out of use, and will, in a short time, be only "dead words" to the
community.

Of this class are the familiar favorites of our grandparents, such as
Sally, for Sarah; Polly or Molly, for Mary; Patty, for Martha, and
Peggy, for Margaret, representative names of the class. Some of these,
with perhaps slight changes, have become legitimatized, and their origin
has been nearly, or quite, forgotten. Of such we recognize Betsy, or its
modern equivalent, Bettie or Bessie, as a very proper name. Few,
perhaps, of our present generation would recognize in "Nancy," the
features of its parent, "Ann" or "Nan."

Some of these old nicknames have already gone nearly or quite out of
use, so much so that many of our young people will be surprised to learn
that Patty was, not long ago, the vernacular for Martha, and would never
imagine that "Margaret" could ever have responded to the call of
"Peggy;" "Hitty" and "Kitty," for the staid and sober "Mehitable," and
the volatile Katherine, are more easily recognized, while it might
require several guesses to establish the relationship between "Milly"
and "Amelia," or "Emily."

Stranger than either, perhaps because both the proper name and its
diminutive have become so uncommon, is that transformation which reduced
"Tabitha," to "Bertha," with the accent upon the first syllable, and its
vowel long. A curious instance of the change in this name, and the
further variation made in it in consequence of its forgotten
derivation, has recently occurred in the record of the death of an old
lady who was baptized "Tabitha," called in her youth "Bitha," and now in
her obituary styled Mrs. "Bertha," probably from the similarity of sound
to her youthful nickname. Her relatives of the present generation had