Tia-Maria Byrne

Born in Portland house, Wednesbury; 12:01, 20/02/1960 to the delight of my Mom and dismay of the nurses. (One minute earlier and I would have been born on the same day as Prince Andrew ... this meant a lot to the nurses)

Mom never really came to a decision for my name till after I was born, so the story goes;

My Moms best mate came to visit with a small bottle of my Moms favorite drink hidden in her handbag. They started discussing names but came to no conclusion, so Beryl produced the bottle and handed Mom a small glass and while she was pouring her own little drink Mom had decided on my name. ...As they clinked glasses, my Mom said; "Tia-maria", Beryl looked at her and said; "yes of course it is, it's your favourite drink"! .............."No I don't mean the drink, I mean that is what I'm going to call her"! (her being me)

When my Dad came to visit later that evening my mom told him my name and said; "When you register it, please make sure that the name is hyphenated". And he did! but he did a booby .... he added an 'N' into the mix and Mom was not a happy bunny!

I was registered as Tina-Maria. Mom was told at the registry Office that this name could be 'added' but the original Name had to stay unless I chose to officially change it myself.

I decided through school that I didn't want to be called Tia-Maria, I could just imagine the torment! But ... as I grew older I started to see my name as 'different. original and God bless Mom for being as crazy as she was'.

So I decided that from then on I wanted to sign my name as Tia-Maria, it's on my Drivers license, my passport and medical records. .... but ....When I first got married the registrar had to say; "Do you Tia-maria 'commonly known as Tina-Maria' take this man etc

When I married the second time (as you do) tje same again so I decided 'enough' and officially deleted Tina-maria.

My Dad, my sister, brother & old friends still call me Tina. (I'm cool with that) But I'm proud now that my Mom had the originality in 1960 to do something different and I love my name!