199/365 Happy St. Bridget's Day

I'm Bridgett. Two t's. Blame my father. He wanted Brigid, the story goes, and my mother rejected that idea. So Bridgett was the second choice somehow. Who knows? I grew up knowing no Bridgetts at all until 10th grade when Bridgett Bailey was a year ahead of me in high school. I've also known a Bridget Birkby and a Bridget Blaes as well--my last name was Blake growing up. Don't know what that alliteration thing is about either. Anyway, I didn't meet any Bridgettes, Brigids, or Bridgittes growing up, although people misspelled my name that way a lot. The most common misspelling was the one T, however.

When I was pregnant with Leo, I started fooling around with genealogy, I realized that the one T spelling was definitely the most common, but that ship manifests sometimes added a T. My great-great-great-grandmother is from the Irish diaspora, and her name is spelled both ways, Bridget and Bridgett. Being illiterate, it probably didn't matter much to her. And it started shifting my brain a little bit about that extra T. I no longer got my feathers ruffled when people misspelled my name. At least they weren't calling me Barbara or Gretchen (the two most common incorrect guesses at my name by people I've already been introduced to, don't ask me why).

I'm Irish, well, Irish-German-English. My family surnames range from Donnelly and Dawes to Grothhoff and Frick. But one thing I'm not is Swedish. There are two famous St. Bridgets. One is St. Brigid of Ireland, pronounced "Breed", whose saint day is February 1. And then there is St. Bridget of Sweden, who is remembered today. I've always noted the first on the calendar, not the second. But Fr. Miguel sent me a "happy St. Bridget's Day" twitter message today, and you know what? It's like the second T. Whatever. It's all good.