Something you may not know...: Alias edition

If you've already read some of the other posts on this site, you may be wondering why I sometimes refer to Panagiota as "Pegs". To be fair, others might be wondering why I sometimes refer to Pegs as "Panagiota". It's a convoluted story, but an amusing one, and hopefully this post will help clear up any confusion going forward.

Panagiota had many nicknames, mostly because she found it too cumbersome to repeat herself ten times when people had trouble pronouncing her real name. "Panagiota" is actually a fairly common Greek name; while it doesn't translate directly into any English names, it stems from the Greek word for the Madonna (think Virgin Mary, not Material Girl). 

Montreal, circa 1980

When Panagiota was younger, she was ... rounder than she was as an adult (see at left). Greeks like their children  full-figured, and Panagiota didn't disappoint. Her mother likes to brag that the only thing Pegs didn't eat as a child was lentils, although she must have overcome that aversion pretty early because Pegs could make a mean batch of lentil soup in adulthood. Because of her "cherubic" physique, her parents often referred to her as "Fratzola," which is the Greek word for a round loaf of bread.

When Panagiota moved to the US from Canada, she faced the difficult task of trying to explain her name to Southerners, for whom the word "phone" has at least three syllables. Panagiota has a slightly older cousin with the same name who always went by "Peggy," so she decided it would be easier to switch to "Peggy" as well. 

The hilarious thing about this plan is that Panagiota admittedly hated being called "Peggy". It's still mind-boggling to me why she would choose a nickname that she disliked, but I guess she disliked correcting people about her name even more. To make things more complicated, Panagiota's parents, like many Greeks, are incapable of pronouncing the hard "g" in "Peggy," so they always referred to her as "Pecky". Most of the time they would also slap the word "mou" at the end, which in Greek is the first person possessive, so "Pecky-mou" literally translates to "my Pecky." Confused yet?

When I first met her, she introduced herself as "Peggy", explaining that it was short for her Greek name. At the time she was spelling her name with a "y," as in "Panayiota," since she seemed to think that it would be easier for people to read or pronounce correctly. (If you're following this logic, then put down the hash pipe before you keep reading.) After we became good friends, she confided to me that she hated her nickname, so I suggested that she shorten it to "Pegs," which she seemed to tolerate much easier. Of course, I also referred to her as "Pecky-mou" from time to time, because it was just too cute not to.

After I met Pegs' sister Niki, I realized that Panagiota also responded to "Yoda". I initially assumed that this was in reference to her mastery of the kind of Jedi mind tricks she would use on me to allow her sole possession of the remote control while we would watch TV, but apparently it was just short for "Panagiota."

When we moved to France, Pegs started using her full name more frequently and officially dropped the "y" nonsense. Panagiota asked that my French family refer to her as "Pegs," since that's how I typically referred to her in conversation. The problem is that there is no nickname "Pegs" in French, but there is the nickname "Peg." So, as was her fate, Panagiota had yet another nickname, as half of my family affectionately referred to her as "Peg."

I'm sure that there are other nicknames I'm leaving out (for example, my French uncle often liked to refer to us collectively as "Pee and Leg"), but I think Panagiota, Fratzola, Peggy, Pecky, Pecky-mou, Pegs, Panayiota, Yoda and Peg are enough for one post, don't you?

Did you have any interesting nicknames for Panagiota, or perhaps a story about her name(s) you'd like to share with us? Write a post, add a comment or send us an e-mail!