Lena's Name

Cora Marie and Lena Elizabeth Davidson, 1909

When we were thinking about names for our daughter we pulled out the family tree that my grandmother typed out in 1991. There were some great names. Her name was Winona, which I've always loved. Her mother's name was Jally May and Jally's sisters have perhaps the most interesting names I've ever heard--making Jally sound like a perfectly common name--including: Mant, Zona, Ettie, and Effie. There's also Maggie, Bessie, Ethel, three girls that died young, and a boy named Oliver. Jally's mother was named Elminia and Jally's mother-in-law was named Elvira Josephine. We had plenty of choices for unique family names.

I never met my grandmother's sister Lena, but I grew up hearing her name. She was accomplished at needlework and a large piece of her embroidery now hangs in my parent's house. Lena died of diphtheria in 1928 three weeks after marrying--I remembered that story from childhood too. I thought passing on her name might be a way to both honor her and my grandmother. 

Marie and Lena, ages 2 and 4

Besides that, we fell in love with the name. It fit our criteria completely. We wanted something short, simple, and distinctive. If you look up the meaning of the name Lena you'll find a wide variety of meanings, for example in English it means palm tree. Since it seems to mean everything, we've done some selective editing and prefer to follow along these lines: in Greek it means sun beam or moon ray; in Scandinavian it refers to "torch", a metaphoric representation of something that shows light and leads the path; and it is a derivative of Helena which means light and shine. 


So, for us Lena means light.

Our Lena at 6 days, Sat., March 19, 2011