In My Mother Was Crazy Penny Marshall says when she first went to school her teacher thought she was retarded. She didn’t respond when the teacher called her. Her mother wasn’t fazed by that. She wrote a note telling the teacher to call her Penny, not Carol, her given name. Why? Because her mother didn’t pay any attention to the names on her children’s birth certificates. She called them all by names ending in y. In order to pronounce the final “ee” sound, you have to smile.
Crazy? Maybe. Brilliant? I think so. It was a simple way of adding some happiness to the world.
October 22, 2024
Ih, I so love this!
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…some kids today get stuck with awful names!
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I’ve got to share this with my DIL! Christened “Lois”, her family and childhood friends all called her, “Susie.”
Years later when she and Troy were dating, he’d phone her at a pre-arranged time from his Army post in Germany. One Saturday night while she was at a babysitting job, she overheard the mother angrily telling a caller, “This is the second time you’ve called and there’s still no-one named ‘Lois’ here.”
Oops!
That’s funny. 🙂
That’s a good story! My grandmother called my mother Babe, as did the rest of here family. Only them, though. Alsa, I’ve always been Sandra.
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I never heard that before. Sounds like her mother was quite the character. 🙂
Yes. 🙂
Is this Penny Marshall the actress, sister of Gary Marshall? what a strangely funny story! My first name is Frances. But both my mom and grandmother were Frances, so I was always called Ginny (short for my middle name Genevieve) But once I got into middle school they did not allow any nicknames! What a stupid rule! I could never respond to Frances, plus my husband does not like the name. Almost no one even knows my real first name, and I still always go by Ginny.
Yes, her brother was Gary Marshall. I have to admit, I had never heard of him and didn’t know her name either. I love the name Ginny. 🙂
My brother’s legal name is Terry. He had one teacher who said that was a nickname and she insisted on calling him Terrance. Even after Mom showed the teacher his birth certificate.
My SIL likes nicknames; she called her kids Susie, Maggie, Tammy, Eddie, Sammy, and Davy. I never thought about those all being smiley names. To me they were all attempts to keep her kids babies since she loved babies so much.
Neat stories. 🙂
Great story. My mother was named Mary Phyllis on her birth certificate, but she was always called Phyllis. When she got married, somehow the marriage license was issued as Phyllis. As the years went on, she had a bit of a mess with her driver’s license, Soc Sec. number, etc. Once she got it all straightened out, she always signed everything as Mary Phyllis.
That must have been a real mess!
Interesting, never watched that show.
Oh sorry it was her book
I had heard of the show, but didn’t know anything about her.
My brother was named Charles David MCCall. all his life he was called David, along came the army and he was Charles McCall, my dad was too and they refused to call him David. because of that, when my boys were born I made sure there first name was what I intended to call them. David and Daniel. NOT Dave and Dan, never have never will. there friends call them Dave and Dan, I do not. no nick names from there mom. I was named Sandra, hated Sandy. when I turned 18 I refused to answer to anything but Sandra. Mama and Daddy called me Samar, so does Bob, they started that during the first 12 years that I prayed to turn into a boy…
Well that’s interesting. I wonder why, if she liked names that had the “ee” sound why she didn’t just name her children something that ended in that. It sure would have made things a bit less confusing for people.
I wondered that too!
That is extremely interesting. Thanks for sharing this.
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That was a really good story.
Yes.
in my family it was the idea that the eldest boy and girl were named the same as their parents (I’m not the eldest)
As soon a Mary was born – she promptly became Molly – I’m not sure when I found out that she was really Mary – late teens
As soon as Ingleby was born – gran said he looked like a Billy. But when Billy was a man of world he changed it to Bill
after his wife died, he was more involved with his community. At a session “tell us something about yourself that we don’t know”
so Bill said “I’m not actually Bill” – to which some people said we know that, you’ve William – to which he said “nope” I’m Ingleby – the people got a huge fright
That’s a great story!