Living Out Loud 7: By any other name…
Real Name: Rachelle Lee
The initials match those of my father and my late sister. My late sister’s name was Renee Lynn. Both are rather French, and I rather like it. But I hardly ever use it, save for legal documents. My middle name is the same (including spelling) as my father’s and his father’s, so it’s a bit of a family thing. As to the spelling and pronunciation of the first name….we can blame my Mom for that (she misspelled my brother’s name, too).
Since I’m a teacher, I start out every school year trying very hard to pronounce the students’ names correctly (and let me just say - some of them are REALLY impossible). My worry and stress over getting their names right probably stems directly from having to tell every single one of MY teachers, every single year how to correctly pronounce my name, and what I would prefer to be called in class. My first name is pronounced Ra-shell, not RAY-shell or RO-shell, RI-shell or heaven forefend RAY-CHEL or Ra-Quel. J
Other names and the stories behind them, in mostly chronological order:
· Shelley is what the family and general public use. I used to tell everyone that I was a horrible child and my parents quickly tired of using both my first and middle names to yell at me, so they just squished them together to make ‘Shelley’. I also had an art teacher in elementary school that just *loved* my name and would call me “Shelley-belly-full-of-jelly” in a sing-song voice every time I came into class (she still does this - 25 years later). Thank goodness, she’s the only one who ever did that.
· Shortcakes - my paternal grandfather’s nickname for me. He was the only grandparent to nickname all of the kids in my generation. One brother is Alfalfa (from Little Rascals, he used to have a lock of hair that stuck straight up). The other brother is Osh-Kosh (yes, his name is really Josh). I used to sit in the garden (and later my cousin joined me) when I was little as Mom, my aunt, and my grandmother worked at picking veggies or weeds. I always crawled over to the strawberry patch and ate most of the strawberries before anybody else could get to them. So Pappy dubbed me Shortcakes, after Strawberry Shortcakes. To this day, any time he comes across Strawberry Shortcakes stuff (a mug, a pen, candles, etc), he picks them up to give to me next time we see each other. Oh, and my cousin? She’s Sweet Pea - you can guess where she ended up in the garden.
· Sissy - Courtesy of the middle brother, short for sister, not an indication of being a ‘sissy’. I’m really not sure when or why this one came about. The brothers didn’t use it as we were growing up. It’s only been in the last five years that they started using it. The brothers (obviously) are the only ones allowed to use it.
· General - courtesy of one of the first students I taught when I got my first teaching position in Virginia. My last name is the same as a certain WWII general. The student’s last name was Sergeant. General military jokes and order ensued. And even though I have changed schools and states over the last 5 years, the nickname still pops up about once a year.
· Lisette la bergiére - SCA name. SCA folks are the only ones to use it. It’s on my car’s license plate. And it’s not pronounced the same as lucet (making braids) or Lizette, either. Where did I find it? In a Parisian census report from 1528. From the Red Light District of that fair City. Totally true; I picked a Tudor-era prostitute’s name. The byname is French for ‘shepherdess’. I thought it was rather appropriate since I grew up raising sheep. Lisette gets used more often than Shelley, currently. Most of the phone calls and emails are for Lisette, and after being KMOL for two years, even some snail-mail is addressed that way.
· Liseé or Lis - I think that there are only a handful of people in the SCA that shorten Lisette. Those are normally the ‘inner circle’ folks.