On The Loose

What’s your camp name?

Or “what I’ll be telling the help desk at the store to call over the loudspeaker.”

When I tell people I work for the Girl Scouts, or when a friend of mine calls me Stormy, I often get asked why are nicknames necessary? Why have nick names at camp? Honestly, my initial thought is along the lines of "Why not? Wouldn't you like to be called something else for three months out of the year? Isn't name calling supposed to be positive?"
That's not the real answer.

When Girl Scouting was founded in the US by Juliette Low in the early 1900's, it was inappropriate for young girls to call their adult leaders by their first names, but it was also agreed that Girl Scouts was not such a formal environment that girls should refer to their leaders and other trusted adults by their surnames ("Ms. Low"). The solution to the problem was the start of the Girl Scout tradition of "camp names" or nicknames to be used in place of real names. Our own founder, Juliette Low was known to most as "Daisy" (hence the naming of our youngest age group, the Daisy Girl Scouts). 

A camp name is a name that describes you in some way. It could be an animal or insect you relate to, a favorite food, or plant, or any sort of name that you connect with. Once you choose a camp name you must always keep it. The only way you can change it is if you change camps, and even then, it's usually not something you would want to do unless you have to. You're name could be "dolphin" or "flipper" because you love to swim and play in the water. Or it could be "Pokey", because that was your favorite pet turtle's name when you were a kid. My name is "Stormy" because she was my favourite character in the TV show Rainbow Brite, because I like summer storms a lot (unless of course it makes the campers cry).
 

Camp names serve all kinds of purpose in the camp environment. They clear up confusion when you have staff who have the same name (Any counselor named Ashley or Sarah will agree). Camp names give the counselor some anonymity outside of the camp environment. Camp names are easier for campers to remember, and give the campers a way to relate to you. As you go on throughout life, and as people find out you worked at a Girl Scout camp, they will likely ask you your camp name. They are a way for Girl Scouts to relate to one another as sisters. Having a camp name is a rite of passage for CIT's (Counselors in Training), and counselors who are taking pride in working at camp for the first time.

When I went to camp we didn't get to know the counselors names unless we were good, or had been there for years, or had the decency to write to them when they were at camp or during the school year. Now it’s often the norm to tell campers your camp name at the end of the week (I personally hate this, though I understand the reasons why).

Other nicknames I have considered included "Shamrock," but we already had a Clover at my first camp; "Narrin" but it was halfway through the summer before I thought of that one; and "Godzilla." And even though I have switched camps before and can technically change it my mom made this point to me: “Stormy is now your professional reputation. Your camp directors know you as Stormy, when they give a reference it’s for Stormy. Changing your name is changing who you are.”

Funny enough, the first girl scout camp counselors I had at Narrin had us pick camp names as well. I'm sure they got in trouble for it (you must know your campers real names, in case of emergencies), but my first camp name, at age 10, was Kirby. Kirby was my dog, and she was named after the vacuum cleaner.