TO JUDGE by the evidence on the right, names can mean a great deal to some people!

I must confess to never having been really happy with my name, one of the commonest in England and Wales. For this reason I began, at a very early age, somewhat secretively, to read telephone directories. I was in search of “the name”. There always seemed to be something limp-wristed and anaemic about mine. After all, even Tommy Atkins received his apotheosis in Kipling's Barrack Room Ballads:

“God Bless You, Tommy Atkins, we're all the world to you.”