Larry Gritton

I have always been fascinated with nicknames, and especially the origins or derivations of nicknames.

I grew up in Glencoe, IL, and there was a soda shop at the southwest corner of Park and Vernon called Bartoli’s.  When I was in junior high at Central School, my “gang” and I used to go there after school to read comic books, eat barbeque potato chips and drink Green River soda from those conical paper cups in the aluminum cup holders. There was a gumball machine next to the door and one day I inserted the proper coin and out came a miniature set of plastic teeth, not unlike the ones pictured above.

I always carried those teeth in my pocket, and they would appear in my hand whenever I retrieved something from my pocket, so some of my friends started calling me “Teeth” Gritton.  A select few (Richard, Chuck and Bobby) still call me by that name, and I cannot remember a time when they called me Larry.  A few of my newer friends have adopted the nickname. In high school (New Trier East) I was called “Grit” by non-Glenconians, but that derivation is too obvious to be interesting.

Many of my Glencoe friends had and have nicknames too – King, XBOF, Farmer, Sol, Fife, Hod, Grod, Feathers, to name a few. But it is interesting to note that apparently only boys had nicknames, with the notable exception of my longtime friend Pinky, whose real name of Hilary may not even be known by some.

A subset of this topic is pet names for grandchildren and other family members.  My nephew Nathan could not say “Uncle” and it came out as “Iggy,” so I became Uncle Iggy.  When my first grandchild Hannah was born, my son-in-law Sam quipped, “If you are Uncle Iggy you must be Grandpa Giggy!” That name has stuck, although sometimes shortened to “Giggs,” and whatever reservations I might have had have melted away and I fully embrace that name.  My wife Sara is “Scoop” or “Scoopie” to most of the family (Cooper is her maiden name), although my daughter Leah’s girls have opted for “Bookah” since they couldn’t pronounce Scoopie and everything to them began with the letter B.  I could go on and on.

So, what nickname or grandparent/family name do you have?  Inquiring minds would like to know.