Perhaps every culture has special names to refer to children. That’s not hard to believe. But the special, sometimes embarrasing, often affectionate names Jamaicans give kids? Those are unique in every single way.

Some of these references are meant to show affection and those ones have a dual purpose – to shower the kids with love and to heap praises on the parents for bearing these children. Others are just names we use instead of “child” or “kid”. And if you’re a Jamaican who cannot identify with at least one of the names on this list, you may need to check your nationality.

Let’s get to the list of 7 names Jamaicans use to acknowledge children. 

1. Wash belly

This Patois term is used to identify the youngest child in a family. It is also possible that the parents shower this child with the most affection, adoration and care, resulting in the wash belly’s spoilt and whimsical child-like behaviour well into his or her adult years. Do you know a wash belly who can relate?

2. Belly Pain

Any biological child can be described as the ‘belly pain’. The term has a double meaning. It is reflective of pain that the women endures as she gives birth to the child. It also identifies an insolent and ill-mannered child. 

3. One Seed

This term is typically used by Jamaican men to refer to their only child. ‘One Seed’ is also indicative of the championing sperm cell that successfully latched onto the egg cell during conception. 

4. Pickney

Its origins is said to be Spanish & Portuguese; deriving from the word, pickaninny. In a few circles, it is a derogatory label for small children of African descent. However, ‘pickney’ is used by Jamaicans to identify children of all ages, races, and social standings.

5. Pride & Joy

A child who has been bestowed this label is highly adored by his parents and his grandparents, usually for exemplary academic achievements. Every Jamaican child wants to be their parents’ ‘Pride & Joy’.

6. Yute 

This term is synonymous to ‘pickney’ and refers to children of all ages, races and social standings. However, Jamaicans living in urban, low-income communities are more inclined to use this term to refer to children.

7. Womb fruit

In a decade where women, globally, are celebrating the boundless abilities of their bodies, this term affectionately describes the biological child of a woman. In most cases, the child is perceived as a blessing or gift to the mother for enduring the rigours of pregnancy.

An insolent child is one of the greatest disdains of Jamaicans especially if the child chooses to display poor behaviour in public. Therefore, Jamaican parents take great pains to mould their young ones into model citizens. The use of nicknames can be seen as a diplomatic strategy in this moulding process because every Jamaican child prefers to be ‘Mommy’s & Daddy’s Pride & Joy’ and never ‘Mommy’s Belly Pain’. 

Are you Jamaican? What nicknames were you given as a child? Tell us in the comments below. If you’re not Jamaican, tell us about special names for children in your culture.

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Lata!