By Izzy Lee and Malone Morchower

Charlie as a child.

Nicknames: Oxford Languages defines them as “a familiar or humorous name given to a person or thing instead of or as well as the real name.”

For Charlie Cheek (’24), it was purely a humorous start to a long-lasting nickname. His chubby cheeks were the catalyst for his nickname. Cheek says that in preschool, “my cheeks had that baby fat or whatever,” and a fellow classmate deemed him as “Chubby Cheeks.” After he graduated preschool and started his Collegiate career, his nickname followed. Unfortunately for Cheek, the “cheeks” part faded, and he was now known simply as “chubby.” But he wasn’t offended by this. It was rather just a light-hearted nickname that stuck with him.

Then, Walker Bain (’24) notoriously changed his name permanently. “Chubby” transformed to “Chubbz,” and it lingers with him to this day. 

Chubbz explains that “Even my parents call me Chubbz, unless I’m in trouble…” Not only his peers and parents but even his teachers refer to him as Chubbz. Middle School science teacher Farley Macdonald and Middle School math, swim, and golf coach Mike Peters followed the trend of using “Chubbz” as well.

Little did young preschooler “Chubby Cheeks” know that he would be going on 17 with the same, slightly morphed nickname.

Photos courtesy of Charlie Cheek.