Wednesday, 18 April 2012

P sounds like S

My parents bestowed on me the first name Lisa (considered, they protested, unusual at the time.) My husband handed me the last name Southard (pronounced Sutherd, ideally, but South-hard will do.) Most of the world; this includes many close friends; know me as Lily Tequila, or Silverbetty Sequin… it’s nothing more complicated than fun. They aren’t alter egos. Silverbetty was a dancing days stage name, borrowed from my daughter’s teddy, Lily is a derivative of Lilith, an autobiographical-ish character from a novel I claim to be writing (have written, but not to my satisfaction yet.)
Both pseudonyms are exactly me. 

Having suffered this at school-
‘Which Lisa are you?’
(Think I was Number 5-) it is easy to realise why I might want to distinguish my existence with some flashy nom de plumes. Also why my Girl and Boy have slightly odd real names, and have preferred simplification.
Plus ça change, plus ça même change…

If I ever had an alter ego alias it was The Bad Girl Who Lives In My Head. I can blame everything I’ve ever done wrong on that fabulous monster and I love her dearly. She is retired, but keeps herself fit and well.  I still dine out on her stories, so those are kept close, they are my fat gold scandalous coins of memory.

And, from 1811, neatly deflecting any further revelations, I present some grammar related punishment metaphors:
To be put in a pillory was to be held in a wooden parenthesis; an iron parenthesis was a prison.


  1. I pronounced it 'Southerd' in my head when I read it! (I'm all proud of meself.)

    I was actually wondering if your name was Lily and now I know. I think Lisa, Susan and Jennifer pretty much ruled the day in the '70s and maybe part of the '80s.

    You are, indeed though, a most perfect Lily Tequila.

  2. I was lucky because for most of my life, I've been the only Frances around, except for my father and of course he was Daddy! It's got to be hard having a name that is way too popular. Maybe that's why so many people are picking odd, embarassing and hard to spell names for their children!

  3. I smiled the whole way though this, Lily! I have a friend whose husband was from the UK-- last name of Chisholm. We run into the different pronunciations too-- Chiz-um, and Chiz-holme. Lisa...rare back in the day. :-) I wonder if all parents think they chose a rare name? My dad chose mine. And in a catholic gradeschool with 30 children in each grade, I shared the same classroom with 3 girls named Theresa. At least he left the "h" out of mine.

    When I named my daughter (right out of the book "The Thorn Birds" I thought it was so rare. I knew no other Megans. Duh. Well, because there weren't any MY age. lol... When I went to get her baptized, the priest actually asked me if I had made up the name. I felt pretty smurfy, let me tell you! And then she got to kindergarten. Smurfiness-be-gone.

    It is so much fun having a bad girl reside inside. They have such a way of emerging at just the right time to put some "MarySue" or "GaryStu" in her place in our novels!

    Have a good Thursday!

  4. Very creative of you to have several ID's for your different facets. I love it! I always wanted a more common name when I was in school. Now I find that when someone calls Stephanie it's usually for someone much younger!

    I thought my daughters name - Andrea - was unusual at the time. I didn't know any. When she went to school there were three in the K-1 classes! They were beaten out by the Jennifers, though.

