A Story About Great Great Granny Annie

General Name Discussion
1

I’ve been doing a lot more family history research lately and thought I’d share a funny story I managed to piece together.

[name]One[/name] of my great, great grandma’s was called [name]Wilhelmina[/name] [name]Annie[/name] [name]Dale[/name] (known as [name]Annie[/name], born in 1863) and -according to my mum’s cousin- she was a rather kooky lady who loved reading. I’d already decided her family (the Keeling’s) must have been quite keen on names as her sisters have some of the prettiest names in my family tree (([name]Elizabeth[/name] [name]Ida[/name], [name]Violet[/name] [name]Louisa[/name] [name]Mary[/name], [name]Henrietta[/name] [name]Letitia[/name], [name]Alice[/name] [name]Lillian[/name], [name]Rose[/name] [name]Josephine[/name], [name]Thomasine[/name] [name]Norah[/name] and [name]Ethel[/name] [name]Constance[/name])) but, until recently, I hadn’t known the full names of her own children.

[name]Annie[/name] had seven kids. The first six of whom were named as follows:

[name]Alma[/name] [name]Annie[/name]
[name]William[/name] [name]Nelson[/name]
[name]Ethelinda[/name]
[name]Louis[/name] [name]Napoleon[/name]
[name]Henry[/name] Ethelred
[name]Sarah[/name] [name]Ivy[/name]

((Ethell, is a HUGE theme in the Keeling family. It’s used as a middle name for almost all of [name]Annie[/name]'s uncles and was originally her grandmother’s maiden name.))

The last of [name]Annie[/name]'s children, a little girl, was born on the 9th of [name]August[/name] 1902 the day upon which [name]Edward[/name] the 7th was crowned king of [name]Britain[/name]. She named her [name]Cora[/name]. Short for Coronation! Although this is something I’d never dream of doing myself I couldn’t help but feel a little closer to my great, great granny. She clearly had a great sense of humour! :wink:

2

That’s really cute. :slight_smile:

3

I like the name [name]Annie[/name], but the name [name]Cora[/name], short for Coronation? Yikes. I would not want to do that. You? I know I wouldn’t if I were you. I’d use the name [name]Cora[/name] and name her [name]Coraline[/name], not Coroantion.

4

You get why [name]Annie[/name] did it though, right? [name]Coraline[/name] wouldn’t have been half as funny ;)… Also, as far as I know Aunt [name]Cora[/name] only ever went by her nickname, Coronation remained her ‘paper name’.

5

That is fabulous.

In my own family tree, I found a great, great aunt named [name]Olive[/name] Eats. [name]Olive[/name] being her first name and Eats being her surname. I also have a great aunt named [name]Blanche[/name] White. Unfortunately these were not a sense-of-humor or ironic naming kind of thing. But they make me laugh all the same.

(Also, I [name]LOVE[/name] your name combos. [name]Just[/name] the right mix of classic and quirky.)

6

Thankyou :slight_smile: I love name coincidences like that. On my dad’s side of the tree my great, great grandmother was called [name]Eliza[/name] Doolittle :wink:

7

She clearly was a royalist, and a non-discriminatory one at that. It must have taken guts to name a son [name]Napoleon[/name] within living memory of Trafalgar & Waterloo. :slight_smile: And Ethelred the Unready! Fantastic!