Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1894 — “What's in a Name?” [ARTICLE]

“What's in a Name?”

There are probably not a dozen to the hundred men who know “Tody’’ Hamilton, the effervescent press agent of Barnum & Bailey, who could tell what his front name is. “Theifact is," he says, “I wouldn't recognize it myself if accosted by it. Most of my mail comes addressed to me as ‘Tody.’ lam called ‘Tody’ from one end of the country to the other. You see, my mother called me ‘Toady’ when I was'a little toddler, after the fashion of mothers with their children. I wasn't christened until I was two years old. and by that time my domestic appellation of ‘Toady’ got pretty securely fastened on me. It happily underwent the shortening; but ‘Todv’ has followed me through up to this time, and will probably hang on for the remainder of my days.' Take a lesson and never nickname a child. I know a chap who was called ‘Sissy’ when he was a child because of his gentleness and effeminate appearance, and the name stuck to him till he died at thirty. His whole life was a failure just because of that ‘Sissy,’ for he undertook to establish himself in the town where he was born. The fact that he grew tip to be a stout, healthy, manly fellow made the name still more incongruous. But ‘Sissy’ he was and couldn't be anything else. 1 believe it killed him finally.”