Arctic residents share their favorite nicknames

“The Cupcake Lady” Amelia Bodfish, Atqasuk

Amelia Bodfish is an avid Atqasuk baker who makes all types of cupcakes and cakes. A few years ago, she would send birthday cakes regularly to family and friends in Utqiagvik through Ravn and Wrights Air.

Bodfish’s friend who works for the North Slope Borough Search and Rescue Department sometimes sent her eggs to support her culinary endeavors, and in return, Bodfish would send back cupcakes with non-emergency Search and Rescue flights with freight drop offs. That’s why a Search and Rescue pilot gave Bodfish a nickname the Cupcake Lady.

“I don’t know their names and they probably don’t know mine, so they just refer to me as the Cupcake Lady,” she said about pilots. “I like the nickname. I am a self-taught baker and to be known as ‘the Cupcake Lady’ brings me a sense of accomplishment.”

“Della Hoya” Della Segevan, Atqasuk

Della Segevan got her nickname Della Hoya back in the early 90s when the boxer Oscar Dela Hoya won his first boxing championship. Segevan was at my friend Kiki’s house watching TV.

“Next thing you know she yells ‘Della Hoya!’” Segevan said. “It stuck even to today and some people asked me if that was my last name.”

Segevan said she likes her nickname and even started a TikTok account under Della Hoya that now has over 14.6 M views.

“It brings out my personality and suits me well,” she said about her nickname, “and brings me happiness when I see people from all over calling me Della Hoya.”

“Tatoe” Tatum Rexford, from Utqiagvik

Growing up in Utqiagvik, Tatum Rexford received a nickname from her great aunt, great uncle and a few uncles and aunties. They started calling her Tatoe, similar to the word potato, and never told Rexford why.

“My family called me that for years,” she said. “I would go visit them as a little girl and they would just call me that.”

To continue with the potato nickname theme, in school, Rexford became Tatertot. Meanwhile, in her family, most of Rexford’s siblings and cousins have their own nicknames. Her brother, for example, was called Carrott or Geppetto.

“A very unique way to identify us as children growing up,” she said. " I think it was a way of them showing us their love.”

“Miracle Boy” Ayden Evikana, Nuiqsut

Ayden Evikana was born 2 years ago in Nuiqsut needing a thymus transplant to build an immune system, his mother Eunice Pausanna said.

“My 2-year-old is a miracle,” she said. “He came along 2 years of his age and still waiting on a transplant.

The family had to relocate to Anchorage, go to Portland for Evikana’s heart surgery and go back to Anchorage. They are on the waiting list for a transplant in North Carolina.

In two years, the boy hasn’t left the hospital yet.

All nurses at ANMC call him little fighter, little goofball,” Pausanna said. “I go visit him everyday and say, ‘My Miracle Boy.’”

“Moonie” Harold Lambert, Kotzebue

Right after he was born, Harold Lambert received a nickname from his mother who called him Moonie because he had a my full round and smiley face. Then Billy Idol’s song Mony Mony - a hit back then – came out, and Lambert’s nickname stuck with him.

“Anyone who calls me Moonie brings me back to my childhood,” Lambert said, “the real people I remember growing up with.”

“Radar” George Lambert, Kotzebue

George A. Lambert received his name after his grandfather George “Stubby” Lambert. His mother Paulette Schuerch wanted to give him a nickname Turtle, after NINJA Turtles that just came out back then, but his father Harold Lambert had another idea.

George “Stubby” Lambert lost his eyesight when Harold Lambert was 8 years old, but he kept himself busy and active, and when his six children tried to sneak around, he caught them every time.

“His hearing was so well tuned and he knew that home he built better than we did,” Harold Lambert said. “You ever tried to sneak in the door after curfew and have your blind dad waiting with his leather belt behind the door after you close it?”

Harold Lambert decided to give his son a nickname Radar – a popular x-country snowmachine and an association with his father, George A. Lambert’s grandfather.

“It reminds me of our dad,” Harold Lambert said.

“Momma Doll” Blanche Myrtle Swanson, Kotzebue

Swanson received a name Blanche Myrtle after her two grandmothers, and her aunties and uncles gave her a nickname Momma Doll since she was born.

“Let’s just say I’m their favorite,” she said. “I am honored to be named after both of my Ahnas, especially since I wasn’t able to meet them as they passed away before I was born.”

“Duke” Bridgette Ahkivgak, Atqasuk

Bridgette Ahkivgak has not one nickname, but three. Her uncle Ziggy Aiken gave almost everyone in town a nickname, and hers is Attack Um.

“I have no idea why he would call me that but it’s hilarious,” she said.

Ahkivgak’s aaka and aana call Ahkivgak Duke, and she often wonders why. One idea is that Duke sounds similar to her Eskimo name, Tuuluk.

Lastly, Ahkivgak’s late aunt Harriet nicknamed her Fergie. like the singer.

“One time, she called me that in front of her friend who I had just met and she thought that was my real name,” she remembered. “We had a good laugh.”

“Yipper” Wilbur Karmun Jr., Kotzebue

When Wilbur Karmun Jr. was in college, his roommate from Reading, Pennsylvania, would say ‘Yipper’ all the time. Karmun came back to Kotzebue after college and started using the word as well.

“It stuck!” he said.

At work, Karmun’s coworkers call him Wibler from time to time, after he misspelled his name himslef.

“This started on the day I was given work gloves for linework – my boss told us to write our names on all our gear,” he said. “I wrote Wiblur, and that is how I got my nickname at work for the past 38 years.”

“Funny” Emily Murray, Golovin

Emily Murray received a nickname Funny from her father when she was little.

“I used to always want to follow him all over,” she said. “I’d lose my breath – It’s called ‘Ahhh’ in our language. But I’d regain my breath back. He said, ‘That girl is so funny!’ so everyone calls me that.”

Santa “Cindy Allred”

When Cindy Allred’s sister Holly was around 4 years old, she started calling Allred “Santa” and insisted to everyone that she was the real Santa Clause.

“She was quite stubborn about it and we couldn’t convince her otherwise,” Allred said. “My family still calls me Santa to this day.”

“Big Boy” Lee Staheli, Kiana

Since Lee Staheli was a little boy, he was always helping out his parents with the family business Lee’s Sea Air. He would operate loaders to offload cargo planes and do stuff for his parents that normal kids wouldn’t have the chance to do.

“He was like a big boy,” Brice Nelson said. “Everyone just calls him Big, for short.”