Nicknames

I remember when I was a youngling and attending summer camp (before I joined the Jedi training academy) that a lot of the "cool" kids had nicknames. I always thought nicknames were cool because they were unusual and said more about the person than most normal names. I always thought it was exceptionally cool when these nicknames were also used by adults in the camp (counselors, group leaders, etc.). My attempts to get a nickname failed tremendously back then. In retrospect it was probably because I was trying to come up with a nickname myself and that's simply not how it's done; others that know you have to come up with it. Why they never did is still somewhat beyond me. Maybe it was because my first name was anything but ordinary. Or maybe it was because they just didn't know me well enough. At any rate, as it turns out I have aquired a few nicknames since day camp and they are as follows:

Gangsta: This was given to me in college by my friend Mike. It's not a stand alone nickname, but is inserted into my full name as "Hayden-William Clinton 'Gangsta' Courtland." I honestly don't know what caused Mike to come up with this, but it may have been because I spent a lot of time in college talking about how I wanted to bust a cap in this person and that professor and so on. Currently, only Mike uses this nickname for me.

Sunshine: This was given to me in my bookstore days. For those that know me, it's pretty clear that I can be rather somber and brooding. It's sort of my default state unless I work against it. I applied to be a bookseller at Borders and when I got shuffled downstairs and became what is now termed a barista, well, people started calling me sunshine to reflect the 'bizzarro world' of my personality during that year. I'm a lot more outgoing nowadays, so people generally don't call me this, unless maybe if I'm having a bad day.

Single H: This came about when Greg (aka Triple G) brought the nicknaming convention to the forefront at the end of our Decipher days. Basically your nickname is the number of times the first letter of your first name appears in your combined first and last names. For me, H only appears once, so I'm single H. For the most part, only people tied to my past Decipher gaming life call me by this name, but there are a lot of them out there, so this nickname is still active.

Superman: As the imagery for this entry suggests, Superman is a nickname that I have been given, but only in the past year. What's interesting about this nickname is that it came independently from people at my gaming store and people on my soccer team. The guys see different sides of me and yet they've converged on this same nickname. At the store I think it has to do with my efficiency at multi-tasking and having a commanding presence when judging tournaments. At soccer I mostly play in goal and apparently I've had some flying saves that have warranted my being named after the Man of Steel.

So, I've finally gotten my wish and I even have nicknames that differ depending on the circle of people that know me. Pretty cool I say. So, does anyone have a nickname I'm not aware of?