March 3 — Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.
My daddy had a grandmother named Annie Black Gunter, the one this blog is named after. He called her “Big Mama”. Annie had a sister named Susie. My daddy wanted me to be named after both his grandmother and his aunt. He really loved both of them very much. Susie Annie was what I started out to be. My final name was Suzanne.
For years I was glad that Suzanne was chosen instead of Susie Annie, but the more I work on the family history, the more I like Susie Annie. I think that it would have been a cool name. As it was, I had no middle name and got lots of grief about that. No one believed that I had no middle name. They figured that it was really something stupid and I was just too embarrassed to share it with them.
The name that stands out to me the most of my female ancestors is Philadelphia Isabella. She was my maternal-grandmother’s paternal grandmother. I often thought that if I had another daughter, I would name her Delphia or Bella – maybe both!- after this great-great-grandmother. I can still hope for a grandchild to carry her name.
I don’t have any pictures of Annie, though I did see one when I was a child. But, I do have one of Philadelphia.
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