My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my
infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit
than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to becalled Pip. I give
Pirrip as my father’s family name, on the authority of his tombstone
and my sister – Mrs Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never
saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of
them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my
first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived
from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father’s, gave me
an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black
hair. From the character and turn of the inscription