We Welcome Our Third Child – Ruby (1)

In 1966 we began anticipating the arrival of another child.  In those days you didn’t know the baby’s gender prior to birth, so we had names picked out for boys and girls.   We were really hoping for a girl this time.   Ann’s mother had six grandsons, but no granddaughters.  At one point Ann had hoped to name a baby girl “Geraldine Alene.”   Those were the middle names of her two sisters.  I strongly encouraged her to think differently. She came up with Ruby Francis.  

Ruby was my mother’s name, and Ann also had a deep love for her Aunt Ruby Eanes.  We agreed on that one.  However, I never thought to go over the spelling of the middle name.  Ann didn’t realize that “Francis” is normally the way you spell a boy’s name, and “Frances” is the way you spell a girl’s name.  She had the birth certificate application signed before I knew the difference, so Ruby got struck with a boy’s name. 

During her childhood years she was often resentful of having a boy’s name.  Like many parents, we had a habit of calling our children by their full name when they were in trouble.  That was even worse for Ruby because she didn’t like her middle name anyway.  She could hear it coming.  When one of the parents expressed anger, we sometimes couldn’t remember the name of the person we were “splainin’ the facts of life to.  So we would start – “William Elliott.  James Charles.”  Eventually we would get to Ruby Francis and that ended up being part of the punishment for wrong doing.

Once when we were at Midwest Bible Camp, I called her by her full name in front of her friends. For her that was the ultimate embarrassment.  She said, “Oh! Great! Dad, just tell the whole world what my middle name is.”   

 Later on I approached her about having the spelling legally changed.  She declined.  By that time she had made peace with her middle name.  Her mother-in-law’s name is Frances, and the similarity has strengthened the bond between the two of them.