New Panthers cornerback Charles Tillman, on a conference call with local media Friday, explains how he got the nickname ‘Peanut’:

AUDIO:

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TRANSCRIPTION:

“My mom was pregnant. I was really small when I came out. Five pound-ish baby. Very light, very tiny. My mom, her nickname is ‘Tiny.’ I came out of the womb, I pop out, and my aunt Renee, she looked at me and she goes, ‘Man, he’s small like a peanut.’ And the name just kind of stuck. To this day, my mom, dad, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, whatever … nobody calls me Charles. Charles is a foreign name to my family. Everyone calls me Peanut.“When I got to Chicago, (former Bears safety) Mike Brown said, ‘We’re giving out nicknames. If y’all want nicknames, write it out on the board. I didn’t want no crazy nickname as a rookie, so I said, ‘Here, my name’s Peanut.’ So it started out as a team nickname. Players, coaches picked up on it. And then, maybe a year or so later, I made a tackle or something, and I hear the announcer go, ‘Peanut Tillman on the tackle!’ And it’s like, ‘Peanut?’ I guess it’s official now. It’s Peanut Tillman, no more Charles.“Like I said, it started off as like a friend, kind of family nickname. But fans got ahold of it. And like, when we went to the arena, ‘Hey Peanut! Peanut!’ It’s like, what in the?“But I’ll never introduce myself as Peanut. I’ll give you my government name. ‘Hey, how you doing? I’m Charles. Nice to meet you.’ And if you happen to know my name’s Peanut, I think just over time somebody will just say Peanut, and I’m kind of used to it. It doesn’t bother me.”