$(document).ready(function () {
    var titles = ['Pentiction Summer Classic', 'Ryan Kesler', 'Trevor Linden'];
    $('.slideshow').cycle({
        fx:     'fade', 
        timeout: 5000, 
        pager:  '#nav',
        pagerAnchorBuilder: function (index) {
            return '<a href="#">' + titles[index] + '</a>';
        }
    });
});

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3704269/how-to-change-pager-text-in-jquery-cycle

Change the text of the jquery cycle pager element. By default is is 1, 2, 3 etc but you can change this to text via a variable

How to change pager text in jquery cycle plugin

jquery

JavaScript