To the Editor:
“Sarah to Sylvia to Shirley” in last month’s COMMENTARY struck home—perhaps I mean literally. Originally I was named Zelda, after my maternal grandmother, Sarah. My aunt Rae, newly emigrated to New Haven from London, and full of enthusiasm for a reigning songstress of that name in the music halls there, for a day persuaded my mother that Sadie was the only possible name. However, my aunt Henrietta, a musician and something of a sophisticate, entered an emphatic demurrer—so Sylvia it was! It was, happily, just a little early for Shirley.
Sylvia K. Cohen
(Mrs. Elliot E. Cohen)
New York City
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To the Editor:
In connection with Dr. Roback’s “Sarah to Sylvia to Shirley”: I learn from Gilbert Seldes’ essay on Krazy Kat, published in The Seven Lively Arts in 1924, that the three children of Ignatz Mouse were named Milton, Marshall, and Irving.
Brewster M. Feinschreiber
Chicago, Illinois
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To the Editor:
We should perhaps note that the trend described in A. A. Roback’s article “Sarah to Sylvia to Shirley” is not an irreversible equation. For example, when Dr. Siegfried Kantor, internationally known legal authority, and the last elected president ofi the Bar Association of Vienna, took out his United States citizenship papers, he asked that his name be changed to Samuel Kantor.
Hans Zeisel
Hans Zeisel
New York City