Name is our first and essential identity we have. Everyone called us the same name when we were kids, but soon we got to our own communities, our friends and enemies when we went to school and played in our neighborhood. And as we became the part of our societies and friendships, sometimes we got our own nicknames, sometimes it was meant to be some kind of insult, they called us by our bad habits, our disabilities, our worst body parts, or even our parents' misspelled names.
Take my brother for example, he's called Agung since he was born, on school, and yet it's the only nickname he's got. But, when he went to college and lived in a boarding house, his friends called him 'Bendot', taken from the name of a long-bearded goat, and my brother used to have one. Well, what kind of name is that ? you are referred to an animal ? Still, I have some kind of trouble about my nickname. Since I was a baby, everyone called me Cicip, and it's not related to my real name (a good one I must admit) in any way. There's a long story about that name, back to when I was born and my father wasn't around because he was back in college in Jakarta (I was born in Demak, about 500 kms east Jakarta) and I started to give my mother big trouble. I couldn't sleep at night, just cried and cried, keeping my mother and my grandmother busy of taking care of me. After (around) 40 days with no improvement, I was taken to a medicine man, or a psychic (I won't say witch!!) and given some kind of therapy called "Spilling Therapy". It is said that I gave the psychic a hard time (stroke back!!), so I was given some kind of 'curse' that I would be a quiet grown-up, quieter than my father (how would he knew?) and I must had my name changed to Adisucipto, cause my real name is considered to be too hard for me to handle (!). That's where I got my nickname, taken from my second name. I guess it was my father who changed back my name after he graduated (thanks, dad), and as a tribute, my nickname is kept until now. That's it, pretty long and scary, ha ?. In elementary school, everyone still called me that. After I got to junior and senior high, I must get used to be called by my real name, though in my closest folks still called me by my nickname. When I attended college, I was introduced to my boarding parents by my nickname and my housemates call me that, too. But, still I get this new nickname from a girl, not my girlfriend (I don't have any), when we did part-time job at Telkom, she called me Cipi, and later anyone calls me Pak Cipi (where the hell is that prefix came from ?) and since I spend most of my time among my housemates younger than me, that nickname just fits in. And then one of my juniors called me Cipong (damn, how can he be ?), luckily it's not so popular as the other one. I just enjoy it, at least they don't call me with a nickname taken from animals or vegetables or any other dirty words. But, then again, what's in a name ? A rising movie star or popular singer sometimes changes their names in order to gain popularity, in term of 'luck' or simply 'easily spelled' and 'nice to hear', but, sadly meaningless.
Wise men say, only fools rushed in... oops... that a name reflects our parent's or our namer's wishes of us. There's many reasons our parents or whoever named us gave it, such as :
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