My parents named me Joanne Beth.
I have several ancestors with some form of “Joanne.”
- My paternal grandmother was Joanna.
- My paternal great grandmother was Johanna. She went by Hanna.
- My maternal 2nd great grandmother was Johanna Rosanna or Rosanna Johanna. She went by Rosanna.
- I even had two 4th great grandmothers named Johanna, one from Sweden and one from The Netherlands!
But how about my middle name “Beth”?
As a child my mom loved the book Little Women, written by Louisa May Alcott in 1868. It was a story about four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. I was my parents’ third daughter and my mom’s love for Little Women somewhat inspired my name–Joanne Beth.
Interestingly, my parents would also end up having four girls. But I am the only one named after characters from the book Little Women.
My middle name was carried on when we had our daughter. We named her Beth Anne. And one of Beth’s daughters has the middle name Joanna!
Ancestors Across the Ages 