Walnut Grove, Minn. – Sources report that the recent visitation of Benjamin and Edna Cohen has illuminated the fact that Percival Dalton (born Isaac Cohen), chose his name in an effort to fit in and find employment.
“Harriet had all kind of issues with the Cohen family,” Nels Oleson comments, “but did it ever once cross her mind that he wasn’t born with the name Percival, but instead thought that was the perfect name for fitting in? He could have selected anything and he chose that? I would question his judgement, but then I remember that he did marry Nellie after all. It’s probably best to just step back and not say anything.”
Other residents are similarly surprised to find that he selected the name of his own accord.
“Now, that’s really something, isn’t it?” Almanzo Wilder shares. “I mean, you take a name like mine–Almanzo. It’s not exactly a common name, now is it? But my parents gave it to me and it’s not like I could control that. If I had chosen my own name, would I have picked it?”
Almanzo went on to highlight that this really gets at the fundamental difference between him and Percival.
“You know, I know he’s worried about how people think of him, why him being Jewish and all,” Almanzo continues. “Well, I never gave a hoot about that–I mean, I’m not going to be mean to someone just because their belief system is different. But now that I know that he chose his weird name, whereas my name is weird because my parents picked it? Now that is really how we are different.”
When asked for his own commentary, Percival defended his choice as one that is obscure enough that it acheives his intended purpose.
“When people hear my name, they definitely are not thinking about my background,” Percival notes. “Instead, they’re thinking ‘what an unusual name,’ or they’re maybe thinking of King Arthur or something. I blend in by standing out–hey, maybe that can be my motto or something.”
At press time, Grace Foster was wondering if she should give that pile of mail she had been hoarding for Isaac Cohen to Percival since “it seems people can just call themselves whatever they want with no regard for the Post Office.”
