Did you have a nickname growing up? How did you get it? What other nicknames have you had?

My name is Pamela but my whole life I was always called Pam unless I was in trouble. As a very small child it was Pammy but then I tried to outgrow that one. My Grandma Dean was the only one that I would give reluctant permission to call me that.

My parents had a nickname for me and Danene put together - Little Girls. They kinda lumped us together a lot like we were twins but in reality we are almost 2 years apart. They have said that they regret doing that but I don't remember ever feeling bad about it. Maybe Danene did being lumped with a younger sister but I didn't mind being lumped with my big sister.

When I started swimming I was 13 years old. I was sort of a timid swimmer. Not too aggressive. One meet when I was about 15 or 16 I was up on the blocks getting ready to go when Coach Dave yelled out, "Let's go Pammy!" I hated that name and it made me so mad that he would dare call me Pammy. I ended up racing aggressive and won the race. I told him it made me mad and he started calling me Pammy all the time to get me riled up before a race. Pretty soon it became more of a nickname and the whole team started calling me Pammy. By the time I was graduating high school more than just the swim team was calling me Pammy. All my friends, people at church, everyone! So I ended up embracing the name and had it on my swim parka and class ring.

In school I was called many, many things. I once wrote them all down in my journal. Here they are:

Pamela
Pam
Pammy - Grandma Dean then Coach Dave Maynard brought it back
Pamla - japanese exchange student
Pama sue - Kristy Thurgood
P.S. - Thurgood's
Pamela Sue - Kathy Thurgood
Pamera - Scott King - SDHS
Pamella - Kristen Brown - SDHS and swimming and church
Pambo - Joe Jordan - SDHS
Spam
Spambo, the fighting forces of canned meat - Joe Jordan - SDHS
Spamella - Kristen Brown - SDHS and swimming and church
Pamelina - Chris Redmon - SDHS and swimming and church
Pamelita - Leslie Moyens - BYU Stover Hall
Pammy Lamby - Debby Wieder
Danene - lots of mixups
Debby - we were together too often
Pammy Sue - Karma Mathews - LaVerne CA Stake YW Leader
Selshaw - Carolyn Ball - BYU ASL instructor and co-worker
NMI - BYU and Carolyn Ball - BYU ASL instructor and co-worker
Puma - Leslie Sprague - BYU Stover Hall
Pamers - Arlin Hatch - BYU Stover Hall
Pametha - Jill Kallis - BYU Stover Hall
Pam fo Fam - Elizabeth Casos or Lizzard Breath - fellow CES Y&FP Secretary
Pamma Wamma - Todd Willey - CES Y&FP EFY Director
Wham Bam Thank You Pam - Scott Jorgensen - Love of my life

Scott gave me that last one before we were married while we were at BYU. While we were engaged he started calling me Poopy the Clown for some reason. So to get back at him I started calling him Stinky the Dog. We ended up calling each other Poopy for a while until our first Christmas when we were tagging our gifts to each other we were trying to come of with as many varients of Poopy we could come up with. We ended up with me being Ploopy and Scott being Sloopy. I use Ploopy to this day whenever I sign up for things online or need a unique name.

Why were you given your name? Were you named after someone else?

When my parents were thinking of names for me they knew that if I came out a boy that I would be Paul. My father's beloved Uncle and Aunt were named Paul and Polly and they wanted to pay tribute. If I was a girl, I was supposed to be Pollyanna. Yes, you read correctly. Just like the movie about that eternally optimistic girl.

I suppose that when I came out I just didn't look like a Pollyanna so they named me Pamela instead. I'm so grateful!

Here's what my Dad said in an email when I asked about my name...

"Wellllllll, we stretched our imaginations for “D” names so much with Danene that those names were out. Three “D’s” were enough anyway and Uncle Paul and Aunt Polly were our favorites and we thought that if you were twins, Paul and Polly would be great names. Welllllll, you weren’t twins and not a Paul and the only fun with Polly would have been with a Paul, soooooo we thought we would stay with the “P’s” and Pamela was better than Phoebe or Penelope. Right?
Love, Dad."

What is your full name?

My full name at birth was Pamela Felshaw - now it's Pamela Felshaw Jorgensen.

I did not get a middle name because my mother hated choosing between her middle and maiden names to use when she got married.

I always felt a bit jilted by not having a middle name. As a child I would often make one up. The only one I remember is Diana. I don't know why I chose that. I have a sister named Dianne but wasn't too close to her as a child.

When I got to BYU I got more upset. Instead of addressing my mail to Pamela Felshaw, BYU thought it useful to add NMI in the middle. At first I was worried they mixed me up with another person, but then realized that NMI stands for No Middle Initial. Then I though what a waste of 3 letters! Instead of just using my real name, they decided to add 3 letters for no purpose other than to tell people that there shouldn't be any letters there at all.

I had a friend, Carolyn Ball, who was also my ASL instructor and co-worker that didn't have a middle name either. We ended up laughing about it, often inserting "enema" instead of NMI.

Now that I'm married I've been forced to use Felshaw as my middle name. It's fun to tell people my full name cuz they usually have to do a double take. I always have to spell it - but I have to do that with Jorgensen too. Sometimes I wish I could have had that choice that Mom hated, but it is what it is. My name is Pamela Felshaw Jorgensen - end of story...

My Very Own Past

I got this book from Deseret Book that is supposed to help me write my history. I've created this blog to fill that book out. I hope to answer each question in this book in this blog. There may be no pictures till much later when I've scanned all my childhood pics into my computer and sorted them. That may happen either much later than now or never.

I'm not going to make this post private because maybe someone might enjoy some of the stories of my life.