Who came up with Wichita’s cool snowplow names? Here’s the scoop.

Megan Lovely has been outed.

No one knew that the communications manager for the city of Wichita was the one behind naming Wichita’s snowplows until outgoing Mayor Brandon Whipple mentioned it in his goodbye speech Monday.

CNN also happened to call this week about the clever names, such as Baby Snowda, Lil Snow Peep and F. Salt Fitzgerald.

National digital marketer Scott Monty last week posted to Facebook: “May you have the same sense of fun and whimsy as the Wichita, KS Department of Transportation, who named all of their snowplows.”

Lovely said she’d prefer for the attention to be on the hard-working city employees who toil 12 hours a day on the plows, both preparing for and recovering from storms.

Still, the city wouldn’t have the fun names without Lovely pushing for them.

She said she was inspired by other communities naming their plows, which is both fun and helps residents track what has been cleared.

Naming was not a priority for years, though, until Lovely said, “Hey, let’s get this done before the snowdeo.”

That’s what she’s dubbed the snowplow rodeo, a media gathering at which the city’s winter preparedness is discussed each year.

For the annual meeting about salt and sand cleanup from the winter, Lovely insists that anyone asking questions refer to street sweepers as Sweepers of the Plains.

“If they call them street sweepers, I will refuse to recognize what they’re talking about until they use the correct terminology.”

Her customary droll tone sometimes makes it hard to decipher if Lovely is being sarcastic or serious.

For the city’s new sidewalk street sweeper, which primarily will be used downtown, Lovely already has a name, Dirt Reynolds, and purchased a magnetic mustache for it with her own money “that they told me I could slap onto it.”

When it came time to name the plows, Lovely went to then-City Council member Bryan Frye for help.

Lovely and Frye have been known to have minutes-long pun wars in which they spit out jokes faster than bystanders even can figure them out.

She said she can’t explain “the cheesy way our minds work.”

Frye told her he was certain she could do the snowplow naming on her own just fine, “And next thing I know, she’s got it done. I didn’t even have a chance to weigh in. . . . She’s very creative.”

Lovely said she had help from some funny co-workers in communications, the GSI and public works teams.

In some cases, she tried to focus on Wichita and Kansas connections, such as EisenPlower and Blizzard of Oz.

Lovely also included a variety of music and movie genres, such as Every Day I’m Shovelin and The Fast and the Flurriest.

“You know, just something for everybody,” she said. “Our drivers really like it.”

Check this Eagle story with the full list at Kansas.com.

“Any way we can get people to pay attention to city news, we will do,” Lovely said.

Dad jokes are some of her favorites to tell.

Those jokes and puns are popular before Council meetings among various staff and Council members just to get their energy up. There’s some other playfulness that occurs in plain sight during the meetings, which no one will admit to on the record. Frye said it’s all harmless wordplay that inspires a sense of camaraderie and fun, even across party lines.

Lovely is so quick-witted, she catches when others commit puns without realizing it.

When a reporter asked her for the scoop on this weekend’s weather, which may bring snow and ice, Lovely waited for the ba-da-dum moment when the reporter acknowledged her pun.

“What do you mean?” the reporter asked.

“You just did one, and you don’t even know it,” Lovely pointed out.

Her humor for the interview was just about depleted, however.

“I will not abate this article at all,” Lovely said.

There’s that tone again. Silly or scolding?

The Wichita State University graduate, who has degrees in integrated marketing communications and English, describes herself as an extreme introvert who shuns attention.

Lovely saved her most humorous — or was it harshest? — words when asked who she really is.

A “woman who wants to get off the phone with you, Carrie.”