Where did you get a name like Nibby?

I’m often asked that question. My official name is Norris Nisbet Priest. Since my father and I have the same first name, we decided to use the shorted British name for Nisbet—Nibby. I don’t consider Nibby a nickname since I have always been called Nibby, even before my birth. Everyone calls me Nibby, and I sign everything Nibby Priest. To me Nibby is my real name, and I am quite proud of its distinctiveness.

But, how did I get the name Nibby?

My parents, Norris Odene and Mary Elizabeth Priest, married in August 1958 and moved into a small apartment on North Main Street in downtown Henderson, Kentucky. They were soon cautioned watch out for two sisters who lived in the house next door to the apartment.

The sisters, my parents were warned, were sometimes difficult to deal with.

In August  of 2008 my parents (Norris & Mary Elizabeth) celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

As fate would have it, my parents became friendly with the sisters, although one of them, Miss Elizabeth McLaughlin, was confined to the home and died in 1959.

The surviving sister’s name was Miss Mabel Nisbet McLaughlin, but my family referred to her as Granny Mabel. She became quite fond of my parents and in 1964, when my mother was pregnant with me, my parents decided to name me Nisbet in her honor.

Granny Mabel thought I hung the moon and she spoiled me rotten. Many days when I was six and seven years old, Granny Mabel and I sat on her front porch and sold chocolate milk or tea to the people walking by on North Main Street.

We often watched “Old Man Vaughn,” sharply dressed in his black overcoat and top hat, get out of his big black Cadillac and walk directly across the street to his business, the Vaughn Insurance Agency Co.

Granny Mabel died on December 7, 1971. She had a stroke and, even though I was only seven years old, I remember it very vividly. I was the last person that she was able to talk with before her death.

Another connection about my name Nibby and Granny Mabel is that, ironically, in August 1974—three years after Granny Mabel’s death—my father bought an interest in the Vaughn Insurance Agency Co., the same business whose owner Granny Mabel and I had watched so many times.

In 1986 my parents moved from the “suburbs” of Henderson and purchased their current residence at 319 North Main Street, across the street from their first apartment and from Granny Mabel’s house, and two doors from their insurance agency.

Three years later, I purchased a house at 330 North Water Street, the street behind my parents’ house and the insurance agency, and I lived their for almost a year. Then my father’s mother, Violet Littlepage Priest, needed to move to town from the little country town of Hebbardsville KY.

Violet Littlepage Priest (my grandmother)  moved into the North Water Street house so she could be closer to my parents.  At the time my grandmother moved into the Water Street house, I moved to a residence about three miles outside of downtown Henderson, Kentucky. Violet passed away in December of 2002.

The spring of 2004 the Water St house was razed  and I built a new home where I reside today.

I have worked at Vaughn Insurance since 1984 years and I continue to be amazed at the coincidence of circumstances that brought my family and me to this location and this business.

Granny Mabel would be so proud today to see and know that her namesake Nibby’s office window at Vaughn Insurance looks directly at the front porch of her home place and that my parents and grandmother are all within one city block of each other!

For all of this I am grateful of my name NIBBY and of my rich family heritage!

I know of only one other person named Nibby—Frank Nisbet “Nibby” King, Jr., a retired attorney of the prestigious law firm in downtown Henderson KY Dorsey, King, Gray, Norment & Hopgood.  This firm is my preferred choice for legal services in Henderson Kentucky.

Have you ever known of anyone who has “Nibby” for their name?  If so let me know!