Ever "earned" a nickname?

fathead. my hat size is 8 7/8.

 

I got my nickname at work about 12 years ago. My first name is Alan. They hired another Alan, whose last name started with Rick. Everybody started calling him "Little Ricky," so we wouldn't be mixed up.
Then they hire a guy actually named Ricky. So, one of the bosses starts calling me Al Von, combining part of my last name, and calling the other Alan simply Al!
Now, everybody in Medina, Ohio, where I work, knows me as Al Von and think that's my name. When we started wearing ID badges at work, my employer said we could put nicknames on them, as long as they weren't obscene, so I put mine on there and now everyone is convinced that's my real name! Oh well, I think Al Von is a great screen/hotrod/rockabilly name anyway!.... Whew. When I take my daughters to car shows, friends call us Al Von & the Vonettes.

 

At a prior job, I did testing on industrial software and electronics. I was in a lab one day, where someone had been doing high voltage testing. Well, someone else pushed aside the magnifying glass-on-an-arm that had the warning sign, and pulled a multimeter out of the test rig for something else before I was there, and left the test leads sitting on the countertop without turning off anything. I was talking to a design engineer about a test schedule, leaned on the counter, and put my hand down. I about hit the ceiling, there were several loud pops, the lights went out, and I tasted ozone in my mouth for the rest of the day. Hence, the nickname, "Sparky"

 

the shop i work at calls me pigpen not really proud of the name but i cant say its not true im pretty good at cleaning up antifreeze oil and trans fluid now though

 

I always liked the mechanic guy on the old TV show "Wings". He was begging the other guys to think of a nickname for him so they called him "Slack Ass".

 

When I was a kid (OK, and even as an adult...) I held the mysterious power to trip over anything on the ground... and not too gracefully.
Thus, in the tradition of trapeeze artists everywhere, I became "The Flying Polock"....

 

A good buddy (R.I.P. Jack) tagged me as tinman. While I was doing the aluminum in his pro mod racer, my girlfriend left and broke my heart. He picked up on it and the die was cast.

 

I never earned one, but I've got a buddy who I named, and it has stuck. My bud Doug Nelson is a notorious procrastinator, ALWAYS waiting until the last minute to do things. We have waited countless hours, sometimes even waited a whole day to leave on a road trip because Doug Nelson, the procrastinator, wasn't ready to roll. On one particular occasion, I think we were sitting in a parking lot in a small town in Illinois, late on a Sunday, repairing and rerouting some brake lines, 'cause in his haste to get the car on the road he had run the right front brake line under the motor, where it rubbed through on a motor mount and leaked all of his brake fluid out. I think it was during that thrash to get back on the road and to our destination that I named him "procrastinelson".

 

I do not know if I earned my nick name. I guess I just grew into it. The guys in my car club call me Too Tall, which I have gladly adopted.

Of course I am 6' 8" tall so I kind of qualify.

 

When I was an Electrician in the Navy they called me Captain Mollasses because I was slow. I had less rework than thye rest but still slow.

 

my parents called me Mongo in highskool cause i was a fat kid... and i have a friend that calls me "easy money" but idk why

 

First race I worked for a team,the crew chief spilled a full rear ends worth of burnt gear oil on the floor of the transporter.burnt gear oil is the WORST smell....He came back into the transporter,looked at me and said..you smell like diff....six years later people at the track still call me "diff".Dave

 

My first real job many moons ago was as a trainee at a parts counter. Not a bad way to learn the ropes, since I was in a great position to gather information from the experienced countermen and the customers, many of whom were pro mechanics/techs.
One of the better customers was an older black mechanic, a great guy and a real joker, who had a booming voice that could be heard throughout the store, over the sound of the machine tools in the shop and about halfway down the back lot. He was working on a VW and asked me if I had any "eclipse". I had no idea what he meant, and thought "eclipse" was some brand of oil or a special part. And he kept saying it over and over, louder and louder, "ECLIPSE! ECLIPSE!! ECLIPSE!!!" until the whole friggin' store is staring at us, and I break out in flop sweat.
I think it was Lloyd who finally came over and asked him what it was for, and the man said it was a clip to hold on a linkage rod, it fit into a groove in the end of the rod.

E-clips.

Forever after, that mechanic would come in the store and ask for me by name: "HEY, E-CLIPS! WHERE AT'S E-CLIPS?!"
I was then known in the store as "E-clips", and regular customers who heard me called that started calling me that too, not knowing why...

 

Freinds call me "Swilly", I thought it mean sweet William, but I do have a taste for frosty fermented beverages.

 

i took a bad spill out on the trail on my mountain bike
dislocated my sholder
my buddy hits the brakes and turns around just in time to see me yank my arm back into its socket
he was like "dude you were just like that guy from that cop movie... Rigs"
so there is Rigs
tk

 

There is so many, I'm probably missing a few.

Giggles- this started in grade school
Steve- Some seniors in HS thought I looked like a Steve, I don't know why.
Turkey Tom- Auto shop buddy's in Highschool gave me this one (My real name is tom)
Tom 2- There is 3 Toms in my college major, We go by number in alphabetical order.
McLovin- Just acquired this one.
Shithead- my dad likes to call me this.

 

I've been called Ponch since I was a freshman because my last name is Estrada. I've been getting damn CHP's comments and jokes my way since I was in kindergarten. So now when someone makes an Eric Estrada/CHP's joke I just tell them Eric is my uncle and still has the bike from the tv show, but he only rides it on weekends.

 

I used to own a vw bus for years that was pretty crusty when I bought it and the club I was in started calling it Krusty, it stuck...put it on the license plate of that bus and people thought it was me ,to this day people still call me that.Then my buddy Dave and I were at turlock swap a few years ago and there was this table with probally 500 name patches on it he reached in and said to me the one I pull is gonna be your new name today,... of all the names he comes out with" Grasshopper" , and he starts laughing his ass off "Yep thats it,and he still calls me that.

 

First nickname was "Timo" at my car mechanics apprentiship, never know, where that came from. At the second garage it was "Elmar", cause my first name is Dietmar. In 1992 the doctor found out, that I have to wear glasses, so I went to get me some "Ray Ban" glasses, cause I am in that rockabilly thing since almost two decades. So some people call me "Buddy". It could happen that three people meet each other, talking about me, a guy who is turning wrenches on old US-cars with three different names, not knowing,that its one and the same person.......

 

I have always been known as "Big Joe", or a couple guys have called me JW (my initials)... hence my HAMB name "jdubbya".

 

Got my nickname while I was working at the tattoo studio I frequent. There was already another person working there that was named Billie, but she was female and went by Miss Billie. Even though I spell mine with a "y" and I'm a male, customers still managed to get confused. So after a while my buddy that was technically my boss decided on "Lil' Billy" so there would be a clear distinction. I assume it is because I'm not very tall.

 

When I first started hanging around the car guys in my area, there was already a few guys named Joe that hung around. I had a 57 Bel Air at the time, so if somebody asked who was hanging out, I was 57 Joe. When that car got damaged in an accident and sold, I coincidentally bought a 57 Ford. I still have the nickname and the car

 

Now that I'm retired I go to coffee a couple days a week at a fast food place and the guys there (pretty much all car guys) started calling me Ford-O-Matic.
My real nick name is "Butch"!!!

 

Smart ass. I have no idea why.

 

I grew up fascinated with everything car related. As a kid I would always stop on my bike and pick up old hubcaps I would find on the road side. So everyone in my neighborhood called me "hubcap"

 

Beav, cuz I'd slap the ice with my stick when open.

 

I go to a local rod-race parts store and when I turned 15 I had my bad ass 72 torino cj. I was ALWAYS buying parts on pay day, so the owner always called me torino. Well, after that I got my 81 vette, and he always called me 'vette. Then I bought my '71 buick, and he still called me 'vette (I reckon because I was still buying GM parts, and he diddnt know) Then I got my 61 galaxie and after that he just called me hot rod, I said "what happend to 'vette?" He said "hell, you change rods so much, I'll just stick with "hot rod!" Now that I got my '29 it kinda makes sense! I'm 19 now and I have had 5 built older cars.

When I got my daily driver '94 ford wagon, there is a cute chick at the gas station down the road that I'm always stopping in, she LOVES my old cars. Well I pulled in in my wagon, and she said "where is your old hot rod?" I said that I just picked the "shaggin waggin" up to drive around while I work on my old rod. She said it looked like a grandma's car, so now I'm "hot rod" and "grandma"

Also when I was in high school, all the gals called me big johnson. Maybe it's because I'm about 6'5 and 300lbs, and my last name is johnson. But I seem to think there is another reason, and most of them KNOW the real reason........

 

REALLY? I thought it was becuase you "dreaded" going to work! LOL!!!!

I got the nickname "Bad Robert" when I was younger,cause I was always getting into troble and fights. As I got older it became Bad Bob,where it has stayed ever since. I'm sure someday it will move on into" Bad Old Bob",HA HA HA!

 

Back in the 70's I was a custom painter doing vans and such, the local rod club members started calling me "Picasso". Once in a while I'll run into one of the old timers, they'll still call me that.

 

Uhhhh... "Flunkie" , Hell if I know why...All I know is the other third graders weren't 18