response 25 of 61:

Jun 6 18:04 UTC 2002

Twila was rather a last-minute choice, as my mother explains it. She and my
father had picked out a very fifties name, Deborah Anne, or Deborah Sue, and
then when she was in labor, in the emergency room, this older woman asked her
what names she'd picked out, and commented that she'd always liked Twila. So
my mother picked that. It's somewhat more common in Zanesville and in the
South than anywhere else, so I usually go with H. L. Mencken's explanation
that it was a slave name meaning "born at twilight". 

Mae is because my grandmother's middle name was Mae, and my mother's middle
name was May. It's a family thing, which I broke with glee when I named
Rhiannon. 

response 27 of 61:

Jun 6 18:53 UTC 2002

My older brother was named after my father, so he is Herbert Jr. My
parents planned on naming their second child, me, after my mother.  But I
turned out to be male, so they made my name an anagram of my mother's
name. (I don't know if they were drunk at the time.....)  What is my
mother's name? 

response 29 of 61:

Jun 6 19:06 UTC 2002

No. It was a common name in my mother's time.

response 33 of 61:

Jun 6 20:18 UTC 2002

heh i like Enar.

my partner's name calum was chosen by his scotish mother and is the name of
some famous folk singer. i forget who - maybe krj knows. and his brother was
named darren after the character on bewitched. how silly.

i like his name - he was almost named Ringo after the beatle.

response 35 of 61:

Jun 6 20:38 UTC 2002

My middle name is Ann.  I think it means "full of grace".  I'm a graceful
princess.  ;-)

response 37 of 61:

Jun 6 21:00 UTC 2002

Erna is correct. It is hardly used today, but was not uncommon in the
19th century.

response 39 of 61:

Jun 6 23:48 UTC 2002

Re 13:  I am actually Anne Catherine. Other sibs are Margaret Elizabeth
and James Stuart.

response 41 of 61:

Jun 7 07:17 UTC 2002

Hmmph.  My last name Howard (also spelled Hayward) is a norman name.
One William who came to england in 1066 with another William was
appointed 'Hay Warden' - a judge or legal position having to do
with controlling war material and judging matters controlling
same (horses were the heavy tanks of the time).  He was a 
descendant of Fulco Of Jerusalem recognized by many of the houses
of europe and thus my 'claim' to part of the middle east. (A younger
son of a norman noble sent to 'make his bones' in the first of
many 'crusades'.) Of the Norfolk Howards (and related to two wifes of
Henry VII and through Catherine of Aragon to the current Spanish 
throne).  Another later 'cousin' was quartermaster (similar position) to
Blackbeard the pirate, his descendants prominent in 'respectible' 
society in the Carolinas and Georgia.  Another 'cousin' rode with 
the James and Younger Gang - just another businessman.  I am direct
descent of Sir Peter Tilton Howard one of the founding members of the
Upper Canadian Parliament.  His father Mat(t)hew Howard was a
loyalist ensign and later promoted LT. in the british army.
(Retired a captian after the 1812 stuff) 
Interestingly Matthew Howard was a member of the Albany Comittee
of Correspondence along with Philip Schyler (first governor of 
the State of New York and whom he briefly held captive later before
surrendering and being subject to two 'mock executions' (war crimes)in
Bennington, Vermont and is mentioned in Schyler's biography.)  Paul
Revere of was one of the Boston members of that 'Komiteh' to give
you an idea of what was involved.  I recently received a nice piece
of official paper signed by HRH Elizabeth II that entitles me to add
the initials UE after me name on my business card. (Not being able
to swear an oath of allegiance under US law I cannot append UEL,
but it was the same application form.)  Thus in any official
british function I am to be announced as 'the honorable'  but not 
'the most honorable', small sigh.

My middle name is from the distaff side and reflects descent from
a scots (pict) king who was probably given better 'press' in the
shakespeare play _MacBeth_ than he actually deserved (was king for 
only six or so years and was probably simply a notorious cattle thief
as far as the normans were concerned - again the connection to 'hay').

My given name is also a family name.

My public 'chinese name' is Huang Bao-rui.  My given chinese name
is Hao Bai-ng. I 'chop' with an actual Qing dynasty granted
(kuang-hsi) seal of 'hao-w^er-d`e' via another distant 'cousin'
from Tien-tsing (Tanjing) (the Wade-Giles is of course confusing
and I don't know the pingyin off hand).  It is said I am a 
49 in the hong-long tong but that is quite mistaken.



My middle name is also a family name 

response 43 of 61:

Jun 7 12:16 UTC 2002

Brian, what is UE (or UEL)?

response 47 of 61:

Jun 8 03:35 UTC 2002

Re #39: I'd guessed Catherine of Aragon, but I couldn't spell it until I saw
bdh's comments.

Both of my father's brothers have/had "Joseph" as their middle name.  He was
supposed to have it that way, too, but a scribal error on the birth
certificate reversed his first and middle names.  So he grew up being called
by his (official) middle name, Louis.  I've used it, too: in French classes
where the teacher wanted us to choose a "French" name.  He got a shock the
first time he heard one of my classmates address me. :)

response 49 of 61:

Jun 9 23:59 UTC 2002

re: 46 -- I saw them on the news, and was shocked to learn that they weren't
from Westland.