Dear Group, In this morning's Niagara Gazette there was an article entitled, "What to Name the Baby" and the subject coincided with a question that one of our list members had just sent me. She asked me, "Is Vee short for something or just a nickname?" Well, first let me answer Cathy's question the same way that I've had to answer that question over these many, many years. Picture this scene-it's late 1934 and I had recently turned three years old. My mother and I are walking down the street when a woman that my mother had met stops to talk with her. The woman looks down at me and asks me, "And what is your name, little girl?" Well, I guess by that advanced age I had already been asked that question before and by then I had an answer already prepared. I simply replied, "My name is Vee-*V* *E* *E*-VEE!! I spelled it out for her so that there wouldn't be any doubt in her mind about my given name, but do you know what? I have an idea that she responded the same way that other people have responded over the entire length of my life. I wouldn't doubt but what her next question to me was, "Yes, but what's your REAL name?" "*V* *E* *E*" I replied in desparation!!! What else could I say-it was my given first name. No Cathy, don't feel embarrassed that you were curious about my name. I was given that name and I know it's an unusual name. But hey, I've always felt that it was fitting that I was given such an unusual name because, as it turned out, I've always been an unusual person! :-) The reason I was probably given that name is that my mother's name was Verna, she didn't like it and so she came up with something that was close. Now regarding today's newspaper article, it lists the most popular names that babies were given over the past year. I must admit I was pleased to read that Michael and Hannah were at the top of the list. But then the article went on to tell of a local couple who decided to name their new baby with a popular name but preferred to give it a different spelling to "person alize" it. Oh heaven help the dear little girl, Ariel Kristyne! Will she even be able to spell it by the time she's three years old?? vee