The 5 siblings of the Wright brothers

Wilbur and Orville Wright (in 1904)
Wilbur and Orville Wright

Clergyman Milton Wright and his wife, Susan, married in 1859 and welcomed seven children.

Two of those children, Wilbur and Orville, went on to design, build, and fly the world’s first engine-powered, heavier-than-air flying machine in late 1903.

So, how did Wilbur and Orville come to have their names?

Their father, believing the family surname was “too common, was determined to give his children distinctive first names.” Here are those distinctive first names, in order from oldest child to youngest:

  1. Reuchlin (born in 1861) was named after German theologian Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522).
    • His nickname was Reuch, pronounced roosh.
  2. Lorin (b. 1862) was “named for a town selected at random on a map” because his parents “thought it sounded nice.”
  3. Wilbur (b. 1867) was named after American minister Wilbur Fisk (1792-1839).
  4. Otis (b. 1870, twin) died in infancy.
  5. Ida (b. 1870, twin) died in infancy.
  6. Orville (b. 1871) was named after American minister Orville Dewey (1794-1882).
  7. Katharine (b. 1874), whose grandmothers were both named Catherine, was likely given a family name.
    • “Variant spellings of her name were common on both sides of the family. The choice of Katharine suggests that her parents wanted to commemorate the family name while giving this child the same sense of distinction as their sons.”

Out of just Wilbur and Orville, which name do you prefer? Why?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Wilbur and Orville Wright with Flyer II at Huffman Prairie (public domain)

Baby name story: Gale

The Great Blizzard of 1978
The Great Blizzard of 1978

In January of 1978, a massive winter storm struck the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions of the U.S. (as well as parts of southern Canada).

Nine months after the historic “Great Blizzard of 1978,” a baby girl was born into the Redstone family of Indianapolis.

Her name? Victoria Gale — middle name in commemoration of the “winter gale,” as her father Marion told the The Indianapolis Star in 1993.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from the daily weather map for January 26, 1978 (NOAA)

Loretta Lynn named her baby after Patsy Cline

Country singer Loretta Lynn (1932-2022)
Loretta Lynn

In mid-1961, up-and-coming country singer Loretta Lynn moved to Nashville and met established country singer Patsy Cline.

Cline quickly became both a friend and a mentor to Lynn. In her 1976 memoir, Lynn explained:

She taught me a lot of things about show business, like how to go on to a stage and how to get off. She even bought me a lot of clothes. Many times when she bought something for herself, she would buy me the same thing. […] She even bought curtains and drapes for my house because I was too broke to buy them.

In March of 1963, at the height of her career, Patsy Cline died in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.

The following year, Loretta Lynn and her husband welcomed their last two children — twin girls. One was named Peggy Jean after Lynn’s sister Peggy Sue, the other was named Patsy Eileen after Patsy Cline.

I named my daughter after Patsy. That’s how much she meant to me. When I had my twins the year after Patsy died, I named them Peggy and Patsy. If only Patsy had been there for that. She’d have liked it.

Loretta Lynn’s four older children were named Betty Sue, Jack Benny, Ernest Ray, and Clara Marie.

P.S. Patsy Cline’s birth name was Virginia Patterson Hensley.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from LorettaLynn1960s (public domain)

How did Loretta Lynn get her name?

Country singer Loretta Lynn (1932-2022)
Loretta Lynn

Country music singer Loretta Lynn (originally Loretta Webb) was born in rural Kentucky in 1932.

Why was she given the name Loretta? Here’s how she told the story in her 1976 memoir:

We just had this one-room cabin they made from logs, with the cracks filled with moss and clay. The wind used to whistle in so bad, Mommy would paper the walls with pages from her Sears and Roebuck catalog and movie magazines. I remember I could see pictures of Hitler, Clark Gable, and that Russian man — Stalin, is that his name? (…) Mommy never went to the movies, but she always liked pictures of Loretta Young and Claudette Colbert. Right over my crib she pasted pictures of them two stars. That’s how I got my name. Lots of times I wonder if I would have made it in country music if I was named Claudette.

Loretta Lynn was the second of eight children; she had an older brother named Melvin and six younger siblings named Herman, Willie, Donald, Peggy Sue, Betty, and Brenda Gail (later known as Crystal Gayle).

P.S. Actress Loretta Young was born Gretchen Young in 1913. Her stage name was chosen by fellow actress Colleen Moore, who named her “after the most beautiful doll I had ever had. Loretta.”

Sources:

  • Loretta Lynn – Wikipedia
  • Lynn, Loretta, and George Vecsey. Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner’s Daughter. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1976.
  • Moore, Colleen. Silent Star. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1968.

Image: Adapted from LorettaLynn1960s (public domain)