Where did your name come from?

Linda was the second most common girl’s name in 1950, bested only by Mary. Every classroom was populated with Lindas and its rhyming cousins, Glenda and Brenda. I wasn’t ashamed to be Linda.

I when I got older and learned I’d been threatened with the horrific name, Clothilde, I was grateful to be just plain old Linda. I was one of four girls. Each time a daughter was born, Daddy offered up his favorite girl name, Clothilde. It seems that when he was a starving child growing up in the depths of The Great Depression, his family had share-cropped on the farm of Mr. Ward. Daddy forever remembered his daughter, the beauteous Clothilde, hence, his love of that name.

No matter what my mother ever did or will do to me, I will be forever grateful she didn’t let Daddy saddle me with the name Clothilde!