Mayah ReaveleyFollow

Date Collected

Winter 12-1-2017

Place item was collected

North Logan, Utah

Informant

Clare Reaveley

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Clare Reaveley is my mother and she is thirty-eight years old and lives in North Logan, Utah. She grew up in and around Logan and has never lived outside the valley. She is a nurse at Logan Regional Hospital and has been a nurse since 2010.

Context

I interviewed my mom on a Friday night in my bedroom. I was sitting at my desk and she was sitting on my bed. The nickname that I interviewed her about is mostly just used by my immediate family, but it can be used by extended family as well. My great-grandmother, who unintentionally gave me this nickname, actually doesn’t use this nickname as far as I can remember.

Text

Me: Where does my nickname come from?

My mom: Well, your nickname is Mayha, and, that all originated one Christmas when my grandma, who was your great-grandmother, was writing all of the grandchildren, great- grandchildren’s names on paper bags, um...which was basically the gift wrap for Christmas presents that year. And when we got your bag, it said M-a-y-h-a [spelled out], where your name is actually pronounced – spelled, M-a-y-a-h [spelled out]. So instead of Mayah she had spelled Mayha, and we just that it was so funny that we continued to call you Mayha ever since, and, I don’t know it’s probably been over ten years now and we still call you Mayha, because of your great-grandmother spelling your name wrong on your Christmas present.

Texture

When I was interviewing my mom, she was telling the story about how I got the nickname in full detail as if I had not heard it before. She has told me this story before, but in less detail. She probably would not have gone into as much detail or explanation if I had not been recording her account of the nickname’s origin.

Course

Introduction to Folklore (ENGL 2210)

Instructor

Lynn McNeil

Semester and year

Fall 2017

Theme

G3: Folk Speech

EAD Number

6.8.2.79

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