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Pam had just finished tucking Mollie into bed and was leaving the room when a small voice stopped her.

“Mommy?”

Pam turned around. “Yes, sweetie?”

“What’s J.D.’s real name?”

Pam stared at Mollie, puzzled.

“What?”

“A boy at school today said that J.D. can’t be his real name, ‘cause they’re just letters, and you can’t have a name that’s just two letters.”

Pam came back to Mollie’s bed and sat down.

“Oh, I see,” she said. “I think he means that ‘J.D.’ must be short for something.”

“Short?”

Pam nodded, trying to think of a way to explain J.D.’s name.

“Lots of names have ‘short’ versions… like my name, ‘Pam’, is short for ‘Pamela’.”

“Ohhhh…” Mollie said, beginning to understand. “Because ‘Pamela’ has the word ‘Pam’ in it.”

“That's right. And Daddy’s name, ‘Jim’, is short for ‘James’. And J.D.’s name is short for ‘James Daniel’.”

“Oh! Because ‘James’ starts with ‘J’, and ‘Daniel’ starts with ‘D’!” Mollie beamed.

“Exactly!”

“So, what’s my name short for?”

“Well, actually, your name isn’t short for anything. Your name is just ‘Mollie’.”

Mollie’s smile quickly turned into a scowl.

“You mean I just have a plain old already short name? No fair!”

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