My ancestors from Norway immigrated to the United States, homesteading on a small mountain in Northern California. They had a number of female children. They all had interesting nicknames: Sarah was Sammy Esther was Lec Gunda or Carrie was Jeffrey Buckeye There was another sibling with a male nickname that I can't recall right now. They were born in the late 1800s. They all packed pistols. I even have a picture of them with their skirts hiked up, with pistols on their hips. They had to be tough, so they gave themselves male nicknames! Go figure. Thankfully, I have the information regarding their actual names. If not, there would be a lot of confusion about who these "men" were. Nancy