Ricki is a boy's name.
How did I get the name Ricki? Well the story goes or how I remember it. Which is not the same as how mom now tells it but I prefer my version. So, that is what I am going to tell you. Mom was pregnant and watching a game show. All the contestants were pregnant and had boy names or what was considered boy names at the time. She told me she thought how dumb and why would someone do that. As luck would have it not long after the show she went in to labor. She never said if it was hours or days later. Either way I was born and given a boy's name Ricki. She decided to make my middle name Sue so everyone could tell I was a girl. I like to tell her about the Johnny Cash song called "A boy name Sue." She says that doesn't matter and we laugh. I sometimes bring up the story and remind her what she said when I was little. She claims she never said it and tells a boring new story. The new story is no fun so I care not to remember it.
Birth in a Pullman Car.
Mrs. Ella Davis, daughter of Maj. R. M. Grubbs, formerly Treasurer of Henry County, and lately of Indianapolis, has met with rather a remarkable experience. She lives at Chetopa, Kan. Her husband is a prominent business man there, and also owns a store at Denison, Tex. A few days ago Mrs. Davis determined to make a visit to her mother who lives in Cincinnatti, and as her husband necessarily had to go to Denison, he placed Mrs. D. on the train in a sleeping car for her destination, Mr. D. expecting to join his wife at Cincinnatti in a few days by another route. As most married ladies may reasonably expect the important as well as critical experience of becoming a mother, she was no exception. Within a few hours' ride of St. Louis Mrs. Davis was taken ill. She had made the casual acquaintance of the lady passengers near her state-room, who observed her illness; the conductor was notified, and being a gentleman of humane sensibilities, he determined to do all in his power for personal comfort of his passenger. He inquired through the train for a physician, and found one, a prominent member of the profession from St. Louis, who responded with alacrity. He repaired to the sleeping car, found his patient, and in due time after the car was vacated (save by a few old ladies), the doctor reported a fine, beautiful daughter all the way from heaven, over the St. Louis railway, by the Pullman line at the rate of forty miles an hour. It was immediately christened by the name of the station nearest to the place of birth, and by the name Pullman in honor to the car. ...
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I transcribed the text verbatim reflecting the spellings and punctuation or lack of in the newspaper.
Citation: “Birth in a Pullman Car.” Buchanan County Bulletin (Independence, Iowa), 5 December 1873; digital image, Chronicling America (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84027186/1873-12-05/ed-1/seq-1/ : accessed 21 December 2019); citing State Historical Society of Iowa-Des Moines, Iowa, p. 1, col. 8.