Mary Ann

I was given the name Mary Ann. It's my first and second name but all I remember is being Mary Ann. As I was growing up I met no one with my name so I thought my name was unique. To my surprise when I returned to work after years at home with small children, I found that there are two other ladies with my name and one I share a birthday with at this place I work. They spell their names Marianne and Mary Anne so there is a little difference.
The other thing about my name is that of all nine of the children born to my parents, mine is also all old fashioned Mennonite. My brothers names are Robert, Ronald, Timothy, Donald, and Quentin. My sister's names are Linda, Patricia, and (Barbara who passed away as an infant). I think I was named after an aunt and a grandmother. All my brothers and sisters have the old Mennonite names as their second names (after a family member).

When my husband Abe and I decided to have children we did a lot of thinking. Boys names were hard to agree on. Then one day I heard a friend tell me if she had a boy his name would be Mitchell. I loved the name and it was one my husband liked to. So when this friend had a girl and since we didn't see them much it would be alright to name our son Mitchell. His second name is Aron after my Dad. My oldest brother has this second name also. Our son's personality reminds me of them both.
Our daughter's name my husband had picked before we had Mitchell. Her name is Lacey and I thought it was pretty. Abe thought it would be cool to put his mom's name (Mary) and my mom's name (Tina) together for her second name. So her second name is Martina.
Then there came Lance. If he'd been a girl he would have been Stephanie Ann. But we had a boy so the poor baby had no name for three days after he was born. I had heard the name Lance on TV a few years before and had always liked it so I ran it by Abe and lo and behold he liked it to. I suggested his second name be after Abe but it should be Abraham like on my husbands birth certificate.
I would say naming our children had to be one of the best part about having them.

Living in a small Mennonite community can be kind of silly sometimes.
We Abe and Mary Ann Braun living in Osler had neighbors down our street named Abe and Mary Braun. Their son Abe married a girl named Margaret. And their first son of all things they named Mitchell. How silly is that? Well they soon moved out of Osler and so did we.