Spoiling Womens Names Many if not a majority of tho names of tlie eiplit or nine hundred girls from the Iubltc schools who have been examined for admission to the Normal College give us the impression that they belong to mere household pets rather than to young women who are approaching maturity and who are engaged in serious work These girls apparcutly prefer the nicknames by which they arc known in tlie family circle and to intimate friends to those with which they were christem d and therefore take pains to adopt them in their signaturus In so doing the public school girls are not exceptional among our young women for it is quite thefashion nowadays for them lo grow so enamored of their nutsery appellations that they cling to them as their iixed and proper name They may even be offended vvlien they are addressed by their correct names which they imagine are less pretty than these put diminutives and some grave grown up women will put 1 la tie or Gtissio Ma mie or Sallic on their cards as if they were in pinafores still The fashion is American but our patriotism cannot make us grow fond of it Tlie nicknames which appear in so large a share of these public school girls signatures would do very well for the pels at a dog show When they are used to express the affectionate regard of near friends ami relatives the3 also may be pretty aud appropriate but they look very silly in a formal signature and surely do not bclit the dignity of womanhood We find for instance among these eight hundred names scores of Minnies arid Mamies and only here and there a Mary a much more euphonious as well as dignilied name Jane is transformed usually into Jennie Caroline into Carrie Ellen into Ella Elizabeth into Liz zie and Bessie Catherine into Katie Martha into Mnttic Margaret into Maggie Anne aud Atiua into Annie and Harriet into Hattic Such absurd names as these appear quite frequently Chat tie Lidie Millie Tillie Kittir Kosie Nettie Iiibbie Aggie and Margie Tlie great aim seems to be to manufacture a name which cuds in ie and in accomplishing it the lincst appellations for women we have names renowned in poetry and in history and of a swocfc and melodious sound are chopped itp into childish diminutives They convey an idea of pettinsss and do uot rightly belong to girls of dignity and character girls like those who arc going to the Normal College to many ot whom will have their living to earn And yet these girls think it is pretty to be known bv such tet names and so discard as ugly and old fashioned the names by which they are christened Wliat wottld they think to see a college register which gave the younir men s names as Jimmic Billio Bobbie Tomraic Charlie Sammie and Dickie This fashion is extending among women and girls arc even named with nicknames only as if they were always to be nothing more than nursery pets And yet this is a period when women arc contending for higher consideration as rational beings and when the range of their occupations outside of the domestic circle is constantly widening and growing in importance Acttt lork Sun
