I don't remember where, but I read somewhere that people only have nicknames when their real name doesn't suit their personality. If this is true, then I am not even close to being Kaitlin.
I have 17 nicknames. My first nickname ever was given to me when I was a baby. It is Bubba. The rest refer to my initials, name similarities and my size.
I am a small person (I'm not even 5 foot 1 inch) and I think this is the first thing people notice about me. I'm often picked up, thrown, shaken (which sometimes results in shaken baby syndrome) squished in between tall guys giving high fives and easy to lose in large crowds at music festivals. For these reasons I am known as Little One, Baby and Gremlin.
Little One is pretty literal, as is Baby (often paired with Kathy, giving us Baby Kathy), but Gremlin has a story. Back in high school my friend decided I was as small as the little furry Gizmo guy in the movie "Gremlins" and therefore decided to call me a gremlin, unaware that a gremlin is the gross green guy. But it's okay. I'm obviously not even close to being comparable to the little green guy.
In regard to my initials there exist the nicknames K, KP, KPP and KP Squared. In regard to name similarities, there's Kate and Katherine. Katherine spawned many a nickname for me back in high school. I was known as Kathy to everyone, yearbook messages were addressed to Kathy, I was in people's phones as Kathy and I was introduced to new people as Kathy. I pretty much became Kathy. There's also Kathy Sunrise, given to me because of my insomnia.
Some people like to keep my middle name in the mix and call me Pearl or KaitlinPearlPerry (said really fast) or even Kaitlin Pearl Penguin since I really love penguins. But my new fave is Kapers.
Kapers became a nickname not because of edible capers, but because of Ka + Per, the first syllables of my first and last names respectively. Thank you Ryan Plourde for bringing some originality into the mix.
I refuse to divulge the most popular and most annoying nickname I've ever had.
