Is Mary Jane's real name Mary Jane?

[Debra A]

Do you think she was actually born Mary Jane or that she picked Mary Jane because it was popular back in Ireland when she was born?

I'm just trying ti illustrate that the name 'Mary Jane' and variants was in use in Ireland (or by the Irish in other areas) at the time Mary Jane was born. We don't need many of them-we just need one!

[Rosella]

We don't know Mary Jane Kelly's age though, do we? If she was 28 years old in 1888 (not beyond the realms of possibility, surely) and was born to a Roman Catholic family in Limerick in 1860 her birth may be hidden in the myriad Catholic records that haven't been transcribed yet, as Debra has said.

It doesn't say much for the woman's veracity that practically everything she told Joe Barnett and her friends about her previous life has proven to be either untrue or untraceable. She is certainly the mystery woman of the C-5!

[MayBea]

Here's a Mary Jana Kelly born baptised and in Dublin in 1860:

If I'm not mistaken and the mother's name is also Jana, it's a good example of the middle name being given because it's the name of a parent, albeit in this case the mother.

[MayBea]

The chart in the first post is actually for Maryjane spelled as one name. There's no chart for Mary Jane but the site says Mary Jane has never ranked in the top 1000 in the US.

http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/mary-jane

[MayBea]

The 2% Mary Janes born in Ireland in the 1860s is certainly a lot more than the peak of 72 per million in 2012 (post 1880s according to Baby Wizard).

Do you think she was actually born Mary Jane or that she picked Mary Jane because it was popular back in Ireland when she was born?

I calculated 1 in 360 in England in 1861 so it definitely wasn't nearly as popular in England. I doubt the popularity of Mary Jane increased by the 80s and at all until she probably made it popular.

[Debra A]

There's a few (though not many) girls baptised 'Maria Jana' in the Irish church records mainly for Dublin (Jana is the Irish feminine form of John from what I've read?). There are Janes and Janets/Jannetts too , sometimes in combination with Maria. there 's plain old Mary Janes and a few written as Maria Johanne (Mary Jane)

Here's a Mary Jana Kelly born baptised and in Dublin in 1860:



There were three other Maria Janas on the same page of 16 entries.

[MayBea]

In all the UK censuses of 1871, I got about 600 Janets born in Ireland, almost all of them in Scotland. It's not that popular, even in Ireland. The same would go for Jane.
http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/janet

Mary Janet doesn't sound good so I doubt she used that name.

The only reasonable alias Mary Jane possibility I see is that she adopted the name Marie Jeanette and then decided she didn't like the French and changed it to Mary Jane.

For myself though, her birth name was Mary Jane and maybe her parents gave her the middle name Jane because her father was John.

[Rosella]

What was the popularity of the name Janet in Ireland? Isn't Jeanette the French equivalent of it, or am I wrong? Maybe Mary just liked the sound of Jeanette! I do think that her name was Mary (which would be practically untraceable in Victorian Britain.) I just have more and more doubts about her surname really being Kelly, after decades of researchers bursting their boilers trying to track Mary Jane Kelly down.

[GUT]

Actually, the popularity of the name when she was born only adds to the circumstantial evidence that she was born Mary Jane.

You had me going there. Arguing against myself.

I was surprised at that

[MayBea]

But you need to look at the 60s when she was born.

there are a few Mary Janes that have been found born late 50s early 60s.

Actually, the popularity of the name when she was born only adds to the circumstantial evidence that she was born Mary Jane.

You had me going there. Arguing against myself.

[MayBea]

Mary Jane is not in the top ten in Ireland in 1864. I doubt it's in the top 100. http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.c...rst-names.html

I'm not even sure Jane would make it. The highest Jane makes it is 92 on the American lists for 1888 that I've looked at.

3000 MJs seems like a lot but I got 14200 births in Ireland in 1864.

So that would be 1 Mary Jane out of 47 (?), about 2%. And we don't even know if she was born in Ireland.

I'm not telling you what to think. I just happen to have another new idea like Rosella and this is just my set up.

It's not major. It's just based on the Irish habit of naming children after parents and grandchildren, the low popularity of the name Jane, which has the connotation of "plain Jane", and what we know of Mary Kelly.

[GUT]

Ireland Civil Registration Births index 1864 (civil registration started in 64)-1870 Mary Jane * [any surname] results 2,968

Then there are all the Mary Janes born in the early 60's or late 50's before Civil Registration and all the ones that are probably in Catholic records not yet transcribed.

Yep just a few

[Debra A]

But you need to look at the 60s when she was born.

there are a few Mary Janes that have been found born late 50s early 60s.

Ireland Civil Registration Births index 1864 (civil registration started in 64)-1870 Mary Jane * [any surname] results 2,968

Then there are all the Mary Janes born in the early 60's or late 50's before Civil Registration and all the ones that are probably in Catholic records not yet transcribed.

[GUT]

The popularity of the name Mary Jane in 1888 was almost zero. Same for the whole decade before that, as shown in the graph below, and probably for decades before that.
http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/maryjane

Would Mary Jane Kelly really have changed her name to Mary Jane from something else? And then changed it to Marie Jeanette?

To me it would be like not knowing Robert Donston Stephenson's origins and wondering if his real name was Robert Donston. Or if he changed it to Robert Donston and then changed it to Roslyn D'Onston.

But you need to look at the 60s when she was born.

there are a few Mary Janes that have been found born late 50s early 60s.

[MayBea]

The popularity of the name Mary Jane in 1888 was almost zero. Same for the whole decade before that, as shown in the graph below, and probably for decades before that.
http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/maryjane

Would Mary Jane Kelly really have changed her name to Mary Jane from something else? And then changed it to Marie Jeanette?

To me it would be like not knowing Robert Donston Stephenson's origins and wondering if his real name was Robert Donston. Or if he changed it to Robert Donston and then changed it to Roslyn D'Onston.