The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.

[MyrtleLion]

Welcome to the Bluestocking Arms!

The company is always sparkling, the drinks are always sublime, and the cakes are mysteriously free from gluten, sugar, calories, and troublesome booze… not that you’d ever notice. 😏

Our enthusiastic team of gerbil waitstaff is ably supported by capybaras, quokkas, and other charming creatures who excel at their jobs while looking outrageously adorable.

You will find many things to laugh at - usually out loud - so take care not to spit out your tea. We are considering a petition for the return of the laugh emoji - just as soon as the AI gerbils learn how to spell.

New Bluestockingers are always welcome. Men can pop along to The Staunch Ally nearby.

Currently also knitting a Woolly Hug blanket for Bluestockinger Swashbuckled. Details here if you can knit or crochet a square before the 18 July.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5350941-woolly-hugs-desperately-sad-news-we-are-afraid-making-a-blanket-for-lovely-swashbuckled-whose-son-has-tragically-died

I'm a bit hazy on how my Donegal ancestors were named, but going by my Belfast family, if they had Gaeltacht naming customs there would have been men called Bill Bill Bill and women called Maggie Maggie Maggie.

In practice, if a son was named after his father he would be known for the rest of his life as Wee Stan, as opposed to Big Stan. Daughters got the same treatment.

My DH ( Glaswegian) is named after his father ( and numerous other male relatives as there are about three names in his family) and has always been " Wee name. He hates it. He hated the name too as a teenager, as it was a "comedy old person's name" back then.

Parents have a lot to answer for.

The women did a bit better than the men in my family for names. My theory is that this is because my great grandmother had ten sisters and only two brothers, so her parents were forced to improvise for the girls.

We have some lovely names in our family which could’ve been used, going back to grandmothers and great aunties. Just to name a few there was a Louisa, a Charlotte, an Emma, an Eliza, a Sarah, a Carrie…and our parents decided to give me and my sister names which were popular when we were born (1958 for my sister, 1969 for me) so that, in their words we “wouldn’t stand out”. I’m very bitter about that.

My husband is named after his father, who was named after his uncle.

When our youngest son (now 25) was around 13 he started talking about his friend Gary. Immediate thought was that he’d been befriended by a 50 year old but no, his friend is very much a rarity. A youngster called Gary. Don’t hear of many of those now.

In my parents' generation (so people born between the wars) it was common to have a first given name honouring a relative / one traditional in the family and a second given name which was the parents' choice, used by family, friends, teachers, colleagues and which was often more contemporary / fashionable. Often also more true of males than females.

There was a family in South Uist where all of the children (six boys) were named Donald after their father. There must have been a second name or nickname by which they were known otherwise mealtimes would have been ever so confusing.

I've known someone where this was done. He was indeed known by his second name. However since his second name was an incredibly popular boy's name the year of his birth, he was generally known by a nickname. So he was at the intersection of two of these naming oddities.

I once knew an Irishman whose second name was Mary. How does that happen? (His first name was Joseph, which may be a clue.)

Ive just looked at a rather old family tree (Current generations are patchy).

So very many Margarets and I can see they are all on one branch from the original Margaret. It survives four generations then appears to stop at the generation above me.

There's no male names that survive more than two generations though.

I remember knowing a John Mary once. It used to be, not exactly a common naming custom but not unheard of, and with an Irishman who had Mary as a second name I'd assume he was elderly.

You can still find male Catholic aristocrats in places like Germany who have Maria as a middle name, and it survives a bit among Hispanic men, but I think it's a custom that's dying out.

Well, I am approaching elderly, so that fits. Thanks for reminding me.😂

'Maggie Maggie Maggie' would be an unfortunate name in certain circles, wouldn't it, you'd never get invited into houses:
Who's there?
Maggie Maggie Maggie.
Out out out!
😁

Men called Mary: well there was Erich Maria Remarque who wrote All Quiet on the Western Front, and Joseph Mary Plunkett who was one of the executed leaders of the 1916 rebellion. And John Wayne's real first name was Marion, I don't know if that counts
And I agree that it's a catholic thing, putting a baby under the protection of the Blessed Mother and all that.

I have one family of cousins who all, male and female, have Mary as a middle name. We are not aristocrats. I will ignore that side-swipe about 'elderly'.

I've just looked at an old family tree, and there seems to be a very strong bias towards sons having their father's name.

It's mixed up a bit with the women, so on one line I've got Mary Margaret Sarah and on another I've got Lizzie Agnes Margaret. But it's still the same handful of names being recycled every generation. Probably a six-county endogamy thing.

Interestingly (ha!) although I have two grandmothers and four aunts called Mary, in my generation the marian names almost all got slightly mutated - there's one Mary, but the rest are Marian, Marianne, Miriam, Marie, Anne-Marie, Anne-Marie (2), Rosemary, Maureen, Moya.

Both Uncle Johns and all four cousin Johns are Johns.

The Williams vary more - Bill, Bill, Will, Liam, Billy.

One of the Gertrude gerbils has been looking into her family tree. She showed it to me, it's fascinating.

She's also got a photo of her great great great great great great great grandmother who was the first Gertrude in the family.

They even have a family tartan: purple for regality, white for wisdom, and green for garden parsley nibbles.

And a family motto.

AND a family crest!

Who knew some our of gerbils came from such nobility!

Love it!

What's Grenda's family motto? 'By gravery & grilliance'?

If I could AI as accurately as you, Boily, her family tree would go 'Brenda... Brenda... Brenda... Brenda... Brenda... Brenda m Sam the Ventriloquist, issue = Grenda'.

As an English woman I am free of all Celtic naming stuff. I have three Christian names, none of them from family! Yay me!!!

My Scottish (of Irish descent) great aunts and uncles were all Mary and John, so we often had Grand Aunty Mary McSurname and Grand Aunty Mary O'Surname - always referred to in full.

For my Master's thesis I used a podcast as a source. Four men called David and a woman.

And a friend was cross with me for getting a job she was really keen on - not that she applied for it - and it was a completely different MyrtleLion. I later also applied to the same organisation but didn't get an interview - probably to avoid confusion.

My mum's name is Gertrud (no e) she is not a gerbil however.

I was in school with two cousins both called Gertrude [same surname] after their grandmother, Gertrude [same surname]. Luckily the two my-generation ones weren't in the same year.

I probably had a lucky escape on the name thing, my DM [Welsh] was very much in favour of Myfanwy - DF [English] put his foot down as our surname began with W and he felt rightly that it would be a mouthful of 'W's.

You know Grenda well I see!

<Sings along to David Essex song>

My father's sister was also a Gertrud and married someone with the same last name as her (my lovely Onkel Hermann), so she and my mum had the same name once my mum was married. They also only lived one street apart. People from our village always added "X's wife" or "Y's mum" to specify which one they meant.

<Swoon> i used to fancy the pants of him when i was young.

He appeared on East Enders and it took me a while work out it was him.

Ps i don’t watch it anymore.

Gosh, what with the gerbil breeding cycle being what it is, that might go back a couple of years!