Children often have trouble pronouncing certain words or sounds. Their little mouths are just not ready to make some sounds.
Sometimes those mispronunciations stick. A nickname is born.
My uncle Keith is a good example. One of the many babies could not manage his name for some reason. It always came out as Deke.
Everyone in the family called him Deke. It just seemed natural after a while.
Deke attended school in the same town as we did. He was 5 years older than me. Often after school or sports practice or before a sporting event he came to our house instead of going home to the farm.
One day there was a knock on the door. Mom answered it. There was a young man from school wanting to know if Zeke was there.
Mom had no idea who Zeke was. The young man had heard us calling him Deke and thought his name was Zeke.
We laughed about it for days after. To us Deke and Zeke sounded nothing alike.
Deke died almost two years ago. We still called him Deke.
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