The "So What's In A Name?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a story written by "The Scribbler" in the Lancaster Newspaper about how Peter T. Watt actually got his middle initial.  

Peter T. Watt, Lancaster resident

Peter was the co-founder of the Lancaster downtown department store know as Watt & Shand.  Seems that mercantile apprentices Peter T. Watt, Gilbert Thompson and James Shand opened the predecessor of Watt & Shand, aka The New York Store, on March 9, 1878.  

An early photograph of Watt & Shand in downtown Lancaster, PA

The New York Store featured lines of foreign and domestic dry goods as well as upscale merchandise.  During the first year of business, Gilbert Thompson died.  Soon after, Peter and James changed the store's name to Watt, Shand and Company.  Eventually it was renamed Watt & Shand.  The store thrived in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania and eventually opened another store in the newly built Park City Center in 1970.  Getting back to how Peter T. Watt actually get his name.  Well, that's what "The Scribbler" wrote about recently in his newspaper column.  Lady by the name of Nancy C. Groff happened to be the great-granddaughter of Peter T. Watt.  

An 1898 photograph of the updated and enlarged Watt & Shand Store.

She is now in the process of writing a biography of her famous ancestor as well as the store he founded.  Her numerous files and boxes of information have helped her find a bit about her great-grandfather, but she can still use some more information.  So...she wrote to "The Scribbler" for some help.  That's when he published his story!  A few facts that we do know about Peter T. Watt are that he owned part of the department store in downtown Lancaster as well as owning and living in a gorgeous house known as Roslyn, which is one of the finest Victorian mansions in Lancaster.  

Today the store has a new owner in Marriott, but the
front facade still remains intact.

But, Nancy still wonders about his middle letter "T" in his name.  Nancy made a visit to Stronsay, Scotland which was the place of her great-grandfather's birthplace.  While there she talked with relatives and asked them to explain the middle "T" in her great-grandfather's name.  She recalls that while there she talked with one of her great-grandfather's cousins, Jim Work Twatt.  They told her that the "T" in the surname became Peter's middle initial.  Jim and a neighbor told her that when Peter emigrated to the United States in 1970, he created a middle initial because "at the time it meant you had moved up in the world or it was a status symbol.  Now, that may be what "The Scribbler" found out, but I suspect that if you grab your Webster's Dictionary you might find another reason why he changed his name from Peter Twatt to Peter T. Watt.  In the dictionary you will find that "Twatt" means an idiot who uses pointless twitter as well as the word Twat is a vulgar word used as slang for "vagina";  also used in British slang as a way to call someone stupid.  Aha!  So now maybe we know why Mr. Peter Twatt changed his name to Peter T. Watt.  I certainly would have changed my name, wouldn't you have?  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.