I get questions about my name and nickname(s) often enough that I finally figured I should provide some background information about it.

My given name is Michael. Let me debunk some questions you inevitably have about a girl named Michael. My parents did not want or think they were having a boy. It is pronounced the same as if I were a boy named Michael. It’s not a misspelled version of Michelle or pronounced that way. I was named Michael by my dad who wanted to name his daughter Michael after meeting a friend’s sister with the name during his time in the Boy Scouts. My middle name is short & sweet, thrown into the mix so nurses & doctors got a better idea that I was a girl, and not a boy. That hasn’t prevented confusion later in my life, however.

My nickname of Mika came about from a “Hello, My Name Is…” sticker which was written with the Hawai’ian version of Michael, Mika’ele. This was a souvenir from a Hawai’ian-themed party that was held by friends of my parents. It was posted on my door and when my best friend at the time saw it, she “oooh”-ed at the name and declared she would call me “Mika” from then on since it sounded pretty¹. It really stuck when I transferred from my first high school to the one I graduated from. I was introduced to everyone as Mika, even teachers. I even use it at places of employment except on official paperwork. Mika is used by everyone except by my oldest friends who I’ve known since elementary school and my family.

There are some other exceptions, and only because other friends have come up with variations of this nickname. These include Meeker, Meeks, Michelob, Mikachu², and Jello.

Meeker: My friend Helen, who’s from Cambridge, England always sounds like she’s adding an “er” to words that end in “a”. It’s a British thing, I know, but I think it’s cute.

Meeks: My (N)BFF³ Kelly calls me this. Surprisingly, she’s the only one.

Michelob: My SCBFF⁴ Jenn called me this, after the beer.

Mikachu: This is used by a variety of people when they realize that the pronunciation of Mika is the same to Pika… so Mikachu and Pikachu sounds the same.

Jello: Last, but not least, is Jello from my BFF Amber. How on EARTH can someone get Jello from everything they’ve heard up until now? This is where it gets clever. I used to say that if my last name were Jello, saying my entire name together would make me Michelangelo. Michael Ann Jello… Michelangelo… get it? She jumped on that and started calling me Jello. That name is purely hers, always & forever

I think I’m tapped out on room for nicknames, now!