I have been thinking a bit about nicknames lately and the nicknames we give our kiddies on our blogs. When I started blogging the original aim was to be much more anonymous – there wasn’t going to be any pictures of Monkey’s face and I didn’t even have my full name associated with it. At 9 months old Monkey was an actual nickname for our little baba and so it made sense for him to be known as Monkey on the blog.
Over time I realised how hard it was to keep the blog anonymous. I reached a point where I wanted to show Monkey’s face as seeing his enjoyment of playtime activities made more sense with the posts. Plus he was so cute and rather than baby spamming my personal facebook I felt my blog could be the place where I shared the cute pictures and gushed over him a little.
Then as I became more involved in social media my name became more relevant and with linking up facebook pages and google plus profiles I just accepted that my name was well and truly associated with the blog. But I still didn’t want Monkey’s real name to be associated with blog. Not everyone will understand why and maybe it is a little futile but I guess he hasn’t had a choice about the fact that is life is played out for the world to see online and by not sharing his name he retains the tiniest shred of anonymity. If his real name was written on the blog my fear is that one day when he is a teenager, or older, if someone were to google his name, they would find the entire record of his childhood.
No doubt the internet will be entirely different by then and who knows if the blog will even be online by then. Like I said, it may be futile, but I feel it is worth trying to retain his anonymity at least!
As I mentioned, Monkey is Monkey’s actual nickname so it made sense to call him that. But with Little Miss, she obviosuly didn;t really have a nickname the second she was born, but we did need a nickname for her on the blog. It took a while to decide and Little Miss works as LM are actually 2 of her initials. But we never actually call her LM or Little Miss at home. We do have a couple of nicknames for her but they are very much related to her name so I don’t want to use them on here.
So it does feel a bit odd sometimes referring to her as LM on here. I find the best nicknames are the ones that evolve naturally. I remember a girl at school saying she wanted a cool nickname and I was very much of the opinion that you can’t choose your nickname, they usually come from nowhere and sometimes they randomly stick. I have had a few nicknames over the years, Cazzabella, which I liked, Poodoo (because my maiden name was Pardoe) which I didn’t like, Paparazzi Pardoe because I always took photos but this ended when I got married, and one I am very glad didn’t stick was Flatuline from my charming roommate at uni!
So I am not really sure what to do, I do call her a cheeky madam sometimes, or cheeky minx or fidget pants  but am not sure how long they will hang around. We will stick with LM for now and then see if another nickname sticks in the future I guess!
Are your children anonymous on your blog? what were your reasons for this? If you do have nicknames, how hard were they to come up with?
My word of the week is Nicknames 🙂
I think the names you use for your children work well….
When I first started blogging I just couldn’t get into a habit of using an initial or a nickname….We call Becky, Becky-Boo and Ellie, Ellie-Belli so they wouldn’t really work for me….lol
I call mine Sir and Madam online. I rarely if ever post any pictures of them, unless their faces are completely obscured. I know that sounds over the top, but as you say they don’t have a say in the matter and there are some strange people in Internet Land.
I know what you mean about trying to be anonymous. When I first started my blog, I would only post photos of my daughter’s profile or back, or silhoutte. But got really bored with that, now I post any photos I want of her. In my early posts, I’ve also spelled out her name, but now I only refer to her as Little T 🙂 #wotw.
Like you I wanted to keep my children and husbands names annonymous to maintain some shred of anonymity and privacy on the internet, when I chose my blog name of ‘loving life with little ones’ it made sense to me to name them Little 1 and Little 2, it was fairly easy to understand who was who and easy to remember. I even use these names on social media and delete any comments or anything that anyone writes with their names on so they can’t be traced, I have seen several annonymous blogs with the childrens names all over the facebook page so don’t see the point in that!
As you know, my two are anonymous, too. As you say, they didn’t choose to feature, so I’d rather not leave a footprint of their lives searchable by their names. It probably won’t matter in years to come, but feels right to me now. I do actually call them by those nicknames, too, so they came naturally to me. Interesting post, thanks for sharing with #WotW
I toyed with the idea of blogging anonymously but then decided I would prefer to refer to his name as this is a blog about me and my life with him, I’ve no idea if this is the right or wrong thing to do, there are things that I don’t share though. Lovely post 🙂
Helen – #WofT
Interesting Post , I also keep both of my little boys anonymous, But I use the same nicknames at home so it comes natural for me to use them over on my blog. I feel better keeping some form of privacy by not revealing their names, but everyone to their own 🙂 x #WotW
I think you might change it – especially as she gets older.
Lizzie Dripping
I call him his real name in the blog as my mother reads my blog for updates of my son’s everyday life. #wotw
Aww lovely post. I have always used gremlin on here but then anyone who knows me will know her real name!! I know what you mean tho about keeping them anonymous. I also like the excuse to call her gremlin as well. Hehe xx WotW
I wish I had used a nickname for Ethan for all of your reasons, but changing our blog name has made be happier. Little E, I wanted to use a nickname as no one knows what her future holds. I don’t want her to be open to bullying because of her brother. We do call her Little E at home now because of the blog, that and grumpy lol. Great word of the week x
When I started blogging I went with the kids initials to begin, but quickly just changed to using their names as it just didn’t feel right. I see a lot of people using nicknames for their children on the blog, but for me I couldn’t think of any nicknames!
I think it’s a difficult one, and you have to go with whatever feels right for you. Using nicknames, you have the ability to change the names as you go on and the kids get older x