June is my only daughter’s birthday month. She was born in June and I remember well her naming story. Looking through a women’s magazine, I spotted an ad for Ivory Soap. It was not this exact one (below) but I could not find “the real” one. It showed a baby in a bubbly bath and the words were something like “Jane Elizabeth enjoys her Ivory soap bath.”  Well!  Husbnd’s mother was Esther Mary, so we quickly fell in love with Jane Esther and that’s what she became. And that’s how we found her name.

My name is Donna Ruth; I was named after my Aunt Ruth. Four years earlier, Aunt Ruth had a daughter she named June Ellen, after my mother, June.  And the Donna part? From a 1942 novel by Daphne du Maurier, Frenchman’s Creek. How do I know? I asked mom!

My dentist used to be Frank Vedelago. His partner dentist in the same building was Stephen Carnell. They were brothers! Deciding to go into dental practice together but with separate practices in the same building, they realized that with two Dr. Vedelagos there would be confusion. So they tossed a coin and Stephen took their mother’s maiden name, Carnell. And his children all went by that surname too. 

Years ago, in one of my classes, a young woman had a seriously difficult family history problem. The family looked every bit Italian, dark hair and eyes and beautiful olive skin. But the great-grandfather’s name was Lars Swenson. What? (This was obviously before DNA.) On his deathbed, Grandpa Lars told the truth: When he was a newly arrived immigrant, he got drunk, was rolled and his money and papers stolen. Realizing the situation, and seeing another fellow drunk in the corner, “Lars” took that fellow’s papers and became in name, if not in fact, Lars Swenson. And on the point of death, he could not remember his real, Italian, surname. True story.

How did your parents pick your name? If you have folks to ask, ASK! And realize, when researching your family tree and come up against a seemingly impossible brick wall, remember that our ancestors were survivors……..and that’s why we’re here today.