I discovered lately that a co-worker’s middle name is Wanda. “It was my Polish grandmother’s name,” she said. “I told my mother: why did you name me Kathleen Wanda? And she said: just be glad I didn’t name you Wanda Kathleen.”
I had an aunt Wanda. She was full-blooded Polish. My grandmother was Polish, and her first husband was Polish, so her first three children (my half-aunts and half-uncle) were full-blooded Polish too: Maryann, Wanda, and Tony.
Great-aunt Wanda I met only once or twice. She was a handsome Polish woman who lived in northern California, and she has many descendants in the current generation.
Does anyone name his/her children Wanda these days? It’s an evocative name.
The only famous Wanda I can think of is Wanda Toscanini Horowitz. She was the temperamental daughter of the temperamental orchestra conductor Arturo Toscanini, and she married the pianist Vladimir Horowitz.
Here is a brief YouTube video of Vladimir Horowitz playing a Rachmaninoff prelude. As the camera circles, you can see Wanda lounging on the couch, listening:
About Loren Williams Gay, partnered, living in Providence, working at a local university. Loves: books, movies, TV. Comments and recriminations can be sent to futureworldonline@verizon.net.
I think it’s a pretty name and your aunt is a very elegant lady. I’d love to hear more of her story. How did she come to be in California? What happened to her children etc.
Ah, well, Polish women are “handsome.” Wanda had two children – Lorraine and Little Joe. I have cousins of all kinds running around northern California. My mother wasn’t very close to any of her siblings except her brother Primo (he was her only full brother; the others were her half-brothers and half-sisters), so I seldom saw Wanda or the others; I think Lorraine wrote me a note a few years ago.
I think it’s a pretty name and your aunt is a very elegant lady. I’d love to hear more of her story. How did she come to be in California? What happened to her children etc.
Ah, well, Polish women are “handsome.” Wanda had two children – Lorraine and Little Joe. I have cousins of all kinds running around northern California. My mother wasn’t very close to any of her siblings except her brother Primo (he was her only full brother; the others were her half-brothers and half-sisters), so I seldom saw Wanda or the others; I think Lorraine wrote me a note a few years ago.