How our girls got their names

Cynthia wants me to tell the story of how she got her name. It was time, so Gramma says, "Let's go!" We took the back road, going through the neighbors yard which was a rough road (short cut), and got down to the main road, which was Wilson Road. We cut towards Sunnyside and there was a person there who had a Women's Club and they called it the Cyco Club, and the lady who ran it was Cynthia Copeland. Her name was on the mailbox and I thought, "That's not a bad name." We ran a few others past each other and concluded that Cynthia would be her name. Cynthia was born just a few days before my birthday. Her middle name was Ann, which was after my mother, Anna.

Cynthia was the third child, we already had Sandra and Toni. Sandra's name was chosen while she was just a few minutes old, in St. Elizabeth's hospital. Gramma was in the room with a woman who was infatuated with Sandra's olive skin. She suggested that we name her Cordelia - Gramma was appalled. Well, that wasn't going to work so we threw around a few more names and Gramma suggested Sandra and it stuck. Norma was her middle name, and that was always going to be no matter what. We wanted to give her her own first name. We liked Alexandra, too, but Norma was a foregone conclusion.

Toni, the name of our second child, was almost a foregone conclusion. My dad died in 1951 and everyone had called him Tony, short for Anthony or Anton. If it was a boy he would have been Tony, and a girl Toni. Her middle name is Marie.

Nancy was our fourth and last child. She was born one day from my birthday (our anniversary is also in November). It came time to go home and the nurse came in and told Gramma she couldn't go home without a name. So Gramma said, "Nancy Kay." I'm glad she picked that one!

We tried to avoid names that could be miscontrued and jostled about in school. But Toni was still called Toni Bologna!