M is for Mick

Mick or Mickey

1. Slang: Usually disparaging and offensive - a slang name for an Irishman or a Roman Catholic

2. My Dad

Yes, my dad, an American of Irish Catholic descent goes by the name Mick...specifically, Mick O'Donnell. Even funnier is that it was his mother's fault he carries that nickname.

According to family lore, shortly after my Grandma Aggie and Grandpa Odie got married, they started trying to have children. While they eventually went on to have 3 kids, 2 boys and a girl, that first baby, my dad was extremely slow to come. My Grandma had a little picture of a baby that she kept in her kitchen (think or a Gerber baby picture) and, as she got frustrated over their unsuccessful efforts to have a baby, she started shaking her fist at the picture every time she walked by it.And, every time she shook her fist at that picture, she would say "When are you going to get here you little Mick?" Well, when my dad was born, he carried on the family tradition of being named after his father. He carried the rather unwieldy moniker of Owen Joseph O'Donnell III. That wasn't what he was called though. From day one, he was my Grandma's little Mick or just Mick. That has led to a lifetime of "No, I'm sure. My name isn't Mickey or Michael. It is Owen." I think sometimes even the family forgets that his given name isn't Mick.

To the rest of the family he is Mick, Uncle Mickey, or Grandpa Mick. To me he is simply Dad.