Top Ten Nicknames

As I let my mind wander one day, I realized that I have amassed quite a few nicknames in my time, so I decided to add them to my top ten series. Mind you, trying to recall ten nicknames about yourself is quite difficult, but I managed to find some suitable ones to complement the definites found towards the top of the list. Leading off is....

10. Harpo
A nickname my mother referred to me by when I was a baby, because I had strawberry-blond curly hair that was reminiscent of Harpo Marx. Unfortunately, my hair straightened and changed color, and so the nickname died to make way for nickname #5. Nowadays, I think Patrick is more of a Harpo and I'm more of Groucho.

9. Christophe
This was less of a nickname than it was just a lack of complete information. All of the high school rosters had this as my name because it was too long to fit the last ‘r’ on it. Some teachers, such as Senor Krog, preferred to call me by this name, which I didn’t mind. It has a nice ring to it: Christophe Burzlaff.

8. Lycos
I spent a week or two in Washington DC during 11th grade to participate in a National Leadership forum. Though I tried to get the nickname ‘Canadian Chris’ going, I rather garnered this nickname from the ‘president’ of our mock national crisis. The fact that I knew how to acquire things and get things done quickly earned me the name of an internet search engine.

7. crisbcreme
My ever popular AIM screenname, which people have used to identify me both at my computer and away from my computer. I can’t tell you how many times people have walked up to me and refer to me by this name. And the truth of it all is I didn’t even come up with the name!

6. Charlie Brown/Chuck/CB
The strange coincidences between me and Charlie Brown have done more than just drawn comparison. The fact that I am an optimistic loser who played the optimistic loser in the musical “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown” is the birthplace of this name. It doesn’t take people too long to realize that my name and his name have the same initials. Coincidence? I think not.

5. Spike
The first nickname I remember having, that was given to me by my grandfather. For those who may not know, from 2nd-12th grade, I had a flattop. Hence the creation of the name Spike, which was complemented by my brother’s nickname, Spook, of whose origin is still a mystery.

4. Tonic Farrell(aka CBuz/Spike LA/Taragon?)
On a random Cuatro de Mayo spent in Pasedena with Rachel, amongst our various mischievous acts we stumbled upon some book that told us how to come up with several names for ourselves. The book had four types of names (rock star, actor, etc…) and we each chose our favorites of the four to be referred by. I chose Tonic, she chose Basil and ever since, when we’ve gone on a random excursion we dub it as another “Basil & Tonic Adventure”.

3. Captain Wacky
A self-ascribed moniker I stole from a Simpson’s episode for an English assignment signup, that just seemed to stick. Not only did this nickname catch on with several people, I assigned other people similar officer nicknames such as ‘General Lee Bananas’ and ‘Lieutenant Loony’. What’s really odd is that despite making this nickname up on a larf 5 years ago, people still refer to me by it today.

2. Christobahn
This has been Amanda’s nickname for me for awhile now. Its origin arises from a combination of inserting Amanda’s friend, Siobhan’s, name into Ricky Martin’s “Shake Your Bon-Bon”. She just replaced Siobhan’s name (which doesn’t even rhyme with bon-bon) with Christobahn, and it just stuck. She’s the only one who calls me by this name and will do it nonchalantly in front of anyone present, regardless if they know why or not.

1. Christe
Probably the nickname I’ve been referred by the most, and its popularity still spreads. This name started my freshman year of college in choir because we were singing Verdi’s Requiem and continuously were singing “Christe Eleison.” It didn’t take long for my choir friends to draw a comparison between Christe and Chris and it took off from there. Not only do they still call me by this name, but they refer to me by it when talking to their friends about me and they introduce me to people by it. I was introduced to my friend Jen’s parents as Christe, which they called me by for the rest of the night. Most of these people won’t recognize me as Chris but as soon as I say Christe, they know exactly who I am. And so I am the infamous Christe.