Daily globe., 1879-06-08
Girls Names.

Girls Names.
The following, which seems pertinent,
has been culled for the Household from
an old number of Scribners Magazine.
The tender but thoughtless habit.
which has atlength crystallized into gen
eral custom, of keeping up the nursery
or pet name of little girls until
they have passed through all the
the e1as of young womanhood, :ias
lately received some forcible crit
clsm from one or two sources. It is
habit which has chiefly arisen within
the past generation, bat it has noticeab]y
grown within decade or two, until
there is scare ely a feminine name to
which diminuendo will stick that is not
speedily replaced by that fashionable
substitution or adornmcnt In olden
times Elizabeth was sometimes called
Betsy for ease or brevity, but now Betsy
glides away into the public Betty or Bes-
sic. In fact, the stately and vigorous
old nomenclature is now nearly all gone
into vapid and tasteless iquidity that
seems utterly bercft of force. There are
no GATHERINGS any more; they are all
Katies. The Harrietts have become q az
ties. The Margarets Zone of the strong
est names) are reduced to Maggies or
Margies; Mary, il common, yet the ter
derest of all, gets transformed into Ma
tie, or Mamie, Charlotte into Lottie and
so through the whole diversified chaper
In any modern school catalogue or news
paper list of names which you may
chance to meet you find an endless itera-
ton of the infection, i. e., as if the beau
| fxyn roffr oc+i0 +bo
bilty Of the young ladies in some
way depended on theirs liquid and en-
de airing termination. In the short space
OF one page of the catalogue of a promi-
nent young ladies' college, school of
much higher pretensions than the aver
age seminary students-one may find
Gas we have satisfied ourselves by trying)
at least the following varieties, viz: Jen-
ME, Mamie, Hattie, Minnie, Margie,
Nettie, Allie, Addie, Lizzie. Lord Duff
, ferin, when the digni6ed governor general
of Canada, has lately chosen to bring this
, tendency into notice (and so we suppose
it prevailed in Canada, too) by making it
, special topic in his address at the COM
: mencement of a young ladies' school in
! Quebec. But he credits the habit, or
! its exaggeration, to the United States;
Q and thinks the practice, when it becomes
s "a national characteristic is not without
r significance" Some future philologist,
= perhaps, may pick it up as remnant of
T the period when the young women of our
d most cultivated circles bore the badge Of
l belittlement and patronage, and infer
l therefrom that the Oriental type Of IN
fantile helplessness had certainly survived
to this era even in Western lands. He will
:, = most likely conclude (and does not the
:. evidence tend in that directionD that in
our Centennial time, the true ide;. of
"a perfect woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort and command
was not SO much suspected or sought
after. We do not remember that any
n journal Of "Woman's Rights and enfran-
4. chisement has ever thought it pertinent
et to speak of this subject; but surely ii
IS bears direct relation to the mental
% growth and capacity of the sex. The lit
/ erary nom de plume of a feminine author
- indicates to some extent the force of her
= - mind and we know just as well what to
- expect from Lettie LinWoods and Matte
" Myrtles as we do from George Eliots
,e You can scarcely pen a more suggestive
le satire against the helpfulness and inde.
le pendence of woman than to wrap her up
ID in such terms of daily coddling and child.
B ish endearment as the pet names agai nst
g which Lord Duferin protests. For in
At stance, persistently to call the two ch ief
n N tains of women's advanced status, Lizzie
- Cady Stanton, and Susie B. Anth ony
- would crush at one stroke the revolu ton
I. they have so much at heart. Under sucf
a sweet persifage it would sink into languid
N imbecility, and furnish fresh food for
N laughter. Dufferin, in the address to which
,. we have made reference, said that 'th'
at daughter Of the occupant of the most au.
OF gust position in the world, was, before he]
8. marriage, commonly referred to a
e, 'Nellie,' as though the paragraphists hat
~ been her playmates in ''infancy;'' and ht
'g even stated that his own wife, Lady Duff
- erin, had been spoken of as "Kate" b!
the journals Of the United States. Thest
things were no doubt done with gooe
feelings, and without so much as :
:, thought of disparaging intent. Th'
= writers may have the kindest regard; bu
ne the familiarity their usage implies is non'
'si the less offensive and is curious symp
IS tom of that lack Of reverence which, il
Us reaction from the early Puritan extreme
st of formality, has become very nearly
ne distinctive and to older civilizations,
IN disagreeable trait of our republicanism.