My Name Is Borden. Quincy Borden…

Blogging, family, humor, lessons learned, reading 2 Minutes

Last week I wrote a post about how I find it annoying that when I sign my name as Jim at the end of an email, many people will write back with “Dear James”.

To me, it’s a sign of lack of caring, a lack of paying attention to the details, and disrespect. I was surprised at how many people wrote back saying they have had the same experience and the same feelings.

I also mentioned at the end of that post how my nickname is Quincy, and some people were curious about how that nickname came about.

Some astute readers also noticed that the icon that goes with my WordPress name is the letter Q – that is indeed in recognition of my nickname.

I guess it all started about 50 years ago, in grade school. As young, immature boys are wont to do, we would often call each other the stupidest name we could come up – while keeping it clean, of course. I went to Catholic school after all 🙂

As an example, the name of one of the guys in the board game Mystery Date was Poindexter, and nobody wanted to get him as their date (side note – I had two older sisters…). So that was a good name to insult the other guys in my class with at recess. There were also the usual names like “four eyes”, “stinky”, and “weakling”.

Our teacher, Sister Dolores, seemed to be aware of our naming game. I have a clear memory of reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, starring Ichabod Crane, and in the middle of a discussion, Sister Dolores turns to me and says “Now there’s another name you can use Borden”. And I’m sure I did.

But by far the name I used most often to insult other people was Quincy. I just thought it was the weirdest and funniest name I had ever heard. I would say things like “You’re such a Quincy!’ or “Don’t Be a Quincy!” Of course, these had no specific meanings, other than to ridicule the other person.

And I guess I must have used it way too much because I became known as the Quincy guy. And before I knew it, that’s what everyone was calling me.

When I graduated from eighth grade, I thought it might be all over. But that did not happen. One guy from my grade school went to the same high school as me and continued to refer to me as Quincy at high school. And soon enough, that became my nickname in high school.

And then, as fate would have it, two guys from my high school went to the same college as me, and before I knew it, everyone I knew on campus referred to me as Quincy. I’m guessing many people didn’t even know my real name.

I even had a weekly advice column in the college newspaper for two years called “Dear Quincy”.

When I met my future wife at a college party, I was introduced to her as Quincy. And that is what she has called me for the past 40 plus years. As have all her relatives, and all our neighbors.

When I dressed up as a clown to perform at a few kids parties when our kids were little, my moniker was “Quincy the Clown”.

In fact, just about the only people who call me Jim are the people I work with.

So that’s the story of how I got my nickname; I guess it proves that old saying:

“I’m rubber, you’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you…”

And it’s stuck to me for over 50 years…

*image from Pinterest

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

Published

72 thoughts on “My Name Is Borden. Quincy Borden…”

  3. Young, immature boys sometimes grow up to be old immature boys.🤣 We have no shame. I’m betting this is the only place I will see a reference to the game Mystery Date tonight. I remember playing that game with one of the neighborhood girls. She thought anything was better than the bozo she was hanging out with.

    There was one cool Quincey—Dr. Quincy starring Jack Klugman. Of course, that’s no comparison to Quincy the Clown.

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  4. An entertaining tale Quincy…I loved that show…we were never ever allowed nicknames ..my mother was a stickler that you were called your given name and nothing else..trust me no one argued with her if someone dared to try she just wouldn’t answer to anything apart from her given name…When Our Jamie born and named that is his name not James as it was so ingrained in us that we had a given name and that was it…A few call me Caz but not in my mothers hearing…haha

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      1. It does…Americans seem to like nicknames as when had our restaurant/bar my dear friend Barbara came on the radar as Sophia that was the name she gave the staff for her bill…Long story short when we are together we are Lola, Sophia, Roxy and Ethel…Who am I ? Haha ..only in Thailand…

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  6. Hi Q, I never really thought about your gravitar picture, but it is interesting. I have been called everything under the sun: Robear, Robert, Rebecca, Ronnie, Roddie, Roberto and a firm favourite, Robin. Rarely am I called Robbie by people who don’t know me. I think they just can’t get it and so they try to find an alternative name they think fits a very bossy but small blonde woman who likes to wear pink flowers.Personally, I always favoured Princess Peach Blossom, but my family weren’t keen.

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    1. OK, PPB. I have not been called that many names, but I don’t get why it is so confusing. Robbie seems like an easy name to say and remember. I like your self-description!

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  7. Fun tale of how you became … and remain … Quincy!!! I shan’t tell you some of the nicknames that were hung on me in grade school, for there is really no humour in them and thankfully they didn’t stick past about junior high!

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      1. Now that you mention the Q, of course I’ve seen it all the time, just never ‘noticed’ it in that I hadn’t thought about it. Thank you for realising the gap in my knowledge and filling it – the mark of a good teacher. 🙂

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  9. I always wondered about the “Q” moniker on your WP site, but did not want to be rude and ask. Now it all makes sense. I knew if I was patient, the truth would reveal itself. What a heart-warming story that I am sure brought memories back to a lot of your readers. You are the proud owner of an alias. Jim, aka “Quincy”, Borden. It has a nice ring to it!

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  11. so many lessons in this, jim. I love how nicknames come into being, they always grow organically, cannot really be contrived, and stick and grow. here’s to you, q. and I kind of like it as a nickname.

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  12. Like you, I went through school hardly ever being called by my first name. Some called me Pilch (an abbreviation of my surname), others knew me as Chip (from my initials – CHP) and then there was Glen, which takes much more explanation! I answered to all of them, which could be confusing for opposing football teams, so there can be advantages in a nickname or several 😉

    And thanks for explaining Q, though it has rather shattered my image of you as a secret agent in deep cover as an educationalist!

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      1. At least you feel at home with it. We had a kid at school who lived on a farm and was known as Pongy all the way through – and still answered to it afterwards! I’ve written about my name a couple of times, but that was before we followed each other. If you’re really interested (or fighting boredom) the title of the most recent is What’s In A Name? and I expect you could find it via the search box on my site. Both of your guesses were way wide of the mark, btw 😉

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      2. I had to look up what Pongy referred to – poor kid. Tough name to separate yourself from. I will search for the post you mention. And it’s a good think I’m not a betting man!

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      3. It had the merit of being accurate! One of our crowd bumped into him several years later in town, by which time he was married – even his wife called him by that name. I’m not a betting man either – my pension wouldn’t stand it!

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  14. After reading this childhood story, I’m sure glad I stopped calling my fellow classmates, “Cupcake.” But I think Quincy is a cool name. It sounds secret agentish to me, perhaps even better than Bond, James Bond.

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  16. That is a great story about your nickname. I thought Quincy might be related to the TV show. That’s the only Quincy I knew of. Its pretty amazing how only one or two people were enough to make the name stick. I take it you didn’t mind. It is certainly a unique name. It sounds like the blogging community and your work colleagues are the only ones who call you Jim. Do we now have permission to use your real name? 😃

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  18. Thanks for solving my curiosity! Fun story. What goes around comes around they say.:) My nicknames are too long to list. When you have a last name like “Geigley”, you can imagine the most common name to come out of it. Plus when you are short, there are tons of names, and I have heard them all!

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  21. I love this story about how you received your nickname! When I hear a Quincy I think of Dr. Quincy which I used to love!! So I think of the name Quincy as smart and wavy!! I have noticed the Q but never thought of the why behind the what!! Again, loved this post!!

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  22. Ah, that explains the Q. After reading a couple of your posts last January, I noticed the Q. I of course it was a reference to Q-Anon. I almost didn’t follow you, but I thought ‘he hasn’t written anything obnoxious yet and I can unfollow whenever I want.’ Glad your Q didn’t chase me away.

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