What's in a Name? 
How the Village of Lily 
Ponds Became Lilypons. 
Ir was by 1 per cent. accident and bums of her latest songs to Lilypons 
99 per cent. design that Lilypons residents, writes now and then ito the 
(Maryland), the community, took its Thomas families, and has her Christ- 
name from Lily Pons (Kostelanetz), mas cards sent from the post office 
the opera singer. named for her. 
Here is how it happened: The post office, a 16-pigeonhole af- 
By 1930 the Three Springs Fisheries fair located in a corner of a fisheries 
was doing such a tremendous busi- shipping room, serves approximately 
ness, shipping goldfish and waterlilies 40 families, some two dozen of which 
to all parts of the world, that the are on the fisheries payroll, in addi- 
postal phase of its transactions be- tion to the business which supports it. 
came a major problem. 
The fisheries were shipping through 
the Frederick post office, nearly 10 
miles away. At the request of the 
fisheries, postal authorities agreed to 
establish a post office at the Three 
Springs headquarters. 
In choosing a name for the new 
postal address, the authorities sug- 
gested, a single word, something short 
and descriptive, should be considered. 
One of the postal officials, a Lily Pons 
fan, suggested her name. It was an 
ideal name, he pointed out, one al- 
ready well known and certainly very 
descriptive of the locality. 
So Lilypons it was. It became offi- 
cial in 1932. The opera singer was 
delighted. In 1936 Lily Pons came to 
Lilypons to see the lily ponds. The 
famous singer has since kept in touch 
with the little community. She has 
visited on other occasions, sends al- 
In 1932 the area of Three Springs Fisheries became Lilypons officially. Later, 
when Lily Pons came to Lilypons to see the lily ponds, it became even more so. 
Three Springs Fisheries, Lilypons, Maryland 9 
