My friends - I am dropping by to give you the solution to the latest Skills Puzzler, which dealt with sobriquets, or "nicknames". There were 22 of you who attempted this one on various names, while 6 people attempted all of them. Of those 6, there were 3 who aced the list - really outstanding. But beyond that, everyone who attempted the task was correct on some one or another of the nicks which I thought would be the most challenging. I probably need to say again(since a couple of people inquired about this when they offered their solutions) that these sobriquets could also be, with perhaps an exception or two, the actual given name of an individual, and not a sobriquet at all. I mentioned that in the original Puzzler narrative, but it is worth noting again. In my own lineage, for example, I have a ggg-aunt whose given name was actually Betsey - not Elizabeth. So we do have to always bear that in mind. Here are the *usual* given names for the sobriquets shown in the Puzzler: Nellie ---------- Eleanor Ade ------------ Adam Xr----------------Christopher Hettie------------Esther Liam-------------William(although, as one sharp subscriber pointed out, this is an actual Irish name, so care should be used here) Nancy----------Agnes (the more popular given name for which Nancy is seen is "Ann") Succe----------Suzanne or Susannah Sandy----------Alexander Lum-------------Columbus (we also sometimes see "Bus" as a sobriquet for Columbus, but this is more common in the 20th Century) Miah------------Jeremiah (more commonly, we will see Jere or Jerrie for Jeremiah) ~~~~~~~~~ It is always worthwhile to have these sobriquets housed in our mental hard disk, since we never know when some scribe who always knew Columbus Parkenfarker by the name "Lum", may have put that nickname down in a record book. -B ============================================================