Jane Ann Peddicord: Hello. My name is Jane Anne Peddicord. I know very little about the origins of my last name. The family story is that my grandfather, Tom Peddicord, walked from Missouri to Iowa with his father, Mace Peddicord, and 11 brothers and sisters shortly after his mother died in childbirth. There, they made a new home, and many years later, my father was born. We have no record of the Peddicord family before Mace, but I kind of like it that way. It's as if they walked purposefully out of a grim and murky past, into a new state and life and family. My family.

I believe my parents named me Jane, in part, at least, after Jane Austen, who was my mother's favorite author. They added Anne just because they liked the sound of it. But while I was growing up, Anne was rarely used. I was almost always Jane or Janey, except when my parents really wanted my attention, as in, "Jane Anne, put that down!" So I nearly dropped the Anne when deciding on my penname. But then, I thought of my parents, looking down at the new baby they loved, just as your parents surely looked at you when you were born. And I decided to go with the name they chose, Jane Anne Peddicord.