Where did Tvanellus come from?

The short version

Way back in time, shortly after Bitte and I met, we visited Bitte’s mother, Kajsa, for the first time together. This was at Kajsas garden allottment. So properly attired and topped with a Panama hat we went off to the allottment in Husbyborg. When we arrived we found that Bittes sister, Annika, and boyfriend, Lars, were already there. Lars was wearing his legendary minimalistic swimming trunks from Yves saint Laurent – I actually have no recollection of these but go along with the story as it has become folklore.

Bitte introduced me as Chris to which Kajsa demanded to know what I was called more than Chris. To this Lars quickly replied Topher. I thereby acquired the name Topher wich naturally became adjusted and changed as required to Toph, Toff (a Swedish variation) The Toph etc.

Moving on a few decades takes us to the advent of the internet and all things digital. Being a bit slow off the mark all of the suitable names, welch., topher. etc were already taken. Looking for a suitable name for an instagram account the idea of using Toph came to the fore. However, all variations on Toph were, as mentioned, already in use. Then came the stroke of genius: There is a bird which for me symbolises the arrival of Spring at its first sighting. This bird is the Northern Lapwing, or Tofsvipa, as it is known in Swedish. So we get the Toph bit into the name and take the Linnaean Latinisation to get to Vanellus, as the latin for northern lapwing is Vanellus vanellus.

Simply add a T, for Toph, and there you have the full explantion of how we arrived at tvanellus.