She was named in the semi traditional Irish way which varied from family to family, that of first daughter being after both her grandmothers. So Catherine Mary is on her birth certificate as well as other ‘important’ documentation.
Her mother’s name was Alice Mary but she was always known as Al – her father’s name was James, known as Jim…….Jimmie to his family
Her paternal grandmother was Mary Elizabeth after both of ‘her’ grandmothers – we have no idea what her family called her……to us she was just Granny S. Granny’s oldest daughter was also named Mary, we knew her as Aunty May. The next daughter was Margaret Anne known to us as Aunty Maggie.
Our little girl’s mother’s mother, the grandma she never got to meet was Catherine Jane Mary.
On Irish census records she was called Kathleen and then it was discovered she was registered at birth as Katheline – possibly the result of her father’s accent. John Joseph Patrick Doyle was from Waterford – Kathleen’s birth was registered in Tralee, Kerry. A name spoken in an out of town accent possibly being misheard by someone not used to that accent then transcribed as heard …..if you get what I mean 🙂
Before she married she was known as Kitty to her family, after her father’s death she married Isaac John Joseph T (known to everybody as IJJ) and became Catherine. IJJ was from the north of Ireland, at that time Kathleen was a ‘southern’ name – say no more!
The Jane was after ‘her’ grandmother (the little girl’s gtgt grandmother) Jane Gatherer who was known as Jean! Oh that would be the Scottish influence coming into play 😊
So back to Catherine Mary…..she has been known as various names over her lifetime. Her mother and sisters always called her Cath – at high school it was Katy which then morphed into Cathy. As she gets older Catherine has come back into play….sounds more mature she often says.
Trouble is it gets tricky at times when she’s introducing herself as Catherine to someone new and an old acquaintance at the same event comes along and refers to her as Cathy….there can be confused looks or laughter all round. Then making an appt the other day she offered Catherine as her name, long pause and the receptionist could be heard muttering away in the background, then came back to ask if she had family with a similar name because all she could find was a Cathy. She’s going to need a little black book soon to make a note of who knows her as what😎
So here I am on a Monday morning wondering if I’ll ever be known by any more names in my lifetime – more and more frequently we are identified by a number/letter combination, (user/screen names, pins, passwords etc) in person eye and finger recognition is becoming more common (not sure if it’s more acceptable though).
As far as names are concerned you could all do me a favour, I have many visitors who pop in to read Still Waters (the blog) and leave without saying a word…….I would like/love to know your names. I’d be really pleased If you’d leave me a comment telling me just that and where you live. How you feel about family names and how we will be identified in the future.
Bye for now. Hope to hear from you soon. Cathy
(Sometimes known as Catherine, fondly referred to as Cath, previously known as Katy. Oh and often as Mum, Ma, And Grandma! And yes that’s me at 2yrs old complete with Glengarry hat – a link to the distant Scottish line that came together with an Irish one to form my maternal line and help make me who I am)
