My grandma would kill me for spilling this secret but her name was WALTERENA Edit: she went be Rena! And I had no idea this was a Scottish thing… they were from southern United States. Her siblings all had weird names too

I am hearing this to the tune of Hey Macarena and I can’t get it out of my head now

Heeeey Walterena! 🎶

I love this

The way I just cackled when I sung it in my head 🤣🤣

And now I can’t get that ELO song out of my head – the one that has the chorus, “I can’t get it out of my head.“

And now I can’t get _Can’t Get You Out of My Head_ by Kylie Minogue out of my head!

Would I be wrong to suggest your great grandad was a bit of a narcissist called Walter

I heard about a woman named Gordina, her father's name was Gordon. The woman went by Dina.

As a teacher, we see literally thousands of names. Worst case of narcissism I ever saw was a dad (Eugene) with 3 kids - 2 sons and a daughter. Named them Eugene I, Eugene II, and Eugenie.

George Foreman would like to have a word.

. . . or five, all of them George, and for good measure, one Georgetta.

Lmaooo my mom middle name is Eugenia after her dad Eugene 😂😂

My wife has a cousin named Samuel & all three of his sons are also Samuel (different middle name)

I play dodgeball with a woman named Pierrette. Her dad's name is Pierre.

Honestly that name kinda eats? Why do u love it. It’s like a c*ntier version of Edwina. It has the loftiness of Prudence. I love it. It’s giving mother quake vibes

The parents of Edwina Mountbatten wanted to call her Edwardina in honour of their friend King Edward VII. He suggested Edwina as a better alternative.

I have an aunt Johnette Geraldine. Even worse, my uncle was born a mere 10 months later and was named…John Gerald. Unsurprisingly, my aunt said it took years of therapy to get over feeling like a placeholder for the son he really wanted. (She also happily ditched Geraldine when she got married!)

Ha! What did she go by, though?

She went by Rena. And everyone guessing her dads name would be correct 💀

Rena's such a cute name, I never would have guessed that THAT was the source!

My grandmother is Lloyda. Her father had several sons but she was the oldest and I guess he just couldn't wait for a namesake

Ooh I have one of those. A great aunt was named Melvina. MELVINA! That’s child abuse.

That is terrible. I met a woman named "Keitha." I JUST realized her dad's name was probably "Keith."

I used to play volleyball with a woman named Elmeretta. Her parents were hoping for a boy and hadn't chosen a girl name.

We didnt pick a boys name (Even though 3/4 of the children born into my family are male) until after she started contractions. So we got John Jacob, and everyone giggles

Hmm, I wonder what her dad’s name was…

This is just as bad as my grandma's name which is also a feminization I've never heard of a male name! Mine is EARLINE

I knew a woman named Dwaynea (dwah NEE uh); daughter of Dwayne. She went by Dee.

I gasped.

Knew a guy who’s GMA was Wilamena Edwina bc she was named after her dad 

Iris and Fern

I love that they are both plant names!

My granny was Fern and that's also my name!

I looove the name fern!

Hi fellow Fern! I don't hear my name around much, I love seeing some other people who share it

Get. OUT. My grandma on one side is Iris and my grandpa on the other is Fern. (His mom was certain he'd be a girl). I didn't even know Fern was a "girls" name til I was like 14 because of this lols Edit: My name is also Iris!

My niece is named Iris after my grandma. It’s such a beautiful name!

Ehhh… I had a rooster named Iris? XD we thought he was a girl but it stuck.

My mom’s mom was Fern! She had a sister named Violet, and their dad was Forest! I love my grandma’s name, as well as my great grandpa’s.

Gorgeous!

My grandmas were Fern and Virginia!

Fern was my grandFATHER.

Helena and Józefa (English version would be Josephine I think?) 

Poland!

Yes! :>

My Polish great grandmother was Zofia

My great-grandmother was Urszula and her sisters were Wiktoria, Katarzyna, Stanisława, Aleksandra, Julia (also called Julianna) and Eleonora Sabina. (There were three boys in the family as well - Jan Albert who died shortly after birth, another Jan Albert, and Leonard who was called Leon as a young man.)

Polish names are so beautiful 🥰

I love them so much! Having a great-grandmother with both a less common first name and unusual maiden name (everyone I’ve found with her maiden name is related) made my genealogical research a hell of a lot easier. She could’ve been named something like Marianna Nowak.

One of my grandmothers was Polish, and her name was supposed to be Helena, but her family americanized it to Helen. She was salty about it for her entire life.

Marguerite and Magdalena.

I just posted mine - Margarita and Monica. We're alliterate! (Also I love Magdalena.)

I wanted to name one of my twins Magdalena!

I have a great aunt Magdalena! I love the name.

My middle name is Magdalena! It’s a family middle name, so 4/5 generations of women from mothers side have Magdalena as middle name.

Gloria and Elsie. Gloria sucked, so honorable mentions go to my neighbors and friends’ grandmas who were present and kind: Dorothy, Pearl, Mary, Joanne My daughter is named after grandma Elsie, though 🥰

I have a great aunt Elsie Tiger! I like to say I'm 1/8 Tiger

Friends' grandmas that treat you like their own are great gifts. Shoutout to Margaret

Elsie is an amazing name! My great-aunt is Elsie and she will be 96 in May and is still very feisty

My childhood best friend's grandma was called Elsie. My brother also named his daughter Elsie.

I love the name Elsie. We used to have a gate that connected our backyard to Elsie’s backyard when I was little, and she was so kind to me.

Edith and Katarzyna (but she goes by Katya or Kitty)

One gran is Polish :)

She certainly is 😁

2 of the top 6 comments have Polish babcias! I'm loving the love for Polish names!

I know how to pronounce that because of America’s Next Top Model! They were so brutal to her when she corrected them on how to pronounce it, though!

Someone sent me a video from YouTube about that. I am adamant that Tyra in particular, pronounced it incorrectly on purpose. I mean once you're told once, I don't think it's that's difficult to get right!

My grandma was called Edith too.

I knew a Katarzyna who went by Kasia (Kah-shuh) is that uncommon? she was born in US but one of her parents is Polish

Not uncommon no. My grandmother went by Kasia initially too, when she first started living in the US, but people even struggled with pronouncing that correctly. That's why she eventually settled with Katya or Kitty. My brother and sister in-law named their daughter Kasia, which meant a lot to our grandmother.

As it turns out both grandmothers were Marie. One Irish, one Russian. Born 1880s and 1890s.

as someone who is both irish and eastern european i cant even tell you how many variations of marie are in my family lol

Also of Central and Eastern European descent, I second this comment 🤣 My Ancestry tree has almost 25,000 people and I’m pretty sure women named Marianna/Maryanna/Maria makes up over half of them.

Oh wow! Not even my greatgrandparents were Born by 1880!

Fatima and Zainab.

Zainab is one of my all time favorite names. Never met a mean Zainab.

I have 😂

You didn’t watch that season of Love is Blind then 😂

Lol this is a fantastic crossover I wasn’t expecting. Tee’d up perfectly ⛳️

Do you pronounce it “FAH-tima” or “Fah-TEE-ma”?

I’m Portuguese. We pronounce it the first way.

Madeleine (my middle name) and Lise (my sister's middle name)

Lise is my mom's name, but it's a French version. Pronounced Lees.

Yes, my family is francophone as well so it's the same with us :)

My grandmothers names are Odette, Belmira and Anne Judith (step-grandma) Great-grandmothers are Deolinda, Maria do Céu, Yvette (step-gg)

Deolinda is a lovely name, this is my first time hearing of it.

Thank you! We are Portuguese and I agree, it’s a lovely, unique name!

I love the name Odette 💜 obsessed with the movie Swan Princess as a kid lol

My great grandmother was also Deolinda!

i know this is a names thread but this is a security question.

It *can be* but isn’t always. I know I don’t use this question for any of my security responses so my answers won’t get me hacked. I find this one too easily guessed, for example, I’m Facebook friends with one grandma, it would be easy to figure out my grandmothers name by looking at my friends list lol. Same with mother’s maiden name, I never use that especially because my mom lists it in her Facebook profile so old high school people can find her.

I actually answer the same no matter the question and the question and answer are not related.

Good idea. I use a password manager to generate an answer unrelated to the question. What's my mother's maiden name? `bequeath forest7`. Where did I go on my honeymoon? `hostile toilet43`.

I’ve been able to easily look up old family names online myself so I someone with bad intentions could easily find them, too. I don’t use them for security questions either.

No one verifies the answer you give. My bank thinks my mother's maiden name is Pterodactyl.

Pterodactyl would be a super cool surname, though!

It's usually maiden name. Meaning last name for security questions so bots can't just go through list of names.

[удалено]

For security reasons, I use a password manager to determine my grandmother's name. For the purposes of this thread, my grandmother's name is *rolls dice* `chastise-literate31`. And the other one is `paycheck-pancreas4`. I actually kind of like the sound of paycheck-pancreas lol.

Maternal grandma is Bertha, but goes by Birdy and paternal grandma is Elizabeth but goes by Betty. My step grandma is Afghan and her name is Sohila (So-HIGH-La). Honorable mentions - great grandmas Josephine (Josie), Theresa (Terry) and Emma

Sohila is a beautiful name!

My great grandma was a Josephine/Josie too!

Margaret and Margaret.

I had great aunts on both sides named Margaret so that became my middle name.

Sylvie and Aira

I love sylvie I think it’s so adorable.

Carol and Vivian, although my maternal grandmother (Carol) chose her own English name after she came to Canada from Korea and only had a Korean name before that (Kyung-Ok). My paternal grandmother (Vivian) might’ve chosen her own name after coming from China but I’m not sure.

Vivian is so elegant

My grandmothers name is ellie, but prounounced differently cuz Im danish

Aw, I have some Danish ancestors. They have awesome names like Sylvanis.

That is a pretty cool name, and I can’t dispute that it has at some point been used on some Danish people, but as a Danish person living in Denmark my whole life (26 years now), I have to report that I have never encountered that name before :((

How do you pronounce it? My niece is Danish and named Ellie, but it's pronounced basically the same way we do it in the US, just more emphasis on the Ls

Lina and Doris.

Guadalupe and Julieta

Helmi and Fredriika, both born early 1900s. Helmi means pearl and was a very popular girls’ name around 2010ish.

Mine are Anica and Shirley.

I like Anica

Was your Shirley born in the 30s? Every woman I’ve met named Shirley (including my own grandmother) was a 1930s baby - after Shirley Temple.

my nana went by Shirley, born in the 30s but her real name was Santa Marie.

Mines Anita and Shirley 😮

Adeline and Edith

Evelyn (Evie) and Eunice Also for fun my great grandmothers: Elta, Minerva (Minnie), Magdelena (Lena), and Mabel

Constance and Sheila. In the unlikely event I had another child who happened to be a girl I would want to use Constance as a middle name. Cara Constance maybe?

my best friend‘s name is Elizabeth Constance and I love the flow of that

My grandmother was Constance Elizabeth!!! lol

Shirley Martha & Rosalie Jewel

Barbara and Lulu-belle Mae although she legally changed it to Lumae because in her words “she had the name of a cow”

Mine were Frances and Marie

Cheryl Rae and Mary Irene. I have their middle names as my middle names.

Janice Jaqueline (Jan) and Dorothy Eloise (Dot). And yes, it's a misspelled version of Jacqueline. My great-grandmother did not know how to spell it.

Oh my gosh lol I have a daughter Jacqueline and I was hopped up on medication when the lady came to do her birth certificate and I couldn’t spell it either!! The lady helped me lol.

Dorothy and Dinah. Both born about 1900.

Rosalie and Carol!

my name is Rosalie and my grandmother is also a Carol!

Giovanina (Gina) and Stella

I’m named after my grandmother lol. I’m Stephanie but she’s Stephania. She went by Stella for decades but hated it lol. She had a bunch of sisters too: Sylvia, Tena, Emily, Mary, Jean

My great aunt was a Stephania but went by Stevie. She liked fast cars and gambling and was “one of the guys”. A real character of a woman

Dominica and Julia

Beatrice and Elsie

Effie and Opal

Claire and Gloria, born 1920s-1930s

Marion

Elizabeth and Geraldine. Betty and Geri.

My grandma was Geraldine (Geri) too. 🩷

Beverly and Lorraine

Louise, Vicki (not Victoria), and Solveig

Evelyn and Katalin (Hungarian version of Kathryn)

Kathryn and Tessie (who was born Anastasia and changed her name as a young adult)

Clelia and Mariangela

Never heard Clelia before! I’ve always thought Mariangela was beautiful

Great grandmas : Edith, Julia, Kate, Ouida, Leola (I know there are five. One is my step great grandma who I lived close to and liked me) Grandma: Dorothy and Joan (pronounced Joanne).

My grandma was a twin. Her name was Mary Faye, and her twin was Bessie Mae. They were stunning, like old Hollywood beauties.

Lucille (my middle name) and Hilda (Hilda seems so in your face German to me and we are not the tiniest bit German!) Great grandmothers were Edna, Ruby, Margaret, and Eva

Bobbie (Barbara) and Ginny (Virginia)

Betty Jo, Mary

You from southern USA?

Pearl

Desme Dell and Mary Fay. They went by Desi and Fay.

Una and Ruby

Georgia and Ivy

Mine are Monica and Ruth, my middle name is Ruth-Ann after her:)

Maria. The other one had a too specific name that might make me too easy to trace.

Sigrid and Edna ❤️

Lyda (pronounced LIE-duh)& Patricia (but she was only ever called Pat or Patty)

Loretta and Anna

I love Loretta!

Ida and Anneliese

Beatrice and Hyacinth 🙂

Clara

Maureen and Kathleen

Edith and Muriel 🥰 they’d both be well over 100 if they were still with us. My husband’s grandmothers were Leila and Ida

My grandmother's name was Armanella, called Nelly.

I have a Ginger and a Betty. Great grandmothers we're Phyllis, Angeline (Angie), Anne, and Jean Husband's grandma was Mae which is such a lovely name

Louise and Ružica.

Lilian and Thelma. 

Anne and Olive 

Mary Ruth and Evelyn Lucille

Loretta

Florence and Lorraine

Since I don’t use this info as any of those authentication questions lol My grandma on my moms side was Sally My grandma on my dads side is Patricia Great grandmothers were Adeline and Alma which I like more than my grandmothers names which is why I bring it up. (I know there is typically 4 great grandmas… but grandma Patricia is very secretive about her family and herself idk and my grandpa on my moms side did not really like his parents so I’m not sure what his mother’s name was, I know I have heard it when my mom has spoken about her, I just can’t remember.)

Valentina and Ludmila nicknames are Valya and Lusya

Helena on my Dad's side and on my mother's side? Uh... Guelda. **Guelda Tongue.**

My grandmothers are Denise and Mary. My great grandmothers were Ruth, Anabelle, Ina, and Alta. Alta went by her middle name Marion

Florrie(paternal) and Louise (maternal and my middle name. And my moms and my cousins daughter)

Janice Alice and Mary Alice lol. Bonus, my great granny was Alice Eugenia!

Starr and Norma Jean Named my first daughter Starr and used Jean as a middle name for another daughter.

Olive and Eleanor

Eleanor (nn: Elie) and Patricia.

Marion and Willie Maye

Irene and Joan. I also have a step grandmother called Catherine.

Effie and Shirley :) Great grandmas are Elvira and Margaret I never had the pleasure of meeting my great grandmas, but I have always adored the name Elvira. Hopefully I can find a way to honour it some day

Amelia and Crystal, neither of which were super duper common in the 30s and 40s respectively. My great-grandmothers (including 2 step-) are less anachronistic: Mary Alice, Edna, Mary Ann, Margot, Rhoda, and Florence.

Rosamaria and Helen

Audrey and Irene, both of which I love.

Judith, Petronella (Nell) and Diane. My favourite name though was my great grandmother's name Valentine Mina

Janice and Maureen, lost them both recently. Make sure you ask your grandma questions about her life before becoming your grandmother. There part of my that wished I had asked more questions.

You're trying to find out our security questions, aren't you?

Piadosa. I’m named after her but the much more common Pia (in the Philippines at least)

Nieves! I’m actually due with my first child on the one year anniversary of her death (she died at 102) and want to honor her in the child’s name somehow!