Me/name

Some facts about my being named "Woozle":

• It derives from a scene in the children's book Winne-the-Pooh.
  • See Wikipedia for an explanation of where it comes up in the story.
• My parents started using it as a nickname during the first week after I was born.
• It's the first name I remember being called.
• It has always felt clearly like it refers to me, is me.
• As of mid-June 2019, "Woozalia" is my legal first name, with "Woozle" as a diminutive.

Some History

When I first switched schools to Durham Academy in 2nd grade, my teacher (Mrs. Land) wouldn't let me sign my work "Woozle" anymore, and made me sign by my full name. I went along with it at the time, because I was an obedient child – but in retrospect, I wish I had kicked up a fuss.

I only adopted "Nick" because it was better than the full version of my first name – and I didn't think of doing that until several years later.

In high school, there was this one incident where Jenny was trying to get my attention and kept calling "Nick! Nick!", but it wasn't until she called out "Woozle!" that I heard her. She mainly called me "Woozle" after that.

I think it was at that point that I started to realize that allowing them to take "Woozle" away from me had been a mistake.

Unfortunately, I continued to use "Nick" in most contexts, because I thought I had to. I'm finally realizing now (2017) that this was also a mistake, and plan to have it changed to "Nicola" (and demoted to second place) as soon as I have the mental energy and time to confront the unnecessary right-wing-induced bureaucracy. Where traces of "Nick" still remain in my paperwork, it can then be short for "Nicola", and I won't have to have all my checks and stuff reissued immediately.