do your alters have nicknames?

their are 2 alters in our system that do.

christine (who is trying to make a comeback to the front), is known as the mighty oak because no one messes with her, she stands firm like an oaktree

and stacy is the oracle

because she knows everything about everything (or at least that's what she says)

no none of my alters had nicknames other than my own. my system was built to follow the abusers code of do not tell. other nicknames would have disclosed they were there and the abuse. just like they answered to my name they answered to my nicknames. they did not receive any different nicknames because no one knew they were there.

As I discover more of my alters in therapy I find parts with really odd names. A couple I refer to by a nickname because their "real" name is just .... not a real name. I don't know why they come with weird names. Most of them don't have real names like Becky or Julia or Rachel or anything like that. They have names like Silence and Rag Doll and Button. I don't like calling them by those names but some of them insist on it.

There are a few of us who have nicknames, mostly though it's one of us giving someone else one... between two, yeah? Like L.P. would call A, Aquaman because sometimes he is a lake, but I have been known to call A the mental cuddlebug. I had a not so nice nickname give to me by C several years ago that I will not put here... she hated me back then so yeah... not that I blame her, I was not being my best self. We have one who dubbed herself protector kitten and will say things like, "I am protector kitten! Hear me roar!" then she does a little, meek "Mew". I think the only nickname that more than one person has for another would be N, quite a few of us call her the cheerleader because she is really encouraging of everyone else.

We have a few who have weird names to. We have some with directions for names, or places. We have one with a name that is kind of a swear word. *shrugs*

well it is good to do what your alters want.

those names arn't terrible anyway

button's pretty cute (reminds me of the caracther from cinderella)

The majority of my alters have names that just are not names. Blue, Bunny, Sire, Baby, Dragon... Sire goes by Sy at the Celebrate Recovery meeting he attends. For most of them the implied meaning of their name doesn’t fit at all, but they still don’t want to change their names. One of my alters used to call Blue “Boots” so I suppose that was sort of a nickname but not one she wanted.