My nickname was Roo. I earned this from teasing a coworker. We worked at a movie theater. He was the ticket seller and I was the ticket taker on this particular day. For some reason I was teasing him about being in a cage (the ticket booth). It progressed to me calling him a gorilla and him getting very upset. He then asked me how I would like it if he called me a kangaroo. I said that was fine and proceeded to ask all the other employees which they would rather be, a gorilla or a kangaroo. (We had way to much time on our hands!) It was from another employee that I learned that calling my coworker a gorilla could be considered racist and that might be why my coworker was getting so up in arms about it (my coworker happened to be black). I immediately stopped calling him a gorilla and was horribly embarrassed. I would never have called anyone a racial epithet. For some reason, "Roo", short for "kangaroo", stuck to me though. Later, my boss put "Ms. Rooskie" on my nametag. I actually had people ask me if I was Russian (I am clearly Irish).