User:Kyril Dambuleff/sandbox

According to her biography as presented by the Vatican (http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20031019_madre-teresa_en.html), Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) was born Gonxha Agnes and not Agnes Gonxha as reported by Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa), which references Encyclopedia Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/587877/Blessed-Mother-Teresa). Mother Teresa's official website (http://www.motherteresa.org/layout.html) provides a short biography whose text is identical to the one found on the Vatican website.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the Vatican website: "The youngest of the children born to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, she was baptised Gonxha Agnes, received her First Communion at the age of five and a half and was confirmed in November 1916. From the day of her First Holy Communion, a love for souls was within her. Her father’s sudden death when Gonxha was about eight years old left in the family in financial straits. Drane raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly influencing her daughter’s character and vocation. Gonxha’s religious formation was further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was much involved. At the age of eighteen, moved by a desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. There she received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. Thérèse of Lisieux."

I am personally inclined to think that the Vatican and Mother Teresa's official website report the name correctly. Further, from "ethnicity" point of view, Gonxha seems a more likely choice for a girl's name by Albanian parents of that time.