Nicknames

When Tom and I decided that Alyssa was the name for our first child, I thought we’d call her Ali. I don’t know why I thought that. I just thought I’d like that nickname better.

Alas, Ali is not a natural name for a child named Alyssa. At least, it didn’t come naturally for me. I supposed if I’d started calling her Ali from the start, it would have been fine but it didn’t feel like her name. Actually, it was even hard for me to call her Alyssa for the first six months or so. It just felt so grown up and awkward. Weird? Maybe but she grew into her name and now, at eleven, she loves it which makes me love it that much more.

But the nicknames that have come from the name Alyssa are fun too.

She’s Lyssie around the house. Or just Lyss, which I kind of love. And there is always the fun Lyssie Lou and Lyssie Louise, which is nothing like her middle name at all but just rolls of the tongue. It actually sort of makes me wish I’d named her Alyssa Louise because it’s awesome.

She told me yesterday that a couple of her friends have given her new nicknames recently. I was very interested to hear these.

One friend calls her Alyssie. Which, yeah, cute, right?

The other calls her Alaska. Huh. I kind of love that. And, oddly enough, I can totally see how Alaska comes out of Alyssa.

A lot of her other friends call her Lyssie, like we do at home but most of her classmates and all of her teachers just call her Alyssa and that’s fine with her.

I think she’s just glad that none of them call her Alyssica, which is something I throw out every so often just because it’s a blend of her name and her older sister’s name. I also call Olivia Olivica every so often just because it’s fun and silly.