Are you tired of this yet? If so, feel free to stop reading.
There are a REALLY lot of people named Maud in my family tree. Hmmm. Maud. That name always reminds me of the Tennyson poem...or of Bea Arthur, LOL. But rarely spell it with the final "e."
There are also a tremendous amount of Marshalls, way back in the 1100's and 1200's. This is interesting and gratifying because, even though my mother's maiden name is Marshall, that name was merely the gift/assignment of an immigration official.
When Mom's great-grandfather got off the boat from Portugal and told the official his last name was "Mushabka" (best approximation I can make of what has been told to me), the official said, "Right, well, now your name is Marshall."
(There's a list of Portuguese M-surnames here, but nothing that looks like the name I have heard. Mom? anyone else?)
Anyway...I really like the idea that this name that means so much to me, really belongs to me in some way besides just through a border official's laziness.
Between about 1000 and 1100, "Rohese" and "Adeliza" were popular women's names.
Oh! And I grew up reading a book that my Butler relatives loved: Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Unset. I need to re-read that...I am loving watching the names from Norway and Sweden follow the traditional naming pattern (Kristin was the daughter of someone named Lavran Xsen (whatever his father's last name was).
