An Ekename

Which is where the term nickname came from. I've been thinking about nicknames recently. From self-proclaimed, to inside jokes, to purely circumstantial, most of us have a few at some point in our lives.
My oldest sister used to call me Sunshine. I think it was my first, and I loved it. I believe it was derived from the song "You Are My Sunshine," since she was big on singing, and it fit the description of my halo of white fuzz that floated around my head during the early years. She had also deemed another sister, two years older than me, Brown Eyes, also in honor of the song (whose title just slipped me) and her large, dark eyes.
Another sister has taken to calling most close relations by their first initial. I'm "M", Brown Eyes is "C", along with one of our nieces; another is "G. The few exceptions are my parents for obvious reasons, the oldest sister, and "Z", whose name doesn't start with a z but her nickname does. Confusing, I know.
I actually have several. One, "the Red-Caped Avenger," was self appointed one evening a long time ago among close friends. Select few even know about it.
Another is completely unpronounceable in English, and originated from a girl in my 6th grade class who wrote my name in some fancy, intricate way.
Another still is one that came a friend discovering my real name came from the Hebrew Language, and she started to pronounce it thus, and that eventually it turned into "Misha."
Once in Fifth grade I wanted a nickname really bad. Everyone at school had previously called me my given name and I found it dull. Plus, all three syllables was such a mouth-full. So the first day of fifth grade I asked everyone to call me some chopped-up version of the original. And they did. And I hated it the entire year.
Nicknames, I learned, need purpose in life, just like the rest of us. You can't just go nicking off bits and pieces of your name for no reason. Or, even worse, some people will start super gluing extra prefixes and suffixes on, making their names heavy, cumbersome, and sticky.
I'm not saying the lengthening of names is bad. Why, Manda May the Marvelous rolls of your tongue and Captain Hershey Bar is quite descriptive. But nothing screams D&D/Star Wars worse than Ked-Krevin the Star Slayer or Dhorxthal, Lord of Dwepthilla, or even Mega-Ultra-Kevin-the-greatness-of-all-time.

There's the classic shortening of names like Bill, Kate, Tay, Kayla, Mandy, Jon, Nat, Phro, or Jeff.
And it doesn't get much better than the Insider Jokes that gave birth to Green Gremlin, Uncle Joe, and Rabbies!

Names get twisted into fabrications of our mind, so distorted we can't even remember the original, like how E-mail became email and A Narange became An Orange. Nicknames build relationships, and friendships and trust: for there is one and only one person who's allowed to call me "Snuggle Bug", one to call me "Kay" and no one to say "Mickey".