In Young Mungo, most characters go by nicknames, not their given birth names. The notable exception is the characters that are closest to Mungo. Characters like Jodie and James do not go by nicknames because no emotional distance is needed between who they are and what they mean to Mungo.

Mungo has a complicated relationship with his brother Hamish. Though Hamish protects his brother, Hamish is violent and impatient with Mungo, eager to mold him into a tough and brutal street thug. Hamish goes by the nickname Ha-Ha—an ironic nickname given that Hamish’s life is full of darkness.

Mungo has two nicknames for his mother: When she is sober and even kind, she is Mo-Maw; when she is drunk and belligerent, she morphs into Tattie-bogle. This allows Mungo to separate her two personas and therefore remind himself that Tattie-bogle is a frightening but temporary state of being. Tattie-bogle is the Scottish slang term for scarecrow; applied to Maureen, the nickname signifies that when drunk, she is only a simulacrum of a person, hollow on the inside.

Mungo’s primary antagonist has the fitting nickname Gallowgate—the entrance to  the gallows where prisoners are executed. The narrowing nickname properly foreshadows Gallowgate’s evil and cruelty—and his rape and near-murder of Mungo.