What’s in a Name?
November 14, 2006
Spring House, about Adam Mitchell and his family, was based on extensive genealogical and historical research. When I named Adam and Elizabeth’s children, I identified their third daughter as Rebecca based on the information I had at the time. However, in research for Adam’s Daughters about the three oldest Mitchell daughters, I found records showing a variety of spellings: Rebecca, Rebeccah, and Rebeckah.
Rebecca/Rebeccah/Rebeckah is my great great grandmother and the central character of Book 3 in the Westward Sagas. I wanted to spell her name correctly – but which was right? Finally, I found someone who has two different sources of lists of names taken from Adam Mitchell’s Bible. In both documents, the spelling is Rebeckah. Since her parents certainly knew what they named her and recorded the name correctly in the family Bible, I am spelling her name Rebeckah in Adam’s Daughters and future books and will correct the spelling in the next printing of Spring House.
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David – I’ve only seen my full name, Rebeckah, spelled that way a couple times in the past so it is interesting that you found it to be the “correct” spelling for your 2nd great grandmother! When I asked my mother how she came up with that spelling she said she wanted to spell it as it was in the Bible – Rebekah – but that she misspelled it, so “Rebeckah” is what is on my birth certificate.