macushia - noun - Irish - an affectionate form of address, like "darling." (Lexico.com)
Even though our parents bequeath us with what is known as a Christian name or forename (or two), we often go by a small number of aliases, nicknames, or affectionate forms of address, like macushia, a real Irish mouthful. Often monikers can be on the humorous side. For example, my daughter calls one of her diminutive college pals "Lil' Nug" as in "little nugget." For my girl (woman), I have a litany of nicknames that, like macushia, appear strange on surface but can easily be rationalized, such as "Lil' Dough"as in little doughnut because as a child, my daughter subsisted on the vanilla-glazed ones at Dunkin'. I also call her Mush-Dough when she hasn't had enough sleep and feels like mush. (I know. It is hard to visualize. Just think of grits or mashed potatoes.) The closest alias to her actual name is Saxonia, which originated from a mispronunciation of Saxony, her real forename. The summer of her junior year in college, she toured Europe with an Asian woman who couldn't say Saxony, ergo, Saxonia (think: Sonia) resulted. When she told me, I laughed, started to call her Saxonia and have been ever since. In short, the moniker stuck like glue.
I know I am not the only parent out there who has gotten so used to these macushia substitutes that I can't seem to let go of them. My daughter is thirty, but still single. Maybe once she is married with children, I might have a good enough reason to call her the name I actually made legal for her.
It seems very ironic that parents do spend a lot of time discussing and even arguing over the names they want to give their newborns and then turn around and reinvent them out of affection. But such is life. If it made complete sense, there wouldn't be cause to question it. A life without interrogation wouldn't be as interesting, for sure.
It's Monday. Best not to think too hard.
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