Unusual Names
When I opened the site I was bombarded with names. And there at the bottom was mine.
It took me a minute to realize what I was reading.
After 29 years I was coming face to face with my people. It was not until I started reading the names Phoebe Tennessee Crowder, Helton Rutherford Walker, Bedie Etta Clark, Levi Webb Ledford that I felt like I needed to find this. I needed to “meet” my biological family.
It is strange to feel such an urgency to discover more. I immediately began a tree and have been discovering my family history ever since.
I carry the name that I was given and a bit more. My given name was Jessica Renee after the adoption it was changed Jessica Renee Cortenay. I was 5 ½ when the adoption was finalized my parents felt they should not change my full name (as much as they wanted to) because I had lived with Jessica Renee for so long already.
From that day in court until I started 2nd grade I went my Cortenay. My mother sometimes called me Cory for short. But I will tell you I always new the level of trouble I was in by the way she would call me. I was in some trouble if she said Jessica Renee but if she rattled off all three then I knew it was time to hide.
I was told that my older brother gave me my birth name. I would love to know where he got Jessica Renee from. I have not found a Renee or a Jessica on our family tree however there are a few Jessie’s. (Both male and female)
Cortenay was my pick. My parents selected a few names and then let me pick from them. I am not sure why I selected it but it does flow nicely. My mom always told me that Cortenay means gift of the Court. I have not found anything to prove that but it does make for a special meaning behind my name.
When we moved to Indiana the school system made me go by my first name, Jessica. To this day I am jessica or Jess but I do not feel like a Jessica and I do not know if I would like answering to Cortenay. Maybe I am having an identity crisis. Just who I am I supposed to be?
If you could change your name to anything you want, what would it be?