My mother grew up in Ann Arbor, I heard about Ann Arbor throughout my childhood, and I went to college in Ann Arbor, but it had never occurred to me that I might have been named after Ann Arbor. The story my mother told me about my name is that they wanted a name that began with the letter A — so I ended up with the initials AAA, straight As — and they wanted something as simple as possible. The second-choice name was Amy, which is also only 3 letters, but it's 2 syllables, so Amy it wasn't.
I'm also only just now looking into the question whether Ann Arbor was named after someone named Ann. Wikipedia says: "Ann Arbor was founded in 1824 by land speculators John Allen and Elisha Walker Rumsey. On May 25, 1824, the town plat was registered with Wayne County as the Village of Annarbour, the earliest known use of the town's name. Allen and Rumsey decided to name it for their wives, both named Ann, and for the stands of bur oak in the 640 acres (260 ha) of land they purchased for $800 (equivalent to $23,000 in 2024 from the federal government at $1.25 per acre. The local Ojibwa named the settlement kaw-goosh-kaw-nick, after the sound of Allen's sawmill."
Anyway, what happened yesterday? I was poking around in song lyrics, writing this post, and it got me thinking about a couple of very long psychedelic songs I remember playing on WFMU radio in the late 1960s. One song was "The Anecdote of Horatio and Julie" by David Stoughton (from the 1968 Elektra album "Transformer"). That's the one with the repeated line "Horatio, I'm so bored, I could throw myself out a window."
The other song was "We Will Fall" by The Stooges. That's on their first album, from 1969. I see they had a song called "Ann," just the plain old super-simple name, not even an "e" on the end, no "Miss Ann," just the utterly plain Ann. Why would you give a song, let alone a little girl, a name as plain as Ann? Reading the lyrics at Genius.com, I saw "Ann is a reference to The Stooges hometown: Ann Arbor, Mich." I read that out loud, and Meade asked me if I'm named after Ann Arbor. I didn't think of the question myself. I don't particularly want to start thinking of myself as having had a name that means something that, in three quarters of a century, never crossed my mind.
And now I'm seeing that it's not even true that the Stooges' song "Ann" was named after Ann Arbor. Google's AI is telling me: "The Stooges' song 'Ann' (often 'Ann, My Ann') was named after Ron Asheton's mother, Ann, who raised the brothers (Ron & Scott Asheton) after their father died, not the city of Ann Arbor, though the band formed there. Niagara, Ron's girlfriend, confirmed the song was a tribute to Ron's hardworking mom...."
So there. The signs are clear. I conclude that I was not named after Ann Arbor.
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45 comments:
Well yes, but chronologically speaking ...
At least you were given a name. That’s parent’s first duty of many after birth.
By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Ann.
Oh, but Ann, you are if you say you are and your parents of blessed memory are no longer around to say otherwise. Everyone needs an origin myth and being named after Ann Arbor is lovely.
Early Happy Birthday.
This was the answer to a jeopardy question about 10 years ago.
I almost got named Karen, but it was already "taken" by some other mom. Whew.
Carol
Ah, to be named after one Ann or another.
At great risk of getting the song stuck in your head, maybe your mother decided to stick with just plain old Ann. You could be Anna Anna Bobanna ,,,,
OTOH, Ann appears to be a derivative of Anna.
Gotquestions.org says "Anna is mentioned in the Bible as a prophetess and one of the people connected to Jesus’ childhood. She was the daughter of Penuel from the tribe of Asher. Her name, which she shares with Hannah in the Old Testament, means “favor” or “grace.” All we know of her is found in three verses in the New Testament book of Luke. When Anna encounters the infant Jesus in the temple, we see that her life is indeed overflowing with favor and grace."
“"Coming up to them at that very moment” (Luke 2:38). Mary and Joseph arrive at the temple with the baby Jesus to satisfy the Old Testament law. They needed to make the purification offering (see Leviticus 12:6–8) and to present Jesus as their firstborn before God (see Exodus 13:2, 12–15). While they’re there, a man named Simeon cradles the Lord Jesus in his arms, praises God, and utters a prophecy concerning Jesus and Mary. At this moment, Anna enters. She immediately recognizes Jesus as the long-awaited Savior and begins thanking God."
It could have been worse. Your folks could have ended up in Saginaw.
Ann Arbor was and still is a great town.
Ann of a Thousand Cheeses…
Who is Ann Arbor?
Be happy that you were not named Kawgooshkawnick Alrhouse. You would have been explaining that all your life.
Niagara, Ron's girlfriend, probably figured out what she was named after at an early age. But who knows? Maybe she's reading this blog and a lightbulb it lighting up over her head.
Niagara could have been named after the famous sketch!
Slowly I turned. Step by step. Inch by inch….CC, JSM
Good thing our host’s mother didn’t grow up in Truth or Consequences, NM.
just look on the Bright Side: they didn't name you Madison!
I almost got to be The Third.
Explain sister Dev’s name. Until you mentioned her, I’d never heard that name before.
I just went to a wedding in Ann Arbor and thought it was a great little city. Bookstores and coffee shops right next to each other - and they weren't all franchises.
A happy birthplace.
“ The story my mother told me about my name is that they wanted a name that began with the letter A — so I ended up with the initials AAA, straight As — and they wanted something as simple as possible. The second-choice name was Amy, which is also only 3 letters, but it's 2 syllables, so Amy it wasn't.”
Someone had a touch of the ‘tism.
Just be glad she didn't pick Anishinaabe.
I was named after a Star Trek episode my Mom was watching when I was conceived. She said Captain Kirk made her frisky.
I have known about a dozen Anns during my 60 years but none of them are under the age 60. Annette and Anna are still being given to children today as names but not Ann.
If they'd named you "Madison" you would have been a trend-setter. Is it strange how these non-gendered names acquire gender? Madison is a girl. Monroe could be a boy. Tyler may still be a boy's name, but Taylor is becoming a girl's name.
My mother told me she got my name from Edna Ferber's "The Big Trees" but when I searched that it turned out that she wrote no such novel- I eventually found "Cimarron" which is the actual source of my name.
In Maryland, Anne Arundel County really was named for a lady named Anne Arundell (note extra ‘l’), wife on the 2nd Baron Baltimore. And Prince George‘s County really is named for Prince George, the consort of England’s Queen Anne. Note the ‘e’ at the end of each name.
Interesting entry on "The Dictionary of Received Ideas".
SERIALS "The cause of our present demoralization. Argue about the way the story will end. Write to the author suggesting ideas. Fly into a rage when you find that one of the characters bears your name."
Maybe it didn't occur to you because flying into a rage would not look pedagogical... 'don't dance and don't fly into a rage'.
Well hell Ann... I'm Catholic and named Paul. Ya think I was named after the Saint.. Paul or was I named after Peter, Paul, and Mary? The world wonders..
"The story my mother told me about my name is that they wanted a name that began with the letter A — so I ended up with the initials AAA, straight As "
Is your middle name Alliteration?
Before people were calling them "Karens" they were called "Miss Ann." In some parts of the country maybe they still are.
I doubt your mother named you after Ann Arbor. I've heard people saying Ann Arbor often for the last fifty years, and I never realized the Ann was a woman's name until today's post.
Well it's more believable than someone claiming they were named after Sir Edmund Hillary years before he conquered Everest.
“ The story my mother told me about my name is that they wanted a name that began with the letter A — so I ended up with the initials AAA, straight As — and they wanted something as simple as possible. The second-choice name was Amy, which is also only 3 letters, but it's 2 syllables, so Amy it wasn't.”
Sounds like they just chose the name that required minimal effort. In physics this is known as the principle of least action.
Alphabetical privilege. I kid, but it's real and probably helped you in many small ways in life.
Good for Mom for recognizing the usefulness of a well chosen name.
Mine is also alliterative, but further down the alphabet.
Per Lazarus: I remember a comic strip episode from 20 or so years ago. Grandad asks granddaughter where she's going? She replies, "I'm going out to play with Madison, Taylor and Parker!" Puzzled, Grandad asks "You're playing with a law firm?"
Good thing she was not born near University of Idaho.
My parents joked they were going to name their first born in three names ending in "ley" and came up with ambisexual Wesley Ashley.
My late uncle was a III, but my aunt nixed a IV for my only male cousin. He and I both have the first name, Augustus, for a middle.
I thought of Anne Arundel Co., too. Her family was from Cornwall, not the ancient Earl of Arundel line named after the castle. Both title and castle are held by the senior Peer, the Duke of Norfolk.
My grandparents debated between Ann and Doris, and eventually settled on Doris Ann, which my mother hated. After hearing about this too many times, I decided to be proactive, and started calling her Ann. This went on for much of a decade. As the oldest, I felt entitled todo that. And when my father questioned me, I would respond that she likes Ann much better than Doris.
“Per Lazarus: I remember a comic strip episode from 20 or so years ago. Grandad asks granddaughter where she's going? She replies, "I'm going out to play with Madison, Taylor and Parker!"”
Named my daughter with a surname. For awhile it had been used with males, and we caught the reasitiin to using it for girls. She ended up with four surnames, dropping her mother’s for her husband’s when she married (as a second last name - keeping mine as her primary last name, as she get her PhD and several papers published, before marriage, using it. Her first name was her maternal great grandmother’s maiden name, and her 2nd name was my grandmother’s maiden name. They go well together.
I googled her name (1st and last), and found a connection between them in CO history. The Hayden was from the famous explorer of the western US. Her first name was the surname of a famous botanist, who was honored by naming a mountain after him, along with another botanist, who had been on a Hayden Expedition.
With different spelling, her first name is obviously female. But as an English surname, that had earlier been a boys’ name, it was somewhat ambiguous. We wanted that, expecting her to maybe go into a field where women might be discriminated against. Like Engineering, as it turns out. So, happy with our choice. Except that the mother of our only great grandkid goes by the same name, though spelled more conventionally (her real name is quite different).
Obviously you were named after the Ann Arbor Railroad…
Happy Birthday.
According to some people I know, Ann Arbor was a whore.
Just be thankful you weren’t named Arbor.
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