London.
_Reversible Names._--Some female names spell backwards and forwards the
same, as _Hannah_, _Anna_, _Eve_, _Ada_: so also does _madam_, which
is feminine. Is this in the nature of things, or can any one produce
a reversible _proprium quod maribus_? No arguments, but instances; no
surnames, which are epicene; no obsolete names, such as _Odo_, of which
it may be suspected that they have died precisely because an attempt was
made to marify them: or say, rather, that Odo, to live masculine, was
obliged to become Otho. Failing instances, I shall maintain that _varium
et mutabile semper femina_ only means that whatever reads backwards and
forwards the same, is always feminine.