Stephanie McLellan: Hello. My name is Stephanie Simpson McLellan. McLellan is the surname I took when I married my husband. But growing up, I went by the name Stephanie Simpson as Simpson is my maiden name. My father's family, the Simpsons, came from England. I also have Irish in my heritage, because my grandmother grew up in Belfast.

If you look it up, you'll see that the Simpson family motto is "It will be given to the persevering." And I like that motto, because I like to think that I'm a very persevering person. I work hard and don't easily give up.

But back to the name McLellan. McLellan is an interesting name because it is frequently mispronounced and has many different spellings. It is pronounced McLellan, which rhymes with melon. There is an interesting story behind the way our family spells McLellan now. If you look back in my husband's family history, it actually used to be spelled M-A-C-L-E-L-L-A-N versus how we spell it now without the extra a.

There are a few theories about why it changed. One thing I learned from my husband's aunt is that the McLellan clan used to be Scottish, but because they were caught stealing sheep, they had to clear out and move to Ireland. So perhaps they changed the spelling to cover their tracks. Another theory is that my husband's grandfather, Daniel McLellan, was a decorated sergeant in World War I. He received the King George the IV medal for his heroics as he saved three men's lives carrying them from the front to the hospital on his back. Although he was a hero, he was also scarred by the horrors of the war and some feel he was the one who changed the spelling of his last name because he wanted to distance himself from the memories of that war. I'm not sure we'll ever know the real story. Incidentally, the McLellan family motto is "Think on," and I like to think that's a good motto for a writer.