Feb

29

What’s in a name…

Filed Under Babbling, The history of me, Writings/Rants 

The other day, I picked up another nickname. And interestingly enough, its only the second one that I’ve ever been given other than some variation of my name. And its not even like I’ve been called anything other than Adam or Cohen. Yup, with the middle name of Jacob, I was never called A.J. growing up, if you could believe that one.

That came from a letter left in my family. When I was born, a dear family friend of my grandparents whom we called Aunt Bertha, wrote me a letter. In the letter, it described how my name was important, the meaning of it, and what it stood for and meant, and because of that, I should never go by A.J. I should never have that type of shortening done to what was already a great name. My parents still have that letter.

So growing up in classes, I was always the “Adam C.” when there was more than one adam in a class. Seeing there was an “Adam D.” and an “Adam F.” that I went to school with, quite often I was well used to being the “Adam C.” And I guess it was alright. Sometimes I was just called “Cohen” by my friends. It helped distinguish me there too.

Then in middle school, that all changed.

Around 5th or 6th grade, I met my friend, Dave Hall. The first time I went over to his house, I met his father, James Hall. I was never to call him Mr. Hall, that was his dad’s name, he said. So I called him Jim. And he? He called me Zeke. Where did he get Zeke from? I couldn’t tell you really. In his own words when he first met me? “You look like a Zeke to me!”

Dave would call me Zeke around our friends, around my parents, around anyone and everyone. So whenever I’d introduce myself, I always said “Hi, my name is Adam, but you can call me Zeke. Just don’t call me late to dinner!” It helped me stick in folk’s minds. I wasn’t just another Adam, no, now I was also Zeke.

Zeke is what I used in a lot of my old screennames and e-mail addresses. I would use it as an icebreaker in meeting new people. It just became me, and I guess it was because not only did I look like a Zeke, but I guess I acted enough like a Zeke to be a Zeke. For my 21st birthday, some of my friends got me a shirt that mimiced the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity on campus. It was green with the giant yellow greek letters Zeta Kappa Epsilon. Not only was I Zeke, but now I could wear it in pride.

And with that, it comes to my last nickname. Kotter. I’ve been affectionately called that on the 7M3 message boards the past few weeks before the show and it was sealed in place on Feb 23rd when the band came out to the “Welcome Back Kotter” theme song. I wish I had more on that joke, but I’ve got nothin’. Love the nickname, though. Works well for me. But if I was only as funny as Gabe Kaplan.

Anyways, for a kid who never grew up with a nickname? I think I’m doin’ pretty good right about now…

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    About The Site


    Thanks for stopping by, folks! My name is Adam J. Cohen, and I'm a guitarist/songwriter in Champaign, IL, recently relocated from Orlando, FL where I'm a UCF grad. Here, you'll find vignettes on my life, setlists and show reviews, and whatever else crosses my mind. Enjoy!