In anticipation of Mother’s Day, we thought we’d turn the tables and look at the names of some distinguished moms. Turns out that a surprising number of past (and a few present) notables have had mothers with interesting names. Probably too far-fetched to think there’s any correlation, but in any case here are some examples–a really mixed batch.

ABIAH — Benjamin Franklin

ADELINE —Clark Gable

ALBERTA — Martin Luther King

AMALIA — Sigmund Freud

ARETHA — Ray Charles

AURELIA — Arnold Schwarzenegger

AUGUSTA — Arthur Miller

AVIS — Bob Hope

BEATRICE — Bob Dylan

BRYNA — Kirk Douglas

CASSANDRA — Jane Austen

CECILIA — Harry Houdini

CHRISTIANA — George Eliot

DAISY — Duke Ellington

DESIREE — Lucille Ball

DOLLY — Frank Sinatra

EDWINA — Tennessee Williams

ELNORA — Gene Autry

EUPHAMIA — Sean Connery

EVA — Mick Jagger

EVANGELIA — MAria Callas

EVANGELINE — Charles Lindbergh

FELIPA — Salvador Dali

FLORA — Walt Disney

FRANCESCA — Michelangelo

GABRIELLE — Jack Kerouac

GLADYS — Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley

JULIA — Andy Warhol, John Lennon

KUTILDA — Tiger Woods

LETIZIA — Napoleon Buonaparte

LUCINDA — George Bernard Shaw

LUCRETIA — Edith Wharton

MARICHEN — Henrik Ibsen

MATILDE — Frida Kahlo

MAUD — Humphrey Bogart

MINNIE — The Marx Brothers

NANCY — Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison

NEELTJE — Rembrandt van Rijn

NIKOLLE — Mother Teresa

ODESSA — Muhammad Ali

OLIMPIA — Henri Matisse

PAULINE — Albert Einstein

ROMILDA — Sophia Loren

ROSA — George Gershwin

STANLEY — Barack Obama

STELLA — Jackson Pollock

VERNITA — Oprah Winfrey

What’s YOUR mom’s name?  Let us and the rest of the nameberry community know!

And HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, EVERYONE !!