What's in a name?

Gene O. Morris

Vintage Journalist

At the Norris Institute meeting the other night, Bruce McDowell, Cloyd Clark, Warren Jones and I got to talking about strange names. What brought it up was that although he goes by Bruce, that's not the name his parents intended Bruce to go by when they named him.

No, their intentions were much more noble. Harking back to their Scottish roots, Bruce's parents chose Sharron as his first name. That didn't stick, however, as Bruce couldn't endure the teasing in grade school from the kids who delighted in giving the feminine pronunciation, "Sharon," to the name that really deserved the much more regal Scottish masculine pronunciation of "Sharron."

In conversations with Bruce, Cloyd and Warren, as I'm sure you already know, one thing leads to another. Therefore, I wasn't surprised when Warren had a topper in the talk about unusual names. "My Granddad has one of the most unusual names I've ever heard," Warren said. "His name was Finley McKinley Napoleon Overfield."

"You're kidding, right?," Cloyd asked.

"No, I'm not. Grandpa was a tender for the railroad in Prosser, a small town near Hastings, Nebraska," Warren said. "I've always loved his name, and every chance I get I tell anyone who will listen what his name was."

I couldn't wait to get back to the newspaper office to tell everyone about a guy named Finley McKinley Napoleon Overfield, one of the neatest names I ever heard.

However, as it turns out, Finley McKinley is not the only unusual name heard around these parts.

Our editor, Bruce Elery Crosby, was quick to tell me about three unusual names his family often talks about. Among their favorites are Orley Aloysius Heiserman; Alberta Ball Bickerdike and Elmer Adelbert Crosby, who, it turns out, is Bruce's father.

Later, when I got to thinking more about strange names, I remembered how creative Marvin Teel and his bride, Kyla Rae Mosier Teel, were when they named their daughters, whose names, some said, sounded more like names for race horses than they did for beautiful young girls. But I'll let you be the judge of that. Their names were "Starry Dawn" and "Sunny Day."

And, then, to close out this brief segment about strange names, I'd like to tell you about what I regard as one of the most unusual given names to ever come out of Southwest Nebraska.

This name was given, I swear to God, to a child born to a couple of flower children living in the Palisade area during the Hippie era. After hearing the name, which I'm going to reveal as the last two words of this column, you are free to draw your own conclusions.

The name was:

Shady Lane.