You knew it would only be a matter of time before we started quoting Shakespeare (“They’re booing Shakespeare”).
Couper and Godiva’s Gamma Mommy was in town last week and was confounded when Godiva’s Mommy said to Godiva, “Come on in Diverdoodle”. “What did you call her?” “Diverdoodle.” “How long have you been calling her that?”
We don’t even think about it, but we have been calling her that, among other things forever. Same with Couper. Somehow nicknames appear and evolve.
So, let’s look at our dogs’ various names:
Couper
Couper:
Origin: Coupe.
Originator: Couper’s Mommy
Story: We are Couper’s third family. In his second family, he was called Frank. That name was out, because Couper’s Mommy’s brother has a dachshund named Frankie. Calling the new dachshund Frank would be confusing and derivative. Couper’s first family called him Coupe, so, after much deliberation (and a few days of calling him, “Hey You”), Couper’s Mommy (not her name until after Couper was named by the way), decided we should add the “r” and call him Couper.
Coupe
Origin: Couper (Circular reference alert!!!)
Originator: Couper’s Mommy and Big Buddy
Story: Short for Couper, though not that much shorter.
Little Buddy
Origin: Not sure.
Originator: Big Buddy (not my name until I started calling Couper “Little Buddy”)
Story: I really do not know where Little Buddy came from. The Gilligan’s Island connotation (Skipper’s name for Gilligan for the uncultured) always kind of bothered me, so it wasn’t that (at least I didn’t call him “Lovey” - Mr. Howell’s name for Mrs. Howell, as if you did not know). I started calling Couper “Little Buddy” very early, so it was probably me desperately trying to confirm that we were friends; “Are you my Little Buddy?” Eventually, I would use Little Buddy as a name and I became Big Buddy (because I am taller and weigh more).
Little Bud (or Lil’ Bud)
Origin: Little Buddy (see above)
Originator: Big Buddy
Story: Nothing much here. Little Buddy is an absurd four syllables. Little Bud is three. Lil’ Bud is two. When it comes to syllables, three or two is much greater than four. Therefore, Little Bud is our most used moniker for Couper.
Little Buddy Biscuit
Origin: Little Buddy (see above) and Seabiscuit
Originator: Big Buddy
Story: After watching the movie Seabiscuit, I made the comment that the movie was fine, but it would be 100 times better if it was about a racing dachshund instead of a race horse (by the way, I routinely make the same statement about all movies; ET? better with a dachshund; Jaws? dachshund; Apollo 13? dachshund). I proposed Little Buddy for the lead and re-naming it “Little Buddy Biscuit”. Couper’s Gamma Buddy really took to this idea and still calls him “Little Buddy Biscuit” on occasion all these years later.
Couper Knute (pronounced Ka-nute)
Origin: Couper’s Great Granddaddy Mommy, Knute
Originator: Couper’s Mommy
Story: Couper is stubborn. Couper’s Mommy’s grandfather Knute was stubborn. As a tribute to stubbornness, Couper got a last name. For years Couper’s Mommy called him Couper Knute, but I had no idea why. I figured it was alliteration. As you will see, these names do not need to make any sense. Finally, one day out of the blue, she explained it to me. To this day, however, I have no idea why Knute (which to me is associated with Knute Rocknie - and pronounced “Nute”) is pronounced “Ka-Nute”. Regardless, ICouper Ka-Nute, sounds better than Couper Nute.
Cuepa (Pronounced Cue-pa)
Origin: Couper’s 3 year old human cousin Hanna’s pronunciation of Couper
Story: You would guess that Hanna is from Brooklyn or Boston, or someplace that eliminates the letter R from the end of words. Hanna is 7 now. I do not believe she has ever been east of the Mississippi. If she has, she could probably skip a rock on the Mississippi from there. But somehow, she came up with the ultimate East Coast pronunciation for Couper. As a native New Yorker, I am very jealous.
Killer
Couper and Godiva’s Gamma Mommy was in town last week and was confounded when Godiva’s Mommy said to Godiva, “Come on in Diverdoodle”. “What did you call her?” “Diverdoodle.” “How long have you been calling her that?”
We don’t even think about it, but we have been calling her that, among other things forever. Same with Couper. Somehow nicknames appear and evolve.
So, let’s look at our dogs’ various names:
Couper
Couper:
Origin: Coupe.
Originator: Couper’s Mommy
Story: We are Couper’s third family. In his second family, he was called Frank. That name was out, because Couper’s Mommy’s brother has a dachshund named Frankie. Calling the new dachshund Frank would be confusing and derivative. Couper’s first family called him Coupe, so, after much deliberation (and a few days of calling him, “Hey You”), Couper’s Mommy (not her name until after Couper was named by the way), decided we should add the “r” and call him Couper.
Coupe
Origin: Couper (Circular reference alert!!!)
Originator: Couper’s Mommy and Big Buddy
Story: Short for Couper, though not that much shorter.
Little Buddy
Origin: Not sure.
Originator: Big Buddy (not my name until I started calling Couper “Little Buddy”)
Story: I really do not know where Little Buddy came from. The Gilligan’s Island connotation (Skipper’s name for Gilligan for the uncultured) always kind of bothered me, so it wasn’t that (at least I didn’t call him “Lovey” - Mr. Howell’s name for Mrs. Howell, as if you did not know). I started calling Couper “Little Buddy” very early, so it was probably me desperately trying to confirm that we were friends; “Are you my Little Buddy?” Eventually, I would use Little Buddy as a name and I became Big Buddy (because I am taller and weigh more).
Little Bud (or Lil’ Bud)
Origin: Little Buddy (see above)
Originator: Big Buddy
Story: Nothing much here. Little Buddy is an absurd four syllables. Little Bud is three. Lil’ Bud is two. When it comes to syllables, three or two is much greater than four. Therefore, Little Bud is our most used moniker for Couper.
Little Buddy Biscuit
Origin: Little Buddy (see above) and Seabiscuit
Originator: Big Buddy
Story: After watching the movie Seabiscuit, I made the comment that the movie was fine, but it would be 100 times better if it was about a racing dachshund instead of a race horse (by the way, I routinely make the same statement about all movies; ET? better with a dachshund; Jaws? dachshund; Apollo 13? dachshund). I proposed Little Buddy for the lead and re-naming it “Little Buddy Biscuit”. Couper’s Gamma Buddy really took to this idea and still calls him “Little Buddy Biscuit” on occasion all these years later.
Couper Knute (pronounced Ka-nute)
Origin: Couper’s Great Granddaddy Mommy, Knute
Originator: Couper’s Mommy
Story: Couper is stubborn. Couper’s Mommy’s grandfather Knute was stubborn. As a tribute to stubbornness, Couper got a last name. For years Couper’s Mommy called him Couper Knute, but I had no idea why. I figured it was alliteration. As you will see, these names do not need to make any sense. Finally, one day out of the blue, she explained it to me. To this day, however, I have no idea why Knute (which to me is associated with Knute Rocknie - and pronounced “Nute”) is pronounced “Ka-Nute”. Regardless, ICouper Ka-Nute, sounds better than Couper Nute.
Cuepa (Pronounced Cue-pa)
Origin: Couper’s 3 year old human cousin Hanna’s pronunciation of Couper
Story: You would guess that Hanna is from Brooklyn or Boston, or someplace that eliminates the letter R from the end of words. Hanna is 7 now. I do not believe she has ever been east of the Mississippi. If she has, she could probably skip a rock on the Mississippi from there. But somehow, she came up with the ultimate East Coast pronunciation for Couper. As a native New Yorker, I am very jealous.
Killer
Origin: Couper like to bark
Originator: Couper's Gamma Mommy's neighbor
Story: When the neighbor of Couper's Gamma Mommy would see Couper, Couper would bark at her as he does with everyone who comes to the door. Amusing to the neighbor, she started calling him Killer when he was having his fit. For her, that name stuck.
GodivaGodiva
Origin: Chocolate
Originator: Godiva’s Mommy
Story: Godiva’s Mommy (then - and still - named Couper’s Mommy) always wanted a female Chocolate Lab and wanted to call her Godiva. When we got Couper, and half a million dollars worth of dachshund paraphernalia, I put my foot down on buying a different breed of dog. Especially one as popular a lab, which likely has 5 times the paraphernalia as dachshunds (which translates to us buying $2.5M in merchandise). There was no way we could afford that. When we found the ad for dachshund puppies, there were two female choices. I’m not saying we selected a puppy based on her colors and a pre-chosen name, but Godiva was white, light brown, and dark brown (white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate - though Godiva’s Mommy does not like that analogy). Her sister, our other choice that night, was grey and black. You do the math.
Godiver
Origin: Cuepa (see Couper’s section above)
Originator: Big Buddy
Story: Refusing to be outdone by a 5 year old Las Vegas native, I immediately added the East Coast R to a name ending with A. I got all my East Coast street cred back with this one.(My favorite TV show? Lore and Outta)
Diver
Origin: Godiver
Originator: Big Buddy
Story: Short for Godiver
Diveroo
Origin: Godiver shortened to Diver and Howard Cosell
Originator: Big Buddy
Story: Back in the mid 80’s Nightline had a special edition where they looked at the problems with college sports. Like a lot of Nightline special editions, nothing came of it. The same problems from 25 years ago are still problems. However, one of their guests was the one and only Howard Cosell. Remarking on the decline and fall of college athletics he said the following about then Notre Dame head basketball coach Digger Phelps: “and in South Bend, they are even booing the Diggeroo”. Now this line is great on like a thousand levels. But mostly because he took a person’s popular nickname, Digger (given name Richard), and upped that into a nickname that nobody else used, Diggeroo, to make himself sound like he was closer to Digger than you could ever be. Anyhow, for years after that, I enjoyed adding “roo” to people’s names. So, years later, when Godiva turned into Diver, it was inevitable that Diver turned into Diveroo.
Diverdoo
Origin: Diveroo and alliteration?
Originator: Big Buddy
Story: Not sure on this one. Maybe Diveroo needed more alliteration, so another d was added? One way or another, this turned out to be the name we use for her the most.
Diverdoodle
Origin: Diverdoo
Originator: Big Buddy
Story: As long as we are going to give our puppy girl a name that has almost no bearing to her actual name, might as well add an “odle” to it.
Diverdon’t
Origin: Diverdoo and Potty Issues
Originator: Big Buddy/Godiva’s Mommy
Story: When she poops and/or pees when we want her to, she is a Diverdoo. When she screws around looking for lizards or gets distracted by sound and does not pee or poop (which happens way more often than not), she is a Diverdon’t
Mischief
Origin: Godiva is full of it sometimes
Originator: Godiva’s Mommy
Story: When Godiva gets into trouble, her mommy tells her, “We should have called you mischief, because that is what you are”
Sprinkles
Origin: Godiva like to roll around in mesquite tree leaves
Originator: Big Buddy
Story: We have an artificial turf putting green in the back yard. Artificial turf sounds pretty maintenance free, but we have two mesquite trees that hang over the turf. Mesquite trees drop stuff 10 and a half months of the year, not the least of which are their little leaves. When Godiva goes outside, no matter how badly she need to go potty, she will find a patch of turf with mesquite leaves and roll around in them. When she gets up, the leaves stick to her body like sprinkles on ice cream. Therefore, Sprinkles.
I am sure there are more for both Couper and Godiva. As I said to start this post, way back when, we don’t even think about the names we use for them. Who knows what else we call Dinky and Farthead.
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