Henry Turner: Hello. My name is Henry Turner. Actually, my full name is Henry Richeson Turner. That's not Richardson, but Richeson, R-I-C-H-E-S-O-N. That's after my great aunt Eleanor Richeson, who came from Shawneetown, Illinois, about 100 years ago.

Course, up until I was five, I was named Henry Dickinson Turner, as were my brother and my father, but having the identical name of my older brother didn't suit the authorities at my Kindergarten when I was enrolled, so my middle name was legally changed from Dickinson to Richeson. Now, why my father gave my brother and me identical names and did not differentiate them by adding junior or the third is his secret. I guess he wanted to stave off any sibling rivalry as far as names were concerned.

Now, my name could be Henry Gumble. And why this is so is complicated and part of my family lore. My father was born Henry Gumble, but his mother changed his last name to Turner, which was her maiden name, when he was a teenager. So, he became Henry Turner, and when I was born, he and my mother put the name Henry Turner on my birth certificate. However, in a strict patrilineal sense, I could be Henry Gumble. I do not say I should be. We are born with the name we bear, and that's the name which is proper for us unless we choose to change it.

And why my grandmother chose to change my father's last name from Gumble to Turner has never been properly explained to me. So, despite the history of other names that could have been mine, my name is Henry Turner and has always been Henry Turner.