What's In a Name...In the Year 1945

James. Robert. John.


In 1945, those were the three most popular names given to male children that were born in the United States.


Robert (Bob) Seger was born in 1945.
John Fogerty was born in 1945.
James Naughton was born in 1945.


I was born in 1945.  My parents obviously did not go with the prevailing favorite names when I arrived on March 12th at Memorial Hospital in South Bend.

In fact, I was given a name that had already been spoken for in the Steele family.  Two names, really.

I am named Nelson Edward. 
Here's the thing: The Steeles lived in a very small town...and resided in two houses about two blocks apart. My paternal grandparents lived in the big house on Edison Road...one of the two paved streets in Lydick back in 1945. (The other was Quince Road.)  My parents and I lived in the house on what is now named Eunice Street...back in the day it was an unnamed gravel road and our mail was sent to a mailbox a block and a half away on Quince Road, just across from the E.U.B. Church.

My paternal grandfather's name was John Nelson. His son, my father, was named John Edward.  Since they had shared a home for many years, neither of them went by the name John...Grandpa was Nelson...Dad was Edward (or more commonly, Ed).

My first name was unusable. My middle name as unusable.

From the beginning I was known by a name that was not my name: Ned.

OK, enough of that.  I like the name Ned.  I am known as Nelson to a very few people, and have never initially introduced myself using that name. 

What's in a name? A life is in a name. And how one fashions that life will go a very, very long way toward answering that question.

Nobody before you, with whom you share the same name, will define who you are...only you can do that.

YOLO! Carpe Diem!

My kids (Brent, Scott, Gary, Hannah) and me...2008.

My parents (Ed and Pat) and me...1963.