Indianz.Com > News > Tim Giago: Memories of nicknames and hard work
Notes from Indian Country
What’s in a name?
Friday, January 21, 2022
Richard “Sonny” Torres loved to give people nicknames. This was one of the habits he acquired even as a teenager.
For instance, his younger brother had a nickname since he was a small boy. His name is Andres Torres, but his folks named him “Buzzy.” Well, Sonny didn’t think that plain old Buzzy had much pizazz so he renamed him “Poker Joe.” It was a great nickname, but most of his friends and cousins sill called him “Buzzy.”
Sonny thought it over for a few years and then he changed Buzzy’s name to “Pasquale” Even that name didn’t last for long so Buzzy is still known as Buzzy.
My older brother came into this world with the first name of Anthony. The family called him Tony. Sonny thought that Tony was a bit tame so he named him Tuna. That nickname caught on so that even some of Tony’s closest friends started to call him Tuna. But of course names and nicknames don’t stay in Sonny’s mind too long so the next thing we knew Tuna had been re-Christened “Tuna the Bass” by Sonny.
Contact Tim Giago at najournalist1@gmail.com
Note: Content © Tim Giago
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