Featured Image Credit: FarmHER + RanchHER
Topics: California, Parenting, Weird
Britt Jones
A mom-of-four has explained why she doesn't care about backlash to her family tradition of calling each daughter Mary.
People are keen to pass down names across generations. But to use the exact same name for all of your kids? It's a bit much.
However, this mom wants you to know that it’s not weird that she called all of her daughters Mary, and that it’s not uncommon too.
The five Mary Heffernans all live on a cattle ranch in California with Mary's husband and the kids' father Brian, which they've called The Five Marys.
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She told The Daily Mail that Mary is a ‘strong name’ and represents ‘humility, steadiness and strength’.
In response to online backlash, Mary said people on social media ‘always have opinions,’ to the Daily Mail, but their family doesn’t need ‘approval’ from outside sources.
She said: “I don't spend much time worrying about it. If anything it makes people remember us and our family cattle brand, [called Five Marys].
“The girls love their names, and that's what matters.”
The mom-of-four added for their choice that the name is ‘strong', and that she’s ‘honored to carry the name myself, and naming our first daughter Mary felt like a natural way to honor one of our grandmothers and continue that tradition,' she said adding: "It felt timeless and meaningful."
For them, it was easy to choose a baby name when they were first expecting, based on Mary’s family also passing down the same name, but they took it a step further when they bestowed the moniker on all kids, not just the eldest daughter.
“Once we started, there was no going back,” the mom said in a Facebook post last year: “We have a long history of strong Catholic women named Mary on both sides of our family.”
She explained that she and Brian wanted to carry on the tradition of calling their first daughter Mary, but even they ‘honestly never thought about the fact we might have ALL girls.’
But if you’re wondering how they manage to call each daughter their name without getting confused, they explained that they have given each girl their own middle name and nickname to help to differentiate.
So, first, there was Mary Frances Borchard (Francie), who pays homage to Brian’s late grandmother Bernice Borchard.
As for where Frances comes from, Mary’s sister and great-grandad were named Frances, which they say is part of ‘honouring strong family members on both sides of our families’.
Then there’s Mary Marjorie (Maisie) who was named after her mom’s grandma (Mary) and great-aunt (Marjorie).
Third up was Mary Jane (Janie), who is named after her mom’s paternal grandma Mary Jane.
As for the fourth child, she’s ‘named Mary Teresa Katherine after my Aunt Tere (Teresa), Aunt Kathy, my godmother who died, and great-aunt Kate, who died when I was pregnant with Tess'.