With the vague word for something in front, 되다 means turning into something worthwhile: trim it and it might come to something, a nickname only works if people relate to it, the conviction that this is going somewhere. A separate use in these lines attaches the same ending to a number for approximation, as in it has been about thirty-five years. Watch out for the adverb 되게, meaning really or very, which appears in one line and looks similar but is not this pattern.