.  It takes the word banana and adds the obligatory Russian -chik (also see: -chka) to make any word seem incredibly cute. This was given to me by my friend Vika Kazhdan, who is now known as Kazhdanchik.

Suka - This means Bitch in Russian.  It was given to me because....well....probably because I am (tee hee).  Mostly this was used in High School and originally was just used to point out Bitchy things I did. Ultimately, having been used so extensively, it just sort of became a synonym for Anna.   I was finally able to shake the name when I started to date Gene and became a total softy.  It probably also helped that I threatened bodily harm to anyone who called me that.