This may come as a surprise but I never had a nickname that stuck. By high school I had developed huge breasts. I was still skinny mind you and some of the first year guys would call me, “Eleanor”, then go on to say, “Eleanor the Cow” or “Eleanor, you have a point there. Then another would chip in saying, “In fact she has two of them. “ I’m quite happy I was able to leave that behind. Other than that, most people call me Ellen. I have no idea why but often times I am referred to as Helen. It can be by the people that have known me for years. Even a supervisor at work would be in a meeting and she’d refer to me as Helen and everyone else in the department would have no idea who she was referring to.
Maybe Ellen is a derivative of Helen. I think Helen of Troy was some dashing heroine of some sort so it would be okay to be thought of in the same vein.
I was named after my mother who was Ellen Theresa so they named me Ellen Cecelia. When I was in Grade twelve and had my first chequing account , was quite nice when I signed my name Ellen C. Harcourt and they took the money out of my parent’s account.
I did put the money back but it had us all checking our bank statements a little closer.
I’m quite okay with my name Ellen and as often said it’s an old fashioned name so I don’t find many my age with it as a handle.
November 6, 2017
ellensagh 