P-Money

Sarah Switlik, 18, a Babson College student from Princeton, N.J., said her mother, Pam, wasn't thrilled at first when Sarah called her P-Money. "Initially my mom said, 'Really, Sarah,' exasperatedly. Now when she's texting she signs off, 'Love, P$.' It makes her feel like one of the girls."

Walter Chick's sons renamed him "Atahualpa" (pronounced Atta-who-all-pah) when they were learning about the Incan sovereign. "I thought it was pretty bizarre," said Chick, who lives in Winchester.

But the name grew on him, so now he's Atahualpa - or sometimes Dada-hualpa or just Hualpa. "They'll call, 'Hey, Atahualpa!' and I'll come over."

Caroline Gaulin, 22, of Greenwich, Conn., yelled "My bad, G-Dog!" to her father, Dan, during a basketball game to make light of an error she'd made. "After that we started calling him G-Dog," she said. "Now he loves it."

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