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My first name was "Stephen Gobrecht"

A few days later I was renamed "Edward Ingalls Pitts"

My mother called me "Eddie" until I was past 20

Family members all called me "Eddie" until I was a teenager

In grade school some kids called me "Whitey" because my hair was so blond back then

Later some kids called me "Mr. Ed" after the talking horse on a popular TV comedy and would taunt me by singing the theme song

I insisted that teachers and my friends just call me "Ed"

For a time, a few friends started sarcastically calling me "Ingalls" without much lasting success

When I left home for college I thought I had escaped from "Eddie" forever

Gradually my formal name became "Ed Pitts" pronounced as one word

After college, my mother consented to call me "Edward" instead of "Eddie" and did for the rest of her long life

I got used to professors calling me "Mr. Pitts"

A Japanese friend who taught me to make sushi during grad school called me "Eddo"

All my friends and all my family, except for my mother, now called me just plain "Ed"

And so it remained until I started teaching, then my students called me "Professor" then "Doctor Pitts"

I took a new teaching job only to find that my most familiar students had taken to calling me "Doc"

The first time I entered a courtroom the judge addressed me a "Counselor"

I successfully promoted the idea that everyone except my closest friends and family call me "EdPitts"

To my surprise, a few of my Italian-American colleagues still insisted on calling me "Eddie"

For a time, the kids living next door called me "Mr. Ed" but were too young to know why I once winced at that name

A child of very close friends, whom I watched grow up, calls me "Uncle Ed"

When I was on the bench my former colleagues called me "Judge" or "Your Honor"

Now that I’ve retired, I’m back to being just plain "Ed"

September 2015