#FearlessFemales - Day 3 - Who are you named after?

Today's challenge is who was I named after:

March 3 — Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.

I might save the unusual name for later in the month for one of the challenge days that I don't have an answer to yet, but who was I named after?

I was named after my 2 grandmothers - Mary Agnes Gertrude Dobson and Annie Dempsey.

It's not really obvious how you get Maureen from Mary Agnes Gertrude, so let me tell you the story my mother told me:

Maureen in 1948

Apparently when she was young, Mary Agnes Gertrude was quite ill and this may have affected her growth. Even as an adult she was only about 4'10" tall.

Her family took to calling her Mary-een (little Mary). This was taken to be Maureen by her neighbours and friends and so for most of her life she was known by the name of Maureen.

Maureen was born in 1911 in Sunderland England and passed away in 1960 in Sydney Australia - I never met her as she died before I was born.

Old Annie and me

Annie (or Old Annie as my parents always called her) was born in 1899 and died in 1989 in Glasgow Scotland. I only met her once - for a few days when I travelled to Scotland and England with my mother and brother to visit family and then headed off for an adventure on a "Contiki Tour" around Europe.

I spent my 21st birthday with my mother, brother, grandmother and her friends in the ladies' lounge of her local pub. There was a "band' playing songs (I think there might have been drums and bass, but there definitely was a piano accordian). What I do remember is being dragged up on stage and made to sing Waltzing Matilda in front of all these old ladies who were "3 sheets to the wind". It may have scarred me for life - while I love singing, I've always said "there's nothing good about Karaoke" and have refused to participate in it ever since.