I’ve read a few websites that explain Brazilian nicknames, and a few forum threads talking about nicknames, and Gracie Barra Upland even puts those nicknames on their gis. You can even find fun advice about nicknames, such as: Stay away from any Jiu-Jitsu fighter with the nickname, Sasquatch, Hulk, Shrek, Goliath, or with the word “Big” before his name. And of course there are blog entries about favorite BJJ nicknames.
I’m still pretty new, and in Korea I haven’t heard ANY nicknames. BUT I sometimes give nicknames to the people in my gym, like “Porno Pants,” (though I’m just going to call him “Legs” from now on), and “Spider Girl” and today I called a guy in my class “Gumby.”
So I started thinking of what nickname I would give myself. I know, I know, you’re not supposed to give yourself a nickname. Meh. Whatever. I couldn’t resist giving myself this nickname: Hollywood, because of all the SOUND EFFECTS I bring to the table! 😀 Sit on my chest and I wheeze. Grab my arm and I squeek “nonono.” Sweep me and I “oof.”
I guess “FX” could be a cool nickname, too!
(“Bug” came in a distant second, because people keep SQUISHING me!)
So, what is your BJJ nickname? You can share a nickname that you have been given or make one up yourself (shhhh I won’t tell!). Make sure to tell us WHY you have that nickname! 😀
You are welcome to also share your Internet/forum/blog nickname as well! My non-BJJ, Internet nickname is “scifigal” because I looooove science fiction and I loooooove that I’m a nerdy gal and I WANT THE WHOLE WORLD TO KNOW! 🙂
Updated to add: This is the origin of my BJJ blog nickname, and one I’ve adopted in real life! Thanks!!
I was visiting a Thailand zoo and fell in love with a family of Meerkats. I sketched one and it became my very first logo for my earliest blog entries. Just seemed to fit: small, friendly, cheeky, inquisitive but heck of a good hunter and provider for family – meerkats kill for fun you know. I added -su at the end to Japanesify it (I was still training Japanese jujitsu at the time) plus it makes it unique to find on google.
So yes, I appointed my own nick-name, and no one in the real world calls me Meerkatsu, but who cares, it is unique and it is mine.
BTW Hollywood would imply a diva..you’re not a diva are you?
My nickname has nothing to do with BJJ, and like Meerkatsu is one I applied to myself. I went into more detail on your Facebook post, but in short, first time I got drunk I did a silly dance. I called it the ‘slidey foot’ dance: basically, a really sloppy version of this kind of thing. When I was looking for a unique name to use on the internet, ‘slideyfoot’ seemed like a good option. I’ve been using it ever since.
Speaking of Facebook, if you’re on my friends list and want some evidence of my terrible dancing (not the slidey foot dance, though: no video of that at the mo), here you go. 😉
Dang it man! Not a Diva!!! Maybe FX works better. 😉
Sounds more sci-fi too. Maybe scifiFX? 😉
@Julia: You make noises when you BJJ? Then pick something onomatopoeic. If you make the noise “Errghiah,” for example, use that as your nickname.
My nickname is Chasuk, which comes from the shortened form of Charles (Chas), with the initials of my favorite country (UK) appended.
Does that not mean people assume you are Chas from the UK, rather than Chas, a fan of the UK?
No one has ever made the “Chas” + “UK” connection. I suppose it isn’t intuitive. However, years ago, when choosing a login, Chas wasn’t available, whereas Chasuk was.
At our schools, nicknames are an epidemic. We have all sorts of unfortunately named people at our school: Yeti, Barf, PP (it used to be Peter Parker but everyone shortened it to PP so he could be called “Fabio’s PP” lol), Rhino, Bruiser, Lurch, Joe Boxer, Salsa John, etc. I have two nicknames, neither of which people really call me except on rare occasions. The first one was given to me by my instructor. He called me “Pitbull”. But the one that unfortunately stuck more was “Toxy Foxy” which was coined after I was attacked by a rabid fox. And, yes, I really was attacked by a rabid fox.
hahhhahah ohmigosh, Allie, I was very nearly quite literally ROFL-ing from the “Toxy Foxy” name. Whoever came up with that nickname is a genius!!! Rather unfortunate you were attacked by a rabid fox, though. Did you end up getting bitten?!
Man what I wouldn’t give for a nickname like Foxy.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKbahQO7GKw”]
I thought that video was going to be this:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgTv0VrsWhs&w=480&h=390]
@slideyfoot: Me, too! Great movie! I saw it when I was about 16, and me and my gf laughed our asses off. Fond memories.
‘Megatron’. Name is Meg and I’m ‘tronic’, or so my teammates would have me believe 😉 Cute post!
DAMN YOU HAVE THE AWESOMEST NICKNAME! My name doesn’t morph into ANYTHING! I am jealous of friends who have names that rhyme with other things (Julia doesn’t rhyme with ANYTHING), names that can create other words, etc. Mine is BORING. 🙁
Plus, your nickname is a badass leader of the Decepticons in Transformers. I AM SO JEALOUS! Plus, you come in standard mode and BATTLE MODE!
OMG! Standard mode and battle mode?! EFF YES! These comments are great, once again, super cute post!
My nickname is Mouse ( as I can escape through little holes) and was given to me by the guys I train with since I am the only 115lb girl in a den of 200lb guys…
I think this is pretty cute… and I really love cheese too…no, I don’t have a tail.
That is a super adorable nickname!
Why not issue a challenge…find me a nickname contest?
Unfortunate for me, I get called “that girl” because I am the only one there and sometimes “rough neck” because of my chokes… not my fault since my partner is “redneck” as a result of the chokes…LOL.
Hahahaha I love the “rough neck” nickname!
I think I’m gonna call you the ESL Executioner..heehee..why not combine your two loves?! LOL
It’s funny, I have had a few nicknames, but they don’t stick as I keep evolving in my game and out of the behavior that gave me the nom de guerre in the first place. First was Bull, carry-over from Muay Thai training – I would always bring the fight to the other person. Then the Beast, as I was training so hard and so often. Now I have transitioned to guard and half-guard, I am currently the Grappling Manatee on account of my positions and black gi.
Most just call me Joe. It seems to work.
The ever-evolving nickname. Hopefully something will stick for you! 🙂
At my second tournament (I was a whitebelt) a teammate from Bulgaria was kindly videotaping my matches for me. After I tapped my opponent in finals, he’s overheard commenting to our instructor that I was a “Red Menace” and it stuck ever since, except lately they’re trying to up the ante and call me “Red Hammer” because I’m not a threat, I’m a promise or some such silliness. Occasionally one of our other instructors calls me “casca feminina” which I think means “thin skinned” or something (he calls a big tough guy “casca grossa”..)
I think it means “delicate female,” but I’m not sure.
According to Google Translate, ‘casca feminina‘ is ‘shell female’ and ‘casca grossa‘ is ‘thick skin’. Though ‘shell female’ doesn’t make a whole lot of sense: ‘thin skin’ sounds more likely. Strangely enough, when you put them together, Google Translate decides they mean ‘thick bark bark woman’. Hmm…
Abrandao might be a little more useful than the automated option, once he sees this thread. 😉
I am in love with your nickname FO SHO!
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog during my lunch. Although I don’t think you could call it a nickname, it seems to have stuck and I can’t get anyone at the gym to call me anything else. Since I am apparently the very oldest person at the gym (and by the way I’m ‘only’ 43) and a girl, I get called “Mrs. Ibarra” by all the instructors and 99% of the class. The other 1% are girls and they call me “Miss Debra”. As I train with newbies, I try to always introduce myself as Debra in hopes they will call me by my first name, but alas, when they hear the instructors call me “Mrs. Ibarra” often enough, they have a tendency to follow the example!! I just chalk it up to these guys and gals being complete gentlemen and gentlewomen, because, after all, I’m not that old…right!?!?
Awww! 🙂 That’s sweet! Thanks for the blog compliment, btw!
43 isn’t old. I was chatting to a training partner of mine last session, and he’s 72. Another of the guys I used to train with was 86 when I met him. As the saying goes, age is just a number. 😉
100% not ‘that old’ or ‘too old’ or any of that rubbish!
Your ‘nickname’ does have an intimidating quality through its formality, which is kinda cool!
Cute post!
Well my nickname is “Faceplant”….. You can guess why right?
Hahahahaha That one has me smiling. Hopefully this will evolve, as Joe’s nickname as, into something a bit less…clumsy? 🙂
Funny this should come up. I am a lightening rod for Nicknames.
My last name is spelled in a manner that causes it to be pronounced as “veal”…the cut of meat. Two main names from this are my blog handle, “Calf-of-War” and “Baby Beef.”
I asked around, and neither of these translate well into Br. Portuguese. Calf = “boy,” unfortunately.
These two are mostly monikers from my last school in Ottawa. Calf is self-coined, but stuck due to awesome-ness. You can self nick-name, but you need to really have it well thought out, and the presentation needs to be perfect. A few variations on the bovine theme:
-Beef
-Le Beouf
-Baby
Another common nick-name was “Smug.” …As I am apparently smug. Ashley concurs, so it may well be true.
Recently I’ve grown a beard and have started getting called “Viking” or more popularly “Red Beard.”
The patriarch of my school calls me Big John. This goes way back to when I first started Jiu Jits. It’s one of those ironic nick names…
I’d have to call you Smuggy if I saw you–it’s more of a “proper” nickname 😉
Have you been called Burger? 😉 Man–my name, Julia Johansen, doesn’t rhyme with anything, doesn’t morph into anything, it’s just a NAME.
Allie missed one of my favorite nicknames at our school. Baby Gap. He wears semi-fitted shirts, not as tiny as the nickname would suggest, but since his shirts are smaller then the other guys would like they joked that he shopped at Baby Gap, and thus the nickname was born. I get thrown off when people call him by his real name. hehe
Another nickname I really like is Delilah. He is the father, of a father son duo that trains at Fabio’s. A few years ago, the dad made the son cut his long hair short, and since then he has been called Delilah.
The only nickname I’ve been given is Skeletor because I am skinny. I hate it. >.< Thankfully only a few people call me that, and not often.
I have suggested that Allie call me Stephanie 'Armbar' McClish due to the fact that I totally blow at armbars, and it would throw someone off in competition. They would assume I am good at armbars, and protect their arms, thus giving me a better chance to sink in a choke. =D
Hahahahahahaha Baby Gap I love it! That’s hilarious!
Skeletor, Megatron, we have all kinds of bad-assery in the house! I wish I had some evil nickname. Like Mumra or Shredder or even Gargamel or Doctor Claw. Sigh. You guys have it good.
If I were to give nicknames to super skinny chicks I’d go with: Twigs, Ally McBeal, Kate Moss, or Bones. Oooh Bones is pretty cool AND Star-Trekky.
I would love the Skeletor name except for the fact that it always comes up in a derogatory feeling kind of way. (Though, that is sometimes the point of nicknames.) However, since you have pointed out other skinny related nicknames, I got pretty lucky with Skeletor. lol
Bones would have been awesome though. hehe
..And Shredder would be an awesome nickname.
😀 Shredder would be an awesome nickname, I agree. Even without the Ninja Turtles association.
Now I want to call someone “Mary-Kate Ashley” lol
For a derogatory nickname, Skeletor rules all. Now you just have to memorize some of Skeletor’s insults!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zloWEvRDhgI]
Speaking of villains, I SO want to create a Madame Medusa costume! Fo Sho!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS7E6DQLbGY]
Oh, and I totally forgot about Jiujitsunista. lol Someone randomly called me a Jiujitsunista after class one day and I loved it, so I used it for my blog… and it’s on my gym bag. http://twitpic.com/3tpl4q
Oh man I love it! I need to have some custom stuff made. Defo.
I don’t have a bjj nickname either! (so don’t feel bad!) As a kid my brother nicknamed me “bean” and as a result many people (thru college) call me “bean” or “reginabean” I have a tendency to sign my name in emails to family and friends “regina da bean” and since “reginabean” is also my email address, I have had people think my last name actually IS bean. (it’s not, although it does start with a b also lol). I guess it also doesn’t help that my facebook name is “Regina Bean” because I didn’t want to put my real last name cause I’m a teacher and I didn’t want my students to be able to find me. Now that I’ve met post college people (like all my karate & bjj peeps) I have to explain that my last name isn’t REALLY bean at all….LOL. My blog is named “Karate Girl” cause I am (and always have been) a huge “Karate Kid” fan (does that go without saying?) and felt it was quite appropriate a name for my blog 🙂
Regina–I challenge you to create your own BJJ nickname now. What nickname would sum up your game or yourself on the mats?
I’m called “Pink Gi” which eventually got shorten to “Pinky” because of my obsession with the color Pink. Half of my Gi collection is pink (or has some form of pink if it’s a plain colored gi), my car is pink (yes lol! it’s a nice metallic hot pink), so is my wallet, my bag, etc… everything! Pink pink pink 🙂
Hahaha nice. I called one girl from my old school “Pink Gi Girl.” I still call her that! Okay I’d like links to all these pink gis, or photographic evidence.
hehehehe technically it’s only 3 gis since I only have 5 gis!
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs330.snc3/29112_392753874925_571824925_4269426_6294216_n.jpg
My ouano gi!
and my Keiko Raca Gi:
http://www.krugans-usa.com/kimonos/keiko_raca_girls_white.jpg
The last gi is a plain white gi with pink details that I sent to a shop to get it machine embroidered (haven’t taken pictures yet!) and I’m going to do the same thing with my new Fenom white Gi.
I saw a contest for your nickname on Georgette’s wall. Hope you find something soon! 🙂
Just tonight one of my classmates coined “The Knee” because I always block him with my knee.
“Shark Girl” is too long a story for here but let’s just say it involves cheesy Italian pop, the Mafia (which doesn’t really exist), a ferry ride to Sicily, and contraband.
@Stephanie: Roman gladiators used to give themselves names to psych out their opponents, too. For example, they might call themselves “Pearl” they would be underestimated.
@Debra: 40, here! Rock on!
@Meerkatsu: There are pitfalls to picking your own nickname. Watch carefully:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1o36sPZ10A] : )
Hahahaha Thanks for sharing! I like it! 🙂 I do have one personal nickname that people have called me: Wonder Woman, because I used to dress up as Wonder Woman at Norwescon. I was the only one! So then later they would see me and say “Hey! Wonder Woman!” 🙂
That’s the best pic I’ve ever seen of you, Julia. Lovely.
Chas–this was taken in 2003.
Really? You were Andrea’s age in this photo. You haven’t aged. a bit!
I have a nick name that is the same they us in BJJ gym, its Parkour, i’ve been practicing Parkour (yeah that jumping thing) for a very long time, and i used to be the president of brazilian association (blablabla) so everybody knows it, and they call me parkour all the time. i even use my own brand belt using my parkour’s blog logo as you can see in the picture below :P. (“decimadomuro means up on the wall”, written on the belt)
http://albertotreino.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/decimadomuro-obi.jpg?w=500&h=425
BUT, BJJ nickname isn’t about the name rhyming with something, is often about the most evident characteristic you have, for me reading and following your blog for couple weeks now, i’d probably call you as “professorinha” that in portuguese would be “little teacher”, actually the diminutive form of teacher. Or if i couldn’t find something i would just call you ‘Ju’, it’s the cuttest whey to call someone called Julia 🙂
i love your blog, keep it up 🙂
Ooooh Professorinha! I like it! What I’d really like is for you to make an mp3 and upload it so I can hear my nickname said with a proper Portuguese accent. In fact, you could say something like “Welcome to Professorinha’s blog” and then I could link to it. 😉
We want you to weigh in on what “casca feminina” means, please!
NICE BELT! I love it! Though, I’ll admit that whenever I think of Parkour I always think of this scene from The Office:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjgzwrnSoVE]
Any videos of you doing Parkour? 🙂 Do share!
I’ll try to record something, but i warn you that i’m very shy speaking English :o.
So you asked about the “Casca Feminina” but translate it is not this easy without a context:
Here, when you say somebody is Tough is “Casca Grossa” in a free translation is something like “Thick Shell”, the Casca Feminina would be something like “Female’s Shell” but on the meaning of “Casca” being “Casca Grossa” got it? (i think i wouldn’t)!
About the a parkour video, i have this, it was recorded about 2 years ago, and a did a compilation with my friends, this is why the video is called family.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcbwy28qHA0&fs=1&hl=pt_BR]
I hate that I can’t comment directly to your reply, but thank you so much for sharing your video! Parkour is a bit strange for me, but again, I’ve got a black belt in tv watching. 🙂 That’s cool that you have two things you love.
You can also call me Ju any time you like! 🙂
Very early on in my BJJ career Pedro Bessa landed me with “Sakuraba”. for no other reason than the fact I probably looked a bit like him. Big name to live up to though =S
I had to look him up. I didn’t know who he was. Then again, until this year the only MMA people I knew were Royce Gracie and, nope, that’s it.
Really? Your nickname is Sakuraba? Well my BF has the exact same nickname because everyone thinks he looks like Sakuraba too! Who knew there were so many Sakuraba Dopplengangers are running around. Do you have a picture? I’m very curious! 🙂
I don’t have a bjj nickname except for being referred to as the girl, the only girl. However, because my fiancee has a sister named Lori, his family calls me Mollie (short for my last name Moli-tor). So, any BJJ facebook friend get a little confused by the Lori “Mollie” Molitor and half of them call me Mollie as well.
As far as plain names, just be glad your name doesn’t rhyme with boring, or a 4th grader’s version of boring: Lori-bory was a difficult one to shake (no thanks to that banana fana song).
Yeah–Julia Bulia–not quite the same ring as Lori-bory.
I’d call you Molitor Cocktail! 😉
I don’t have a nickname. But in my gym we have/had a Puke (though he never did), several “Big [Name]” (all are actually big), Juggernaut, Black Cheese, Chilly Willy, Spider Monkey, Yoshi, Scott Smash, Sundance, Gumby, …. I know there are more, but I’m so used to thinking of these guys by their nicknames that I can’t remember which is a nickname and which is a name! 😛
Black Cheese. Now THERE’S a nickname. Omg I want to call someone Yoshi–someone who constantly gets their back taken! 😀
Dang Julia, you’re getting tons of comments these days! I don’t have a nickname. I did have a Sambo player call me “Monster” after rolling once. Kinda glad it didn’t stick.
Hahaha Yep–this thread blew up! 🙂
I could call you Stevinator! or how about 2%? 😉 We could shorten it to Two-ey
Julia, I love the post and all the comments. My internet nickname is Palatar. I gave it to myself. I am the only Palatar out there. It is my great, great, great mother’s first name. As far as nicknames other people call me… They don’t exist. My last name is difficult to pronounce so people either call me Jodi or Miss Jodi. I assume that my grandfather named me well when he named me Jodi, or people are just to afraid to call me anything else to my face. 😉 I find that your name Julia is a beautiful name that reflects the beautiful person that you are… So why change it?
These comments are cracking me up.
Yes, the name Julia is beautiful. In fact, it is usually listed on “top romantic names” lists. But I don’t want to be a beautiful person on the mats! I want to BE AGGRESSIVE, BE BE AGGRESSIVE. Oh wait–that’s cheerleaders. I want to be PHEARED! Like a PIRATE! ARRR! Or like Medusa–able to freeze my partners.
What’s the use in having a romantic name when you’re on the mats. Oh wait…maybe it means I’ll be seduced on the mats by a dude with a hot chest and abs who can do 50 pull ups and 2000 push ups. Yeah, what use is that?
Okay, I’ll stick to the name Julia. 😉
Daaaaang, 63 comments! woo!
I forgot, we have a guy at the academy who is super super flexible, scarily so, and his self-appointed nickname is Mr. No Bones. And he truly is lacking in solid structure. He’s like silly putty but lean and strong.
Julia, I have been thinking, and if you were my teammate, I might be tempted to call you JuJu. For one, it’s a short form of your undeniably cute (and yes, romantic, ruffly) name… but it’s a little punchier. And juju also means something like mojo, or magic, which you obviously have a lot of 🙂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juju
Then I thought of “Jujube”– you know, like a gumdrop. And here’s what it says about jujubes on the internet: “they are small, squishy, and colorful… loudly fruit flavored gummy candy…” (also wikipedia!) So I thought maybe except the fruit-flavored part it was true of all of us girl grapplers to some extent.. small, get squished on the bottom a lot, potentially loud… 🙂
Anyway.. there’s my contribution to the Name Your Julia contest!
@Debra, 43 ain’t old. We have (sometimes) a 76 year young gentleman who trains in our morning classes. And he just started. Think of the advantage you have over him! Someday I promise to be competing in the Masters & Seniors Worlds in Rio (I’m 38) so hopefully we meet there sometime 🙂 Till then let’s keep giving these teenie-weenies hell 😉
@Abrandao, thanks for the translation assist! Dev, who writes “Fueled by Fear” (devbjj.blogspot.com) also does Parkour in Washington DC. He says it’s a great workout!
Wow–Mr No Bones. That’s more interesting than Gumby!
You should totally watch this Family Guy video clip 2:24 and on are the relevant bits.
I thought all of us were fruit flavored. You’re not? I’m peach flavored! 😉 And sometimes I’m PUNCH flavored. BAHAHAHAHA.
I just posted a contest on my blog to get you a nickname, Julia… and I have a duplicate Stephan Kesting instructional, so I offered it up as the contest prize 🙂 You don’t have to pick a nickname, but if you do, I’ll send the DVD to the winner.
http://georgetteoden.blogspot.com/2011/01/name-your-julia-contest.html
I don’t get nicknames in so much as I tend to give them out actually. My one teammate Jason I call “Papa Bear” all the time, and another teammate I started calling Pikachu because when we have to grab someone to drill a technique, I would look at her and say, “I choose you, Pikachu!”. Instead of a nickname, we turned my last name into a verb; if I get a choke and the person goes to sleep, they’ve been “Lantz’d”
As for my internet nickname like my twitter, “That Classy Broad”, it’s more I was getting tired of lame usernames, and it’s funny!
I’m just called clinzy, because that’s how I post on the internet. In my head, it’s C – Linzy, (since it’s my first initial/last name), but everyone else pronounces it clin-zy. A guy I used to work with even made up a story about dryer sheets that get stuck to your clothes and then fall out of your pants as you’re walking to work being called clinzies. If you see one in the bushes or a stairwell or something, you’ll have good luck. It’s not terribly intimidating for a fighting name, but the story still makes me giggle.
70 comments? this place is on fire!
What’s the use in having a romantic name when you’re on the mats. Oh wait…maybe it means I’ll be seduced on the mats by a dude with a hot chest and abs who can do 50 pull ups and 2000 push ups. Yeah, what use is that?
————————————-
Sounds like he’d be too busy doing calisthenics to seduce you.
Hmm. I named you, so am thoroughly enjoying these posts on your nick name. I have eaten my share of JuJuBees. They are sweet but hard little things, that have pulled many a filling from my teeth. They are tenacious and never let go, and I couldn’t stop buying them. Loved the flavor and the challenge of them. JuJu gets my vote. It says alot about you and your sport.
The Flintstones came out when I was in 5th grade. I instantly became Dino the Dinosaur when the kids weren’t calling me DeanaBeana. I like your name a whole lot better than mine!!!
Love you, mom!
In my son’s “Time for Kids,” one of their top inventions of 2010 was a Robo-Teacher that they are using to teach English in South Korea. Could this Robo-Teacher be . . . Julia? I vote for Robo-Teacher!!
[…] most recent (super cute) post, Your BJJ Nickname, has a great thread of comments on readers own nicknames and Julia’s hunt for an appropriate […]
hi there I am the Mamute, which is portugese forMammoth. the nickname has stuck although it was just given to me as a joke but i adopted the name and had a patch designed and have been called that for 2 years now, I am like the Meerkatsu and slideyfoot
Mamute has been doing BJJ for 5 years now and is a purple belt under Roger Gracie
I totally forgot about this…but I have really long *thick* hair, almost down to my butt (I really need to get to the hairdresser…I just…hate the hairdresser) Anyways, ponytail does NOT work, neither for bjj nor for karate, cause my hair is so thick it won’t stay (it’s pretty soft too, which I think has something to do with it as well)..so I tie it into pigtails and braid it…so sometimes the people at my dojo call me “pipi longstockings” 🙂