I Chose Lois

I have 3 older brothers and as a natural consequence of this my entire life I have been subjected to nicknames. Some of these nicknames I’ve liked and others make my cringe. When I was little they called me KK and katydid, neither of which was too bad. When I was 6 the names went downhill, for a year or so my brothers called me Francis and Wishbone. They often teased by calling me Katherine or worse, Kathy. I hated all of their nicknames and would get very upset when they called me those names.

One night I somehow adopted the nickname of Lois. I have a very vague memory of this having something to do with the TV series Lois and Clark, but I really don’t remember the specifics. Somehow this name caught on and while at first I disliked it, I quickly realized it was much better than the alternatives Francis or Kathy. My brothers adopted the name easily and it soon became my identity. I was Lois. Maybe it’s just coincidence that I am majoring in journalism now, or maybe the Lois Lane reference is what led me to this career path.

When my brothers gave me the nickname they were too young to realize the benefits of it. Later in life all 3 would go on dates with girls named Katie, and 2 of the 3 seriously dated girls name Katie. It was a clear and simple distinction, those girls were Katies and I was Lois.

Over the years my brothers have had fun with the name, well mostly my oldest brother Justin. It began with the simple rhyme “nois, Lois” and adapted into games and funny texts rhyming Lois with everything from tow trucks “Tow-is, Lois” to Enya songs, “Orinoco Flow-is, Lois”.

The nickname which originated from my brothers quickly spread. My cousins and my brothers’ friends all took up the nickname. My sisters-in-law refer to me as Lois now and I fully expect my nephew to call me aunty-Lois when he learns how to talk. Often times people don’t realize that I am both Katie and Lois. My family once had some friends visiting and their grandson, who was only 4 looked at his grandpa, who had just called me Katie and said, “Grandpa, that’s not Katie, that’s Lois!”


My most memorable Lois experience was my senior year while on Orchestra tour in San Francisco. We walked into the hotel and throughout the lobby there were giant posters which said LOIS all over them. At first I thought it must stand for something, maybe some weird environmental group, but then I got into the elevator and was surrounded by elderly women who wore Lois name tags. It was an international Lois conference! Just for people named Lois. The next morning at breakfast I explained to them that Lois was my nickname, they were thrilled that I wasn’t just a Lois by birth, but that I chose to be Lois. One of the Lois’s whispered to me “you know Lois stands for ‘Look Out I’m Sexy.” I still have my Lois pin that they gave me.

Through the years my friends and my little sisters have given me numerous other nicknames including: Kat, Kate, Caffeine, Katarina Strofakova, Red, Kiki, Reeves, Reevers, Lowenstine (an adaptation of Lois), Fat Face, Katherine Hepburn and Kathy (only my sisters can ever call me Kathy). But none of these nicknames means as much to me as Lois does.

As a little sister, being teased is something you learn to put up with, at the time I resented the nicknames, but now being teased by brothers is something I miss most about being away from home. No matter what happens in my life whether I am a wife, a mother, a lawyer, a teacher, or even if I become president of the United States I fully expect the name Lois to come with me, because it is part of who I am.