by Leslie Cox; Saturday, January 24, 2015

I love a chuckle. Especially when it involves my name.

Take “Leslie”. How many readers of this blog knew that this is the way this name is spelled for a boy-child? A girl-child is usually christened “Lesley”…unless you are my lovely sister-in-law who likes to be different so she spells her name “Leslee”.

But here’s the rub. “Leslie” is a very strong Scottish name and, I believe, always spelled this way. At least, historically. Lord knows these days, with all the different names and variations in spelling coming out. “Lesley” has always typically been the English way of spelling this moniker.

So…my dad, being the direct descendant of a very wonderful Scotswoman, insisted my name be spelled the Scottish way. To the absolute horror of my maternal grandfather who had English/Irish blood coursing through his veins. Had my maternal grandmother been alive, who was very much the true English lady, I expect my mother would have insisted on siding with her parents.

You see…as the firstborn…this was indeed a very momentous event…anointing me with my name.

Truthfully, I am glad my dad won the day on this occasion. I happen to be very fond of “Leslie”. Besides being a great name, in my opinion, it also provides a lot of fun…such as the time I was slated to be bedded down in the Boy’s Ward of the Royal Jubilee Hospital for my tonsillectomy. The Admissions Clerk was flabbergasted to find out I was a GIRL. Bit of a scramble that morning….

So…as you can see…I am rather used to miss-spellings on my name. And it is no different with my pen-name…“Duchess of Dirt”.

Lots of people slip a ‘t’ into “Duchess”. No such thing. You are either of Dutch descent or…as in my case…a tongue-in-cheek member of the English Royal family…a Duchess.

My bloodlines run strong on Scottish, Irish, English and French ancestry…but no Dutch. Unless I manage to confirm that somewhere back in the 1500s, my French ancestor was indeed a Huguenot and among the ones who fled to the Dutch Republic to avoid persecution from the French Catholics. But I think not. It would appear that my French ancestor immigrated to England…whether he truly was a Huguenot or not.

Which brings me to the spelling of my pen-name as “Duchess”, befitting a pseudo-member of royalty. You see…my husband is christened “John Wayne Cox”. Again, the vulgarities of being firstborn…in his case having a father who admired the American actor, John Wayne.

At least that has always been the story he was told. And it is substantiated by his father anointing him with the nickname – “The Duke”.

Can you see where I am going with this? I am married to a Duke! And that makes me an honest-to-goodness Duchess…without the ‘t’.