Fred M. Kirby II, heir...

...to the Woolworth fortune, died at age 91. While Kirby's life wasn't all that remarkable -- except for that picture, which is blogworthy in and of itself -- he had a sister named Ann Sutherland Kirby Kirby. That's right; apparently she married a man whose last name was also Kirby. And I wondered, how often does something like that happen -- that a woman marries a man with the same last name? (I suppose if your last name is Smith or Jones the odds would improve dramatically.)

It reminds me a little of when I was in school and every once in a while there would be a girl in my class named Tracey. It never took long for some wag to point out, "Hey, if Tracey So-and-So married Mike Tracy, her name would be Tracey Tracy!" While everyone else would nod in agreement, the poor girl and I would blush uncontrollably. But I guess that's not the same thing as marrying someone with the same last name.

So how often do you suppose that happens, marrying someone with the same last name? Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt married each other and were second or third cousins -- or something like that -- which seems a little odd to me. But maybe people from aristocratic families like the Roosevelts just can't imagine marrying outside their extended family. (Though when people in Appalachia do it we think it's creepy.)

If nothing else, marrying someone with the same last name has to be confusing. Imagine the wedding program! And what if Ann Sutherland Kirby's husband's first name was Fred, or he had a brother by that name. Kind of like that old Abbott and Costello routine, "Who's on first?" And did she really have to go by the name Ann Sutherland Kirby Kirby? I'm sure that didn't throw people!

The only thing that it compares to is the story my mother used to tell of three siblings from one family who married three siblings from another. And to make matters worse, their names rhymed: McGuire and Dwyer. Talk about confusing (and inbreeding).

And we didn't even live in Appalachia.