If My Head Weren't Attached...

I've decided that it's time to submit my name and device, so yesterday I went through looking for the documentation I'd come up with when I decided on my name. Wouldn't you know it? I couldn't find the paperwork I'd thrown together 10 years (and 5 moves) ago.

I didn't think too much about it, because I'd made it a point to have a name that was easily documentable: 16th century Dutch, taken from public records. The thing is, I couldn't find the public records any more. Oh, not for my first name, that was easy enough, but it was my last name that was giving me troubles. I could find the form easily enough, but not the name. Still, I thought, no big deal. My last name's a descriptive, so all I needed to do is find its meaning. But I couldn't. The closest I could find was the Dutch word for "caps." I suppose it would work (and make a decent inside joke about my mundane job), but I'd have to change the spelling. Which would mean I'd have to re-learn how to spell my name, and that's asking a bit much from my tired old brain.

But in my research, I came across something surprising. It was a church record for my last name. But not from the lowlands, and not from the 16th century. It was 12th Century Scottish, of all things. Which left me with the problem of not only mixing countries, but mixing centuries. Okay, so I was almost there. After a little more research, I came up with my first name in a book about 12th Century Scotland. Woo-hoo! I now have (again) a fully documentable (and documented!) name that is correct in form for 16th Century Lowlands - even if it is 12th Century Scottish.

How about that?