The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-07-03
FAIR WOMEN'S NAMES.
Anglo-Saxon Ones the Best-Too
Much Sweetness TiresOme.

The habit OF substituting diminu-
tives for the real names of girls has in
It nothing that is Objectionable, but
rather what is laudable. so long as
the use OF such condensation of fond
ness is confined within the family
circle. or the radius Of private ac-
quaintanceship. So long as loving
appelIative of the Birdie and
Lulu and Mimi and "Dudu"
brand are lisped only by the lips OF
friends, they possess a charm in their
LIQUID softness to which no q can
fail to be susceptible, says the New
Orleans Times-Democr0t
But when, as on the occasion OF the
breaking up of the public schools,
such fond epithets are emptied out
upon the community by the hundred
and by the thousand, there is apt
to be a surfeit of the sweetness. The
effect on the reader who wades
through the columns OF lists in search
OF the little owner OF the fair face that
he knows and has an interest in, Is
like the effects of the copious con-
sumption of honey. 1t clogs the APP
petite and has a tendency to u
safety. In the midst of the multi
tudinous Matties and Hatties and
Nellies and Titles and MINES, an d all
of the rest of the syrupy train, one
experiences q positive relief in coming
upon a good, honest. old-fashioned
A~nglo-Saxon appellative like Saran
Jane or Mary Ann or Helen or
Dorothy or Elizabeth. That vas the
sort of names by which our mothers
and grandmothers and great-grand-
mothers we're known--plain, home
spun names that have in them a ro-
business and a rugged music TO which
the American ear has ceased to be
attuned since the French novel and
Ouida and Rhoda Broughton have
come into possession.
Even in such copious doses as are
administered at school commence
ments, however, the sentimental
artiicialty of the girls name would
be in a measure tolerable If it were to
be used by girls while they are girls
only. and were later to adjust itself to
the changed conditions OF woman
hood. But it is not so. Give but q
glance at the III of the teachers
which the Times e7nocrat published
q week ago, and you find hardly q
Mary or Margaret or Elizabeth or
Matilda or Jane or Caroline among
them. In their places everywhere al
most appear Marie or Mollie. Maggie.
Lizzie, Matte or Title, Jennie and
Carrie! In other words, the anachro-
nism has been committed of keeping
up the lispings OF childhood far on
into the age of womanhood. Carrie"
and Matte" are appropriate enough
names probably for a woman to be
known by in her domestic or family
circle; they are about as appropriate
in public usage as would be the short
dress of a girl of ten on a mature
spinster of forty.
Our school teachers should take
warning from the experience of their
sisters further North. The Boston
School Board a little while ago, tired
of the perpetual pet names under
which the female teachers of the Hub
wished to be known, adopted a reso-
luton that no dirninutive or petname
would ever be recognized by the
board; and, although the edict Gre
ated a bit of a storm at first. it has
won its way to general favor, and no
longer are the sober and sedate
schoolmarms of those parts made
ridiculous by styling themselves and
being styled according to the language
Of the nursery.