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I have a friend whose sister's name is Glenda. I met her once. She was named after their father, Glen. And then their mother Marguerite divorced Glen, married a man named Ernie, and named the daughter they had together Marnie, a combination of Marguerite and Ernie. I guess they like to do that sort of thing in that family.

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Glenda is in her early forties now. I always thought of it as an offbeat name, not too attractive, with a slightly humorous feel about it. It makes me think of The Wizard of Oz, because the name of the Good Witch, Glinda I think, is so close to Glenda. Well, I suppose if I heard of a baby Glenda, I'd think that the parents could have done better, since the name doesn't appeal to me much. But I'd also think that they could have done much worse. At least it's not Madison or Kylie, which are just bad, or Emily or Isabella, which are overused.