Hello, My name is Spoon

"Spoon" - The March Hare, Alice in Wonderland

Russians names are rather long and have a handful of set nicknames that come with each.  To add ‘itchka’ to the end of something is a way to show endearment and care/love.  A name with ‘itchka’ is called a dominionative and is usually used by parents and significant others, sometimes very close friends.  MY name is rather foreign as it ends in a consonant (strange for feminine names in Russian) and also because a dominionative is difficult for Lauren.  One of my professors however, called me Лоритчка /“Loritchka” the in class and it made me smile bigger than the Cheshire Cat!  I was so happy to be called by an endearing nickname that I did not pay attention to the fact that she had not fully pronounced “Loritchka” and had instead said it so quickly (as is the norm) that she sortof garbled the second syllable into something that sounded like “Lortchka”.  “Lortchka” sounds exactly like ложка /“lodgka” which means spoon.  Which, of course, none of my classmates had missed.  Awesome.