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Camp names also make it a lot easier for the kids to even be able to pronounce a lot of the internationals' names... it's easier for them to say than most Russian names, let alone anything else, plus easier for them to remember when they are so unique

I work at a girl scout camp and we use camp names. I think that they are a great thing and a great tradition of camp mintahama.
I believe that camp names make the counselors less intimidating to the campers.
It cracks me up to no end when one of my school friends looks through my phonebook on my cell and sees all these weird names like Boomer (my boss), Speedracer, Skittles, Harmony, Skyger, Tecko, Pantsu, Spikez, Bowie
I wouldn't change the camp name tradition for the world.
Everyonce and a while, I'll be out shopping or on a school performance trip and I'll run into campers and they'll get all excited and start calling me Jazz or heaven forbid JazzyPants..that's interesting to explain to your band director.. :p

yeha at my camp we use camp names. When I first got there as a CIT last year, I thought it was really wierd, but I actually really like it. It sure beats having like eight "melissa"s on staff or something, and they are really fun. I don't think that a new personality is necessary for them, but if you want to act differently at camp, surely that's your perogative? i mean, certainly at camp I act differently by not using innapropriate language or crude jokes or anything. When I am "Panda" i try to be a good role model, as opposed to "Miranda" just being one of the gang.

Hello...

as i enter the debate...

I have to say that i have always gone to camps with camp names, and i think that it has in no way inhibited my experiences, i find it amusing that you have to guess the counselors real names. I find that now, as a camp staff mamber that i fit more into my camp name than i ever have my real name. Camp names are a time where we get to choose who we wish to be, and not who our parents made us. I think that they enhance the camp experience because in some way camp names describe their owners more than real names ever could.

This is a consensus post of 3 staff members (SP...DB says Hi)

Also it is helpful because if there are people on staff with the same name when they have a camp name they are diverse different people.
I have never fit my real name, and neither has Dirt, but when you call us by our camp names we fit.

I completely understand why camps use camp names, but I am glad that my camp doesn't use them. I feel that I was given my real name for a reason and I am very proud of it and dislike when people give me nicknames unless there is a true meaning behind it and everyone who uses the nickname is aware of that meaning.

When our new director took his position this winter, we discussed the topic of camp names and he wanted to use them. There were 2 issues that came into play. First was that since we hadn't used them before and I have worked here for 5 years (I'm the longest returning staff), the campers all know my real name anyway. So it would work for the new counselors, but not me. Secondly, I discussed my personal feelings on nicknames (as I stated above). The director was very open to my opinions and concerns and we didn't end up using camp names.

We've never used camp names and I was talking to a friend who went to girl scount camp before and we think that camp names are a little strange. I feel like after 4 weeks of living with a kid you get to know them really well and if I were the camper I wouldn't feel like I could trust the counselor who's name I didn't really know. It's different if on the first day the counselor is like "Hi my name is Kelly but you can call me Loofa cause all my friends do" but if it's like "Hi I'm Loofa but I'm not goign to tell you my real name" then, I agree with camper.. it sketches me out! It's so important in the camper/counselor relationship to trust and respect eachother and I just don't know how that's possible if you can't even know the real name. I think it kind of discounts having a name at all..

Loofa

My camp has a rule about councilers not haveign any contack with campers outside of camp, so i can see a point for it there, and if it was like a tardition then it could be fun, but i wwouldn't like it.

camp names are great!!! this was my 9th year at camp with camp names and i love it! i was never weirded out as a camper by it (its a game to find out the counselors real names) the parents are a little weirded out at first but dont seem to have a problem with it. plus going out in public and yelling "hey firefly!" across walmart is always entertaining, then again we also play marco polo and sing grace when out in the real world. yea, its kinda hard to explain to people why my cell phone is filled with strange names, but camp names are definately awesome and are an important camp tradition.

Our camp uses camp names. Campers and staff members are required to use them. Most staff know other staff members' real names. But campers usually don't know and only find out if the staff member chooses to divulge. I LOVE the camp name thing!

wow people you seriously have to be kidding me... "lets not have nick-names because it defeats our personality" ????? what is that? first of all, we didnt pick or real names, so they cant define us too much, and secondly... as someone said much earlier in this, the people who are anti-camp names, are you using your real names as your user names on this site? i dont think so... granted i go to a girl scout camp, and apperently we are the only ones who use camp names, so i cant really see it from another point of veiw, but to be this againt nick names?... at my camp all of the counsolers have formal name tags with their picture and name on it, and even there they use their camp names... its such a tridition that even if they changed it to people cant have camp names, people would still call eachother by the names theat they have gone by for as long as they had been coming to camp... its like going to school and being asked to call your taechers by their first name... they are mr. smith and mrs. johnson not joe and amy.. just like i go to camp and call people tigger and fizz not erin and sophie... its what they are to everyone that knows them during the summer... and it has a sence of fun to have to guess at their real name all summer, its no fun to have counsolers that go by their real name.. and that is what i have to say on the situation

I work at a Girl Scout camp (the oldest in the US!! and boy are we proud of it) and we use camp names. The way that I have come to understand it over the years is that when we work with kids, we can't disclose any information about our personal lives to them (ie. relationships, age, etc) and so we say that we leave our personal lives at the gate (there's a gate at the entrance). So by having camp names, we get to be someone completely different. Plus, it gives the girls something to look foward to when they become CITs and eventually staff.

Have you ever watched a bunch of people talk themselves in circles? That's what I've been doing with this thread for the last two years.

I've worked at places that have camp names, and places that don't, and from what I can tell, it doesn't really matter either way. If a camper feels like they need to know your real name to be able to trust you, I don't think anyone feels they will turn to stone if they tell. If a parent wants to complain about you, they can make a complaint and your director will still know whose file to pull up.

It's so funny to me how heated the discussion got. Honestly, a camp name is not that different than Micheal being called Mike by his friends, Catherine being called "Kitty" by her cousins, or Sarah being called "Mom" by her chilren. It's. A. Nick-name.

if you want to tell the kids your real name you can in fact at the end of the week we do tell the girls our real names its just fun to have a silly name the girl love it and love trying to guess your real name all week i have a really weird real name so the girl never guess what it is

::looks at watch::
Yup. It's about time for this thread to come back again.

RidgeRocker, you juse made me EL OH EL! Haha.

I do what I can.

i love having a camp name- mine is another girls name to be fair but i still love being called something different. When i am at camp i am Eliza and my attitude does change, because camp is a different world too. Some where where you don't have worry about what you look like etc.

Plus at weekends we still call each other our camp names just because people introduced themselves as fluff (wow what a great camp name!!!) or whatever not by their real name.

i think its great- plus you can figure out what the kids are going to be like depending on that they call themselves. lol

Here's the famous thread. Happy reading.

Nice work Canuck!

There's one more on this that I remember but can't seem to find using search. I suggested the camp name of Princess Consuela Bananhammock and camper figured out it was a reference from Friends.

Can someone try and find it?