Washington, D.C.

The city's mayor left town earlier this month and came back a changed woman.

At least her name changed, from Dixon to Kelly, following her marriage to James R. Kelly 3d in a private ceremony in Brookline, Mass. The name change struck some as odd for an up-and-coming politician, but Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly foresees no problems.

She is at the tail end of her first year in office, with three more to go before facing reelection. By that time, voters should be used to the new name, Mayor Kelly's aides say.

But the name change has given rise to a joke among the mayor's detractors, who, in hopes that she will serve only one term, now refer to her as the "Kelly girl."

Pratt is the mayor's maiden name, and Dixon is the name of her former husband, Arrington Dixon, a former chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia.

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