IT was just one letter out, but a mistake made more than 100 years ago has led to a name becoming a legend for one York family.

Because five generations of women have been given one of the most unusual Christian names you could find - and all because of a mix-up when a baby girl born in the second half of the 19th Century was named Blenda instead of Brenda.

Blenda Watkinson, of Clifton Moor, who works at the Warner Village cinema, is the latest in a long line of Blendas, and is so named because a mistake was made on her great-great grandmother's birth registration form.

Her name was logged as Blenda - the 'l' should, of course, have been an 'r', but the name was liked so much that the mistake was not rectified.

And it has proved so popular that it has been passed on down the generations since then.

The birth registration form error occurred when the family lived in the North-East, but since then some of the descendants of the original Blenda have drifted south and settled in the York area.

And the most recent Blenda, who has just got married to Wayne Watkinson, says she will be proud to keep up the tradition if she has a daughter.

"I like it. It's nice to be unusual. At school, there used to be four different Rachels and three different Amandas. But there was only one me," she said.

But the name is not without its difficulties. "You have obvious problems. Most people assume I've just spelt my name wrong. Banks automatically put me down as Brenda, but I have to write back to them and tell them they're wrong.

"But it would be a shame if the tradition stopped with me."

Her grandmother, Blenda Garrett, still lives in the family's native North-East.

She said: I've never met anyone who has ever heard of my name before. I think Blenda is a soft name, Brenda is much harder, and we're lovely soft people.

"But I've even had it misprinted on my disabled badge. I had to write to them and tell them that I know how to spell my own name."

PICTURE: 'L's BELLES: Blenda Garrett, centre, with daughter Blenda Brown, right, and granddaughter Blenda Watkinson, left.