The “T” Word is “T”

That’s me…just “T.” My given name was Teresa (no “h”), misspelled on my birth certificate, by the way. It was written Treasa, but later corrected (I think), but not butchered as bad as my father’s last name on his birth certificate. His last name was Johnson. Pretty simple, right? Well, it was spelled Jozsonhoz (or something like that). I researched for a long time to make sure it wasn’t a name change, but his father and grandfather were both Johnson. It was the turn of the century and my guess is some German midwife who didn’t speak English probably couldn’t spell the name.

I was born Teresa, and other than a few childhood nicknames (Sweet Pea, Trazer, Honey Girl, Tree, and #9), stayed that way throughout grade school and high school. In college I somehow became Teri. That stuck for about ten years and then faded. People that knew me back then still call me Teri. The only recent friend I have who calls me Teri is Jeff Sherratt, my mentor and author of “The Brimstone Murders” & “Guilty or Else,” and he’s such a fabulous guy he can call me whatever he wants.

When I taught school some student started calling me “Mrs. Charmin” from the toilet paper commercial…I was squeezably soft, I guess. That one stuck for a few years with the students. But mostly I was called “Coach” because I had a winning softball team for so many years.

When I practiced law, my friend Bob started calling me Teebs. It caught on with a small group of very close friends…that’s where I got the idea for “Sobs” in my novel, The Advocate.

When my nieces and nephews were little they called me Auntie T or TT. That eventually evolved into Tee or just T, which most of my family and adult friends now call me. But my all time favorite, which I mostly see written on emails, cards, and gifts, is FAT (Favorite Aunt Tee). The older I get the more I fit that one…the favorite part, of course.

Aren’t names fun? I don’t really care what my family or friends call me, as long as they do. But I don’t like to see my name misspelled, so remember I’m Teresa, no “h” or Tee (Please no “h” in that either). What interesting nicknames have you had along your path in life?

https://www.teresaburrell.com

6 Comments
  1. That was T-t-t-terrific (as Tigger would say)! I had not heard the story before about the birth certificates. It was interesting to learn. Another enjoyable blog, but your starting to run out of the alphabet, just what are you going to do? Looking forward to reading more.

  2. While names are fun, they tell the world who we are…naming and self esteem go together. My name has transformed: Janice (the name mom was given in a dream the day I was born), Jan (I called myself this to be popular), Jan Marie (I took it because my married name was so hard to spell/pronounce, why not go with the first/middle name, but it never caught on with me, so dropped it),and now Janet Jaz. I am hanging on to my other name as to have a fun name and a formal name gives more options. Your blog today has spurred lots of cool thoughts. Thanks, Ms. T!

  3. At first, I wasn't sure how to spell it. Yeah pretty lame huh? I originally thought it was just “T” but you set me straight later with “Tee”. Ok… I HAVE to know the story behind the nick name “#9”. That's a pretty odd one.

    My only nick name is Hazel. Which comes from the book Watership Down. But really came when I went through a huge rabbit stage in life where I named everyone after the bunnies in the book.

    http://nickvalentino.blogspot.com

  4. My family calls me Linda, my best friend from high school calls me Lin, my co-workers and current friends call me L.J. (my prefence), and my husband calls me everything from Sweet Pickle to Gertrude.

    http://ljsellers.com/wordpress/ljs-many-names

  5. Great responses everyone. Love the names…Hey, Hazel, #9 is my birth order…

  6. I went through a huge rabbit stage in life where I named everyone after the bunnies in the book.

    Work from home India

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