(this was taken at our neighborhood ball field…my kids love to climb on the posts surrounding the field.)
Poor girl. Her name is really Elise, but ever since she was a teeny baby, we’ve been calling her Lisey, and most of the time, there’s a “bean” added onto the end. And we sometimes leave the Lisey part off and just call her Beans (fortunately Lisey likes this!).
It seems so normal to me, I hardly even think about it. Things like, “Good night, Beans!” and “Have you swept yet, Beans?”, and “Hey Beans! Do you want to grate some cheese for me?” just roll off of my tongue. But I have to say that if I heard some mom calling her kid something like “beans”, I’d probably raise my eyebrow a bit.
Family nicknames are weird like that. But they’re one of those things that makes each family unique and special.
{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Ha! I had a friend named Doodle growing up – even our science teacher called her that.
We have Buddy, Boo Bear, Bubby & Sugar Lump. Growing up my siblings & I were Fred, (How they ever got that from Jennifer???) Reeky Duck, Bud,SareBear, & Bitsy. So I don’t think you’re one bit strange. =) Oh and Bitsy? She grew to be 5′ 11″ ~ no joke.
lol! Well, that makes me feel better.
Joshua was The Boo for a long time, though now he’s mostly just Bud. Sonia is Tooters and Zoe has a lot of nicknames….Z, Zeebers, Zeebs, and Little Bear to name a few.
My family has always called me Colleenie-beanie. As we’ve become adults only two of my brothers really still use the nickname. My baby brother (it doesn’t matter that he’s 28, he’ll always be my baby bro) has a tendency to call me and say “Beaner!” into the phone. Given that he tends to call when he’s out shopping and such, I’m sure they think he’s quite enlightened in Arizona where he lives
Hahahaha! One of Simone’s main nicknames is Biscuit, because when she was a baby sometimes the top of her head smelled like a buttery biscuit (in a good way!), so we still call her that. I’ve often wondered what people think when we’re in, say, Target, and she starts running away from us only for us to call, “Biscuit! Come back here!”
When I was a little girl, my nickname was “Pudding Pop” because I loved them SO much!
Our little Zoe has been ZoZo since we met her. Sometimes, ZoZo bird, sometimes just bird,I’m not quite sure how that evolved.
Ohhh, we call our Zoe ZoZo too!
So cute. I have a Maddie cat (Madeleine), K-bug (Kassie) and Kotie Bear (Dakota). All three girls. Im not really sure how they all ended up with animal nicknames. Maybe it’s because they all have a love for living things.
Kristen- So funny- my nickname was “bean” as well. Usually “ang-e-bean” (3 syllables, soft “g”) and when I was really young after I’d take my bath I ran around naked and was called “clean bean.” Occasionally “beaner wiener.” Talk about wondering what other people would think! But of course I never thought about it when I was little. If they ever said my whole name “Angela” it meant there was something serious to discuss, or I was in trouble.
I did love green beans and lima beans and just about any bean, but I don’t even know if that’s how I got the name.
Lisey likes beans too! But we called her Beans back when her diet consisted of nothing but milk. lol
I LOVE that picture of Lisey! LOOOOOOVE! She looks so grown up (in a fun, casual way!).
I didn’t have any nicknames growing up… my family isn’t very inventive when it comes to that
So usually my name got a ‘Y’ added to the end. Therese turned into Tree-see, or simply turned into a single syllable, Treese.
Since 4th grade, my friends have called me Reese–and I almost prefer it! I get an awful lot of Theresa. The added A drives me insane! Even when I say Therese first, they’ll usually repeat it (sometimes immediately after!) as Theresa.
If I write it as Therese, I get it written back as Theresa too. So Reese clears up all the problems for me
(But then I’m subjected to oodles of Reese’s Pieces jokes 
)
Do you and Mr. FG have nicknames? I’d be interested in hearing what you guys get called
I call Mr. FG Hubs and I also have some nicknames that are variations on his given name.
He calls me Babe and Sweetheart most of the time, and occasionally he calls me Kristen. lol
I call my son Pumpkin. He earned the nickname when he was a very small baby and was very jaundiced. His skin was nearly as orange as a pumpkin, and so the name took hold. This is normally just fine except for the time I called him Pumpkin in front of his 4th grade class. (It was an accident, I swear!) It took him a looooooooong time to forgive me for that.
My daughter is called Monkey, though also sometimes I call her Tali, which is a nickname for her given name and also the name her friends call her.
And both kids together are called George. Actually, George is used for any child in the house or in the vicinity, as in George, it’s time for dinner or George, we’re leaving in 5 minutes! Since this comment is getting long, I’ll leave off the explanation of why. If you’re interested, it’s at the bottom of this post.
Needless to say, I’m a big fan of nicknames! And I love the photo of Lisey-bean. She’s gorgeous.
Hee. Pumpkin WOULD be pretty embarrassing for a 4th grader!
Yes indeed, very embarrassing for him. He’s in 9th grade now, and still complains sometimes about the time I called him Pumpkin “in front of the whole class!” Of course, as far as I’m concerned, it’s part of my job as a parent to embarrass my kids.
I call my son (9) Bunny or Bun, because he’s such a snuggle bunny and has been since birth. I have to try VERY hard to remember to not call him that in front of any kids. Even though he is homeschooled, and fortunately misses a lot of that macho garbage with other guys, he’d still be mortified if I used it in public.
I am also beans! Or beansy. I’m not sure where it came from but I won’t let just anyone call me that
Our daughter is Eileen and there are 2 Aunt Eileens in the family too (she was named after them). To differenciate when she was little, she was Leeners which came to be Leeners Beaners and when we went to LL Bean in Freeport, Maine, it was Little Leeners Beaners. She doesn’t care much for it now.
my sister’s name is eileen too and we called her eileen-a-bean when she was little. i still call her that, or just bean. sometimes eileeny beenie. Come to think of it, i think i’m the only one who still does haha
My goddaughters other name is Squeeb. Even her friends call her Squeeb now.
I never had a nickname. One time my husband and I were discussing nicknames, or the lack of and he CLAIMS I told him I always wanted to be called Bunny. I don’t remember the conversation – but it was very embarassing for him to tell all of this to a church group. I’m in my 50′s and can relate to being embarassed in front of your peers!
When our youngest was little he could not say our oldest son, Brian’s name, so he started calling him Binky. Binky has sort of stuck, but I have to be careful because he is a manly seventeen year old now. He does not appreciate when he call him that in front of his friends! Our daughter’s named Jessica, but she usually gets called Jessie Bean (our last name starts with a B, so I think that is how it came about). Our third child is named after his father so he is Little Jay, and the youngest is Nathan, but his hair was the color of russet potatoes when he was born and he was a round roly poly baby, so his siblings call him Tater. It so funny how kids come about nicknames! Sad thing is, I will probably call them by their nicknames, even after they are all grownups!
My Mom called me “Horse” when I was growing up. Looking back I can see where she came up with that name. I was 5’10″ by the time I was a freshman in high school and only 118 pounds so I has tall and thin AND very clumsy like a new baby horse! It also didn’t help that I had an overbite too before I got braces and all the headgears! I must say that I look much better now and appreciate my height now!!!
Ha! My mom called me her “orangutan” for many many years. Since I was a tall, gangly girl with long arms and legs, it was an obvious nickname for her to use. I think “horse” is much sweeter, but I knew my mom said “orangutan” with love.
While all three of our boys have nicknames, our youngest, Stephen, definitely has the most! For some reason our oldest started calling him Stevie around 6 months old, it stuck. Then, when our kids saw that there was a Stevi B’s pizza restaurant in our town, his nickname evolved to Stevie B. That stuck too. Now he answers to Stephen, Stevie, Stevie B, B Bop (probably most frequently used), B Bop a loo bop (yes, really), and we joke that he also answers to “hey you” but we don’t really call him that
SO, when it came time to learn to spell and write his name…ummm…we finally decided on Stephen since it was the name we gave him at birth. Poor kiddo! His big brothers are “Connor Bo” (Connor) and “Baby James”(James). I am waiting for Baby James to protest but he is almost 7 and still lets me call him that but not in public, of course 
We call our two year old Beans too. I hadn’t realized how exclusively we called her Beans until my four year old introduced her at his preschool as his sister, ‘Beans.’ I blushed red a bit and hastily explained that we did not name her Beans, it was her nickname! I’ve made an effort since then to use her given name more often.
Lisey so pretty! Love this post–the write-up, the photo. Very simple and beautiful. I can envision it (i.e., the text and pic combo) reconfigured on a scrapbook page.
We started calling my son Ethan “Little E” which then morphed into just “E” and sometime “E Square” although I’m not sure where we came up with that last one!
My sister and I had nicknames for each other when we were kids. I was Binky and she was Bubbles
I was Flossie or Flossie Buckets when I was little – I don’t know where it came from but I quite like it! My Dad still starts any emails or notes to me with ‘Dear Flossie …’
My own kids are Monkey, Alphonso or Alf (really Alexander) and Roobles or Poppy (really Ruby). My poor husband was ‘Wee Mike’ to his family as his Dad is also called Michael – he is still ‘Wee Mike’ even as a grown (and taller!) adult!
Because it’s his middle name, sometimes I will call my husband “Richard” and that often evolves into “Ricky”. Our Sarah is Sare-Bear or Sare or Bear or Sarah-snickerdoodle. At one time is was Sarah-Boo-Boo-Kitty. Our son Stanley is Stan, Stanley Steamer, Stanley Steamboat, Dr. No, or Stanley Stinkbomb. The baby, Bonnie, is Bon-Bons, Bonnie-boo, or, often, just Baby. I think I need to stop calling her Baby, now that she’s toddling about & trying to talk.
When we were growing up I called my brother “Mel”, although his name is Justin. Mel evolved from Melon, for his large head. Now, I usually call him “Dude”.
Nick names are fun. If done properly, they can be a sign of love.
I couldn’t say my name, Elizabeth, as a child – it came out “Bizzy”. So for a long time, everyone called me Bizzy, and sometimes just Biz. It lasted long enough I remember asking my dad not to call me that any more because I’d gotten teased at school (anyone remember Biz Bleach? yeah, that plus white skin with a tendancy to burn was not a good combination.)
I have a friend who named her daughter Nora Bee (since when said out loud at graduation, “it won’t sound like a hippy dippy flower-child name, but it still has a nature connection!”). The daughter is still under two, and frequently called Bumblebee, or just Bumble.
Fear not. You are not alone. Our little boy has a perfectly suitable name in Evan, however he too answers to Bean (singular). I think this started in the hospital when we swaddled him up-my husband and I said he looked like a bean burrito. Our second son is currently trying on various food related nicknames but we haven’t landed on a permanent one yet.
My youngest is called Eliot.
I often call him Ellie, Elle, Ellie-belle and sometimes even just “Belle”
Not very ‘manly’ but he doesn’t mind.
In fact, now I’ve written it down, I’m starting to think that, at some point during his growing up (he’s only 7) he will start objecting to such girlie affectionate nicknames!