© Bridget Whelan
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My favourite book is Jane Eyre, but the Anne of Green Gables series always made (and still makes) me happy. Sure, I cried a bunch, but I loved losing myself in Anne’s world…I feel like she’s a friend from my childhood that moved away.
Plus, I can identify with her wanting the E on Anne…my middle name is Ann, it’s three generations old, and I despise it. The E would make everything better. Unfortunately, my mother isn’t that kind.
I thought of Jane Eyre and Bleak House – both give me a soft glow of contentment – but I’ve never read Anne of Green Gables, only watched a television series years ago. Even so, I think I can understand your attachment but the ‘e’ in Anne? Surely not. Ann is rarer and belongs to the women in your family – I’d treasure it as part of your heritage. Why did Green Gables Anne feel so strongly about it?
You’re right about it being part of my heritage, but I feel that that can be recognised in other ways. Names with imagination and thought are something I feel strongly about, so it bothers me. But most people don’t look at it like that; it’s sort of silly, but I care about strange things.
Even now, I’d say Anne of Green Gables is worth the read. And Anne prefers “Anne” to “Ann” because it’s more grown up and distinguished, and that’s something she’s always striving for. She loves sophisticated names (she wants to be called Cordelia) but if she has to be stuck with Ann(e) she’s going to make the most of it.
You’ve convinced me – I must read Anne of Green Gables. And names are such personal things I think you should embrace the name you want even if your family can’t take to it. There is a wider world to whom you can be Anne. (I did that when I was 16 and zillions of years later I have to check the spelling of the name my family know me by when I write Christmas cards, but to friends and the family I have made I am the name I want to be…)