My maiden name was Ford. It was an easy name for people to understand. All you
had to say was “Ford – like the car”, and everyone knew how to spell it. It’s a pretty common name, and its origin is
also pretty simple to figure out.
Ford Meaning: dweller or worker at a stream crossing; one who came from Ford (shallow river crossing), the name of several places in England.
My brother’s nickname among his
friends was always “Henry”. He even had a key
ring that said “HENRY”. I had an Art teacher
in the third grade who thought he was cute and tried to guess my name, “Donna
Dodge? Donna Chevy?” The big joke when I was in High School was that my homeroom teacher looked forward to receiving those notes from the President's wife - my Mom's name was Betty Ford. Around that time our President was Gerald Ford (cousin Jerry!), and his wife's name was Betty. For years I managed to avoid owning a Ford car. I didn’t want to be the Ford who drove a
Ford. My last two cars have been Fords –
an Escape and a Fusion. Now that I’ve
driven them I am partial to Fords and would certainly buy another one.
My married name is Florack. That is harder for people to understand (and
to spell). For some reason, they keep
wanting to put an “S” where the “F” goes.
I tell people “F - as in Frank” or else they don’t get it right. They usually leave the “c” out, too. I have also had people I work with pronounce
it “Flor-ick” or “Flor-eck”. Isn’t “r-a-c-k”
the word 'rack' which rhymes with back? We get mail addressed to Slovack. At work I had an envelope come to Flork. I get emails from a client in Israel, and they address me as, "Dear Flora".
There must be several Floracks who
became doctors. I am constantly asked, “are
you related to Dr. Florack?” There seems to a a local Dentist named Florack, and a Gynecologist named Florack. I
tell them, “No, my husband's a trucker; not a doctor.”
There appear to be a lot of Floracks out there - more than I thought there'd be. We also seem to be related to them in one way or another. I always thought Ford would be the more common name with the more plentiful relations. Apparently not. It may be a common name, but none of them are related.
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