Naming Conventions: Ritchie, Gordon, Horne, Dansby

     I use to think that "Jane" was a "filler name" such as "Sue" or "Ann" since growing up in the South almost mandated a double name, by which we were all called, especially when we had gone one step too far.  People tended to drop the middle name when they grew up; they became a more sophisticated version of themselves (Betty-Dale, Frances-Ellen, Myra-Frances), but I had a real dilemma.  If I went by my first name (Margaret-Jane), as teachers wanted because it was so much easier on record keeping, I would become my mother.  Goodness Gracious how unpopular a move was that for a teenager! 
     So, I continued to struggle with identity until I went to college. All my records were still using my first name, but I just decided if anyone was going to use a single name, they'd just have to use my middle name, eventhough I believed it to be less of a name than a declaration of intelligence and personality :  "Jane-Jane, Ain't Got No Brain" and the proverbial "Plain Jane."
     On rare occasions, some "hook, line, and sinker" boy would say he confused me with Jayne Mansfield.  Then, there was the political and patriotic insurrection surrounding Jane Fonda.  Alak and Alas, what to do!
     Then, I reconsidered something I already knew but did not acknowledge until much later in my life:  Jane is a hugely important ancestorial name in my family tree as far back as we have researched.  Jane is important and a worthy name to carry forth.

     Jane Elizabeth Tooke married Thomas Bullock Gordon.  Their Children were Emma Sue Gordon (Auntie) and Charles Thomas Gordon (Papa).  Ella Jane Ritchie (Banmama) married Charles Thomas Gordon (Papa, or "that man").  One of their dauthers was named Janie, a child who never grew mentally past age 7 or 8 and who lived with my grandmother in the Big House until she died in 1953.  I tormented that poor lady, running to get into her chair, telling her it was "MY chair, Janie, MY chair!"  "NO, she'd cry, MY CHAIR!"  Mother would come after me and scold me for being such a meanie.

Another of Ella Jane (Banmama) and C.T. (Papa, Mr. Gordon,That Man) Gordon's daughter's was my grandmother, Mildred Gordon Horne (Nana, Grandmother, or Aunt Mib).  Mildred Gordon and Claude Horne's first child they named Jane, but Baby Jane died at home within 2 days of her birth; a birth injury due to inadequate care at a home birthing was the heartbreaking cause of death.  My mother, Margaret Horne Dansby, named me Margaret Jane, to carry forward the important historical "Jane" names of the family.
I am proud to be both named and called by Jane in honor of Jane Elizabeth, Ella Jane, in apology to Janie, and with due respect for a life unlived, Baby Jane.