[alfa] Zippo Alfa content (ZAC), but reopening a few recent threads

[alfacybersite <acs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The first part is primarily to George Graves. Was it fairly common for 
people to take the name of a city / town they were from, especially when 
moving to a very distant locale say in the nineteenth or earlier 
centuries? There are numerous stories of how last names got mangled at 
Ellis Island since the people doing the processing couldn't pronounce 
many of the names, so they just shortened them, or...?

I believe it was in the 70's but had several Biba relatives visit 
Czechoslovakia (when it was one country) and tried to look up the family 
name. They had no problem finding Kovanda's (my grandmother Biba's 
maiden name) but Biba was a dead end. I was told at the time there 
"might" be an Egyptian connection. Seemed pretty illogical.

The day after Thanksgiving a fellow and two of his friends stopped by my 
shop and seeing what I do asked if I could / would restore his Austin 
Healey. I said yes, but there was a waiting list. When I gave him my 
business card, he said, "My mother is from Biba Egypt." Oy! Who knew? 
Biba is still there. Just checked.

Might my grandfather or his parents, etc., have somehow ended up in 
Czechoslovakia and it was simply easier to go by Biba than their actual 
last name?

Just the day before had a longish phone call with #1 daughter (and only 
child on my part) Kyla and lo and behold, she is great with child. The 
father is Jewish. After the possible Egyptian connection, thought, "Hmm, 
Jewish father, "possibly" Muslims in the Biba background, not to mention 
a number of other countries of origin mixed in...the kid sure better 
have a great sense of humor.

Which leads to (sort of) license plate names: After finding out the 
news, I used my imitation of Joey Tribinani (of Friends fame) "God, why 
me?" Actually I congratulated daughter afterwards. Bottom line is I 
Shall Not be called Grandpa or anything even smacking of the word. I 
just ain't the type. It is now up to me to come up with a daughter 
acceptable "title". Would like your input. 
While you can use any number of letters you want, think of it as a 
license plate problem - for say, an Alfa with a British license plate (I 
know, the British have no vanity). Oh, yeah, kid will have a middle name 
of Biba, no matter what the flavor - but no hyphens. Believe one has to 
be of the landed gentry to include hyphen's. If it's a girl I'm 
currently going with Dude and Dudette. I had suggested to Kyla - Biba 1 
and Biba 2, and we could just shorten it to 1 and 2 like the Bush guys 
do. She didn't picked up the connection and when I mentioned the 
George's refer to each other as 41 and 43, she made it Very clear I was 
Not to use numbers.  
Obviously reply off-digest.

Biba
Irwindale, CA USA

After just doing a quick edit...what do you think of Oy for me and Vey 
as a nickname for the kid? I like short, quick names.
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