My dad was a great one for nicknames, so everyone had several. My uncle Harold Robert (known to his wife as Hal and his mother as Bobby) was "Beeeer!" or "Duke" (he walked like John Wayne), I was "Gus" (named from an overheard remark to a drunk named Gus to get up off the floor) and "Gusgus" (after a mouse in Disney's Cinderella) and at school "Smithsonian", my brother was "Doc" (from him chanting: 'Put something in the pot, Doc', after a children's TV program when he was little) and "Zukzuk" (after the fat mouse in Disney's Cinderella, because he was chubby). Mom (Clara) was Lilly or, after the song, Hi Lilly, Mom, Mew, or Mewgie, Dad was P.O.D. (for Poor Old Dad), Pinky (he hated that, but had strawberry blond hair, which I assume was the origin of the name) or predictably Smitty. Our various pet dogs had numerous names: Buffy became Buffington von Schmidt of Windsor (he was buff-colored, we were Smiths and we lived in Windsor Hills), Kiera became Barky, then Barkworth and J. Alfred Barksworth, Tanya became Tatiana Romanova, otherwise known as Sweet-Wheat. The habit remains: to my family I am "Betty" for reasons unknown, and my son affectionately calls me "the Beast".