[X] My Assistant

[dvandorn]

Bruce, I was watching a special on modern China the other day and a China specialist was pontificating on several points. His name was Bill Moomaw.

Now, you're the first person I ever ran across with that last name, so I figure it can't be all *that* common. Is this fellow some relation of yours?

-the other Doug

[dvandorn]

Wow -- I sure can't top that in terms of origins of names, Emily! However, in my own small way...

My last name (the patronymic) is Van Dorn. My mother's maiden name was Vangundy. Two more Dutch names you couldn't find... and yet, I'm only a quarter dutch. My mother is half-English (mother's maiden name was Liming) and half Dutch. My father is one-quarter Dutch and three-quarters German -- his father was half-Dutch and half German, and his mother was completely German (she didn't even speak English until she was about 12 years old, even though she was born in Illinois).

In terms of surnames, at my grandparents' level, we have Van Dorn, Dues (there should be an umlaut over the 'e', it's pronounced DOO-ess), Vangundy and Liming.

Put that all together, and I figure I'm about half German, a quarter Dutch, and a quarter English. And yet, the Dutch nomenclature prevails. When I was young, I always thought I looked rather English, but as I get older, I think the Dutch genome is more prominent... so all that German blood seems to have little actual impact on my genome.

-the other Doug