In the car today, Jane was talking about some of her classmates. She surprised me when she mentioned some twin boys named Alex and Alfredo. Alfredo had repeated fourth grade while Alex had continued on. That was a year ago and Alex and Alfredo are now at separate campuses.
“Which is really awesome because now when I see one in the hall, I don’t go, ‘Hi! Al…frae… dex…’. I just say, ‘Hi! Alex!'”
“They are twins?”
“Yes.”
“And one is named Alex and the other is Alfredo?”
“Yes.”
“That seems. Kind of. Odd.”
“Why?”
“Well, one of those names is distinctly ethnic and the other isn’t. It just seems strange to name twin boys such different styles of names.”
“Oh, well, Alex has a more traditional name too.”
“Alejandro?”
“Yes. But he’s going to a 2012 school. Who would want to be called that? It’s just like the girl Alex. She doesn’t want to be called Alexandria.”
“Well what about Alfredo? Why doesn’t he have a nickname?”
“Because you can’t shorten it. Alf? He wouldn’t want to be called that!”
“What about Fred?”
“FRED?! That’s a white boy with red hair’s name!”
I truly never realized there was so much to tween nicknaming conventions.
mybrightspots 