Both my parents are Portuguese Catholic and were brought up very old country. My grandmother on my mother’s side and her siblings all have the same name. The girls are Maria and the boys are Joseph. The only way to tell the difference was the middle names. My grandmother and her sisters were Maria Joseph, Maria of the Rosary, Maria of God and Maria Jesus. My parents and my aunts and uncles did get different names but they were Portuguese names, like my mother is Elvira. But she changed it to Elsie. I don’t see how that was any better and personally I would have gone with Elvira but my mother was interested in being Americanized. So I got what she believed to be an American name. However everyone in the family called me Cintia and whenever they had the occasion to write it that was the spelling they used. It wasn’t until I started school that I understood my name was spelled and pronounced differently on my birth certificate. I don’t think I was named after anyone and I think that was purposeful on the part of my mother.
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