Most days, she is called Milly

Milly is short for Millicent. Well, Milly is just short, really, but her name comes from the longer version, Millicent. She is also called Milly Willy, the Other One, and Bubaloobs. And, yet, Millicent is such an elegant name.
Do you remember the Milly-Molly Mandy series of children's books, written by Joyce Lankester Brisley?
These were published in the 1920s in both paperback and hardback. The stories all revolved the life of the title character and her friends.
Milly Molly Mandy's real name was in fact, Millicent Margaret Amanda but her family thought it too long a name to call every time they wanted her. She always wore a pink and white striped frock and sometimes a yellow hat. Milly Molly Mandy lived in a nice white cottage with a thatched roof with her large family.
Milly Molly Mandy's world is a souvenir of the now distant, ancient cultures of rural England.
Inheriting the books from my mother, I grew up reading these stories, despite being very far from England in the suburban South Africa of the 70s, in the midst of political tumult and segregated societies. A lot like a Yorkshire Terrier in Cape Town today, I just went with it, really.