Names, What Fun!

Updated on March 02, 2011
E.D. asks from Olympia, WA
28 answers

Up until last week my daughter referred to herself as Gaka. She is perfectly capable of saying her name, but chose to call herself Gaka. As in, "Gaka wants to take a bath," or "that's Gaka's boat," or in answer to the question "what is your name," she would reply, "Gaka-Gaka". Now, I'll admit, Gaka actually kind of fits her personality, but it's not the name we gave her!

I thought I'd be happy when Gaka wasn't part of her vocabulary, but now that it's changed I miss it! Ha!

Did your child ever have a name they called themselves, or a funny nickname that stuck? Did they ever have a name/word that was said a bit incorrectly or in the wrong context? What has been your favorite lingual misstep?

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H.D.

answers from Dallas on

My son called skunks, "stunks". We used to laugh because, yep, skunks stink. I miss when he was just learning to talk!

3 moms found this helpful

T.B.

answers from Bloomington on

My son Andrew used to pronounce it "Dandew" and now that he doesn't I miss it too!
My favorite wrong context...I will ask him, How did you get so cute? "Daddy!" How did you get so smart? "Mommy!" How did you get so frugal? "Pawpaw!" Well, frugal was just something I taught him to say Pawpaw just to tease my Dad. One day, before leaving the house, I fixed his hair with mousse and he cried, "I don't like it! I look like frugal!" I laughed out loud...he has no idea what frugal means!
Another is that he calls my breasts "elbows." I never corrected him to avoid public embarrassment. Well, we were at story time at Christmas time at the library and we were singing a song about body parts. The librarian gave each child a sticky bow to put on the part we were singing about. She began singing, "I have a bow on my elbow!" My son gave me this look like, "Did she just say elbow?" Ha!

3 moms found this helpful
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E.T.

answers from Denver on

My aunt is still Aunt Mimi, even though as adults we are all fully capably of calling her Melanie. My sister called herself Sa-sa (Cassandra) and it stuck, but my kids calls her Auntie Sondra, and my other sister is Auntie Tora (Victoria). My son calls his sister Kissin (Kristen) and himself Ah-yets (Alex). My daughter transposes her middle and last name, and refuses to correct it. My son says "fireman" for actual firemen, any police, ambulance or emergency vehicles/personal, and also spiders and Spiderman.

3 moms found this helpful

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D.P.

answers from Pittsburgh on

Oberham Lincoln.

My son also said a lot of "w" for "l" and I really miss that.

4 moms found this helpful
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R.C.

answers from Chicago on

My daughter (Emme Kate, given name Emelia Katelyn) called herself "Emme the Kate", and her Dad "The Daddy" for years. We still use all her silly words, but she is 8 now and corrects us. I like to torture her by using "samich" instead of sandwich, and "wapples" instead of waffles, like she used to. It is fun!

4 moms found this helpful
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M.!.

answers from Columbus on

My dd name is Hailey, but she calls herself Hai Hai (like hey hey)

3 moms found this helpful
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H.P.

answers from Springfield on

My little girls say and said the cutest things... especially my now-3 year old! Here are her words that are the most classic: pah-sip-a-tah (popsicle), sam-a-nah (sandwich), dadoo (doggy), dadoo (daddy... yes, she used that word for both!), palla-pitta (catterpillar), hoss-ta-bull (hospital), and tookie (cookie). I wrote them all down in her baby book so we wouldn't forget, but we still call those things by her adorable versions just because it's so cute. It was actually kinda sad when she learned how to say the proper words. :)

3 moms found this helpful
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K.M.

answers from Denver on

I don't know why but my son Brandon calls himself meme alot! It is actually a habit we are trying to break because people don't know what he is talking about! Another funny lingual misstep is he loves animals and when he tries to say ostrich it comes out as "arstit." I have to stop laughing when he says it becuse then he just wants to repeat it over and over...

3 moms found this helpful

K.I.

answers from Los Angeles on

I have 4 boys and... 1 girl and she is the youngest...from the moment she could talk she calls all her brothers by their names except for one. My oldest 2 boys are my SS's and are older teenagers they are Jake (19) and Matt (16)...then I have my 2 boys Korbin (7) and Wyatt (5) and when lil' sis talks to them or refers to them, Korbin is just 'Brother'...it is so cute!

I have no clue why it started, it just did. I refer to all of them as 'Brother', as in, "ask your brother" or "where is your brother" so I am not sure why only Korbin has the distinction of being 'Brother' all the time...and I even always say his name to her to get her to call him that sometimes and it's always just 'Brother' with him :)

I know one day this will change, she is only 3 and I am sure it will disappear sooner rather than later but I love it and will never forget it!

3 moms found this helpful

K.B.

answers from Milwaukee on

my son's name is sam bowey. he would call himself "om owa"!!!

2 moms found this helpful
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V.D.

answers from Salt Lake City on

Let see, we are in that fun stage right now. Milk = nilk TV=tb
And the one that I love, but I guess you'd have to be LDS to appreciate it, It's she calls the Book of Mormon = book of Morbid. I've tried and tried to fix this one, but she just won't let it go.

2 moms found this helpful
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R.J.

answers from Seattle on

My son's name rhymes with the pronoun I. So he walked around talking in the 3rd person on accident for 2 freakin years. EVERY time one would say "I" in a sentence he used his name instead. Half cute, half DEAR GOD Noooooooooooooooo!

2 moms found this helpful
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D.S.

answers from Houston on

nobody could say my oldest name when he was in 2nd grade his name is coalton and they called him coco it stuck till this day. I met another colton whos nephews did the same thing with him for the same reason. so If i want to irritate my son I call him coco he is 21

2 moms found this helpful
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F.W.

answers from Miami on

All my nephews & nieces used to call me auntie say, tay or day. All except my youngest niece who got my name right from the start. F is quite a tricky letter for little kids. :-) And my daughter used to call herself woosy woo as her uncles and grandad used to call her lucy loo. lol

Oh and my daughter used to call butterflys - flutterbys. How cute is that!! :-)

2 moms found this helpful
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S.H.

answers from Casper on

When my son was young he could not say Aunt Phyllis, he called her Aunt Phiss (pronounced Fiss, rhymes with miss). Twenty years later we (friends & family) still call her Phiss.

2 moms found this helpful
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B.B.

answers from New York on

Yup, I have many that make me a little sad. My oldest used to call me mama, now it is mommy. He used to call milk ma, now he calls it moat (his k's are t's). He used to call TV TT, now he says it correctly. So, I'm happy that he is progressing with his vocabulary, but at the same time it makes me sad that he really is turning into a little boy.

2 moms found this helpful

M.S.

answers from Columbus on

My oldest used to call my mom (Grandma) Mahta. We don't know how it started, but my mom was really sad when he started to use "Grandma".

My little brother (12 yrs. younger than me) couldn't say my sister's name, which was Meleah (like Obama's daughter, Malia). So, he called her Mia. It is still the name we commonly use for her. It's a name that totally stuck and we still use to this day.

2 moms found this helpful

T.N.

answers from Albany on

When the doorbell rang my oldest yelled, "Mom it's the P-U-S Man!

:)

1 mom found this helpful
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M.L.

answers from Bellingham on

My daughters name is Madison. But if u ask her what her name is, she says "sonny"... I love it!!! I never liked the nickname maddy (at least not for my daughter), so she picked a good alternative!!! Some other ones: crib= tone (not sure where that came from), bed and bread= ben, yogurt=odurt. My now 4 year old nephew had some good ones!!! Chocolate milk = met-moe, fruit snacks= mm-mm-mm (kind of a monkey noise), lion=lonny, rite aid=robby, Amanda (his cousin)= rarrr rarr (a growling sound), then she turned into baba and now she's bob.

1 mom found this helpful
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S.L.

answers from Portland on

My daughter is Sophie and she used to call herself So-so. She also used to say 'alligator' instead of 'elevator.' She's 8 now and the one word that she still often says incorrectly is 'recognize'-- she says "re-neck-inize."

1 mom found this helpful
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T.J.

answers from Seattle on

We still call Amelia mimi or meem-la, Olivia is still babe-la or olijia, papa is Bapa, change channels with the mote, and store toys in the ottoman aka the hippopotamus! Capetillars, Kiki is "kitty"s name, uncle jon jon is uncle doo doo, cousin Antonio is cousin no no, ballerinas are nina Ninas, coffee is totchee, and I've always loved the color lellow :)

I also like when they call things by descriptions such as the parks by our house (dragon park and blue park because of the blue slide)! And our little one call big one's best friend Andre "an-jay", even his mom calls him that now!

My favorite was when she was calling daddy "mommy" and he said no I'm daddy, can you say daddy? And she replied "I don't know it!"

1 mom found this helpful
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J.C.

answers from Medford on

My son Leo called himself NeeNee. Don't know why. He also still says Lello for Yello. He really doesn't hear that he says it differently. We try to correct him and it goes like this:
Me:"Say Yell."
Him:"Yell."
Me: "Now say Oh."
Him: "Oh"
Me: "Now put it together. Yell-Oh"
Him: "Lello"
Me: "Honey, you're saying Lello."
Him: "No! I said Lello!"
This is followed by me repressing giggles and telling him it's okay. I'm sure I'll miss it when it's finally gone.

1 mom found this helpful
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S.C.

answers from Fort Wayne on

My youngest daughter's name in Brinna (pronounced Br-ih-na). When she started to talk, she called herself Neena, so that's what we all call her now.

1 mom found this helpful
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W.C.

answers from Seattle on

Yes, my son called himself "Mine" for a while. We just didn't respond when he said something like "mine wants to go....." It only lasted a while. Then it was gone.

1 mom found this helpful
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N.J.

answers from Los Angeles on

My favorite word mishap by my 3 year old son is when he tries to say "kiss" It comes out as "piss"! I can't help but laugh every time he says it. He always tells me "Mommy I piss him" (talking about his brother).

Another one that always had people look at me like "did he say what I think he said ?" was whenever he tried to say "fire gun" (where he got that phrase to begin with I will never know) but it sounded like "f**en" -- And he'd usually start off saying something like " I can't find my "fire gun".... kids gotta love them!

1 mom found this helpful
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M.L.

answers from Seattle on

My oldest has nicknames for when she's wearing dress up clothes, but they change a bit. Two of our favorites are: Hello Beanwheel and Seraphina Pacala. No idea where either of those comes from, but that's just what she calls herself.

1 mom found this helpful
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J.A.

answers from Portland on

My niece said buh-jaffe for giraffe. We still use it; probably not a great idea since my littles are starting to speak, but oh well.

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M.P.

answers from Portland on

When my son was two I was getting out of the shower and he looks up and me and says, "mom, you have feathers". I couldn't help but laugh and to this day he still calls some hair, feathers. I suppose it's because when he and his brother wake up in the morning with bed head I tell them they need to comb their hair because they have chicken feathers. He is 3 and it still makes me crack up whenever he mentions feathers.

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