History of 'self' and why not at least 'my'?

[Terry Reedy]

 On Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 12:08:06AM +2328, Fernando Pérez wrote:
 > I'm curious as to why 'self' was chosen instead of the shorter 'my'
for
 > naming the instance passed to methods.

It's worth repeating that this is a common convention rather than a
language standard.  You are free to use 'my' or anything else if you
want.

Terry J. Reedy