Meet my alter-ego, the other Miss Ev:

EV is short for Electric Vehicle; this little lady belongs to the local power company, and zips around town from time to time as a conversation piece and vehicle (pardon the pun) for publicity.

Here’s my own car, with its personalized license plate:

I do wish the state of Alaska had seen fit to allow me a small space between the “Miss” and the “Ev.” While I find it completely obvious, some have puzzled for a bit before figuring it out. I may have told you that “Miss Ev” was my father’s nickname for me. When he died in January of 2018, he left me almost exactly the right of money to buy the car, and the license plate seemed to be the right touch. Anybody who admires the car or has a question about the license plate gets to hear the story.

When I was about ten, I decided that “Evelyn” was an embarrassing name, and I advised my loved ones to call me “Sarah.” I liked the name because it reminded me of Hershey’s chocolate syrup, which I would drink straight out of the can whenever I could get away with it. My family humored me for a while with my new name, but the plan fell apart as soon as I went to back school.

My name has some history. My grandmother, my aunt, and my cousin all had the first name of “Evelyn.” The weird part is, those three ladies all pronounced it “Eve-lyn,” while I was (cue sweet-old-lady southern accent) “Ev-lyn.” I asked my father one time why my name was pronounced differently; and he did try to explain. I have no idea what he said. These days, my name rolls off the tongue with three syllables, “Ev-a-lyn”; accent on the first syllable. That’s a name I don’t mind keeping.

Over the years, more than a few people have said something along the vein of, “What a beautiful name! My grandmother was named Evelyn.” I have, however, been gratified lately to see some little girls with the name. Just the other day in the grocery store, I heard someone say, “Evelyn!” and turned around, only to see a young mother chasing after her toddler. Maybe little Evelyn was on the hunt for some chocolate syrup.