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Nicknames from the last century
Feb. 24th, 2012 09:32 pmI've been thinking about the way girls in the early 20th century of a certain class/ethnic group all had nicknames of a certain type. Inspired by today's NYTimes obituary for Aurelia Clifton Brown, born 1925, Ardmore, Pennsylvania - known as "Thistle"!
Ardmore (which happens to be the name of the street I grew up on) is right near Bryn Mawr (where I went to college for 2 years) - and for years our Alumnae Magazine was full of the exploits - and then the deaths - of a generation or two of women christened things like Aurelia and Gertrude, but sporting nicknames like Wiggsy and Kitten and Ralph - and, later, Muffin and Bitsy.... (I think "Thistle" caps them all, though! Why wasn't I named Thistle?).
So: Do you have any such nicknames in your family? May I know/steal them?
The novel I'm working on - which draws on aspects of the great and prolific Mary Roberts Rinehart's hilarious & educational classic, BAB: A SUB-DEB* (readable/downloadable here!) - but is set in & around Riverside about 15 years after TPOTS, with a new cast of young main characters (and a bunch of annoying adults you've met before, when they were much younger) . . . . well, in my efforts to make sure that my imaginary city remains a big old MASHUP (because I always wanted it to partake of the best of many periods without belonging to any one of them), I was thinking of giving the girls nicknames like that. Only different. I mean... Thistle! Does it get any better?
But does anyone know how this custom started? I suspect it has something to do with English girls' schools - and I know some of you are experts on the literature of that tradition! - and I also know it wasn't prevalent in, say, 1820 (was it?) . . . any theories of what happened? Did it have something to do with being more like boys?
And do you choose your own? is it given by other girls? does it come to school with you already from your family?
I don't promise to do this, in the end. But it will be fun to learn!
( *BAB text excerpt: )
Ardmore (which happens to be the name of the street I grew up on) is right near Bryn Mawr (where I went to college for 2 years) - and for years our Alumnae Magazine was full of the exploits - and then the deaths - of a generation or two of women christened things like Aurelia and Gertrude, but sporting nicknames like Wiggsy and Kitten and Ralph - and, later, Muffin and Bitsy.... (I think "Thistle" caps them all, though! Why wasn't I named Thistle?).
So: Do you have any such nicknames in your family? May I know/steal them?
The novel I'm working on - which draws on aspects of the great and prolific Mary Roberts Rinehart's hilarious & educational classic, BAB: A SUB-DEB* (readable/downloadable here!) - but is set in & around Riverside about 15 years after TPOTS, with a new cast of young main characters (and a bunch of annoying adults you've met before, when they were much younger) . . . . well, in my efforts to make sure that my imaginary city remains a big old MASHUP (because I always wanted it to partake of the best of many periods without belonging to any one of them), I was thinking of giving the girls nicknames like that. Only different. I mean... Thistle! Does it get any better?
But does anyone know how this custom started? I suspect it has something to do with English girls' schools - and I know some of you are experts on the literature of that tradition! - and I also know it wasn't prevalent in, say, 1820 (was it?) . . . any theories of what happened? Did it have something to do with being more like boys?
And do you choose your own? is it given by other girls? does it come to school with you already from your family?
I don't promise to do this, in the end. But it will be fun to learn!
( *BAB text excerpt: )