Susan Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, to Daniel Anthony and Lucy Read Anthony in Adams, Massachusetts, the second-oldest of seven children. She was named for her maternal grandmother Susanah, and for her father's sister Susan. In her youth, she and her sisters responded to a "great craze for middle initials" by adding middle initials to their own names. Anthony adopted "B." as her middle initial because her namesake Aunt Susan had married a man named Brownell. This interview is reprinted along with extensive notes in Gordon (2013) pp. 24–40. Anthony never used the name Brownell herself, and did not like it.Harper (1898–1908), Vol. 1, p. 12
