Oh good grief...

Before I say anything else, let me just state for the record that I really like my name. It's strong, it's German, it's unique but not weird, and overall it's just a good one.

I don't even mind the association with the Swiss Alps and yodeling. I practically wore out my VHS tape of the old Shirley Temple version of Heidi, although I never did read the original book by Johanna Spyri.

However, the name does give me a lot of grief wherever I go. In elementary school it was the "Hi, D!" jokes that everyone thought were oh so clever. In junior high it was "Heidi Ho," or "Howdy, Heidi," or whatever witless variant people could come up with.

In Turkey, my name seems to cause endless amusement to others. For one thing, haydi in Turkish means, "Come on!" or "Hurry up!" So for example, to say "Come on, let's go!" you'd say, "Haydi, gidelim!"

Also, long ago there was a cartoon that seems to have bypassed the United States but was a huge hit everywhere else in the world. Behold:



Oh yes. A TV show about Heidi, her grandfather on the mountain, and Goat Peter. I first learned of this cartoon's existence in India, where a number of people felt compelled to serenade me with the theme song. Everyone in Turkey also knows it, and people also tend to sing the theme song when they first meet me. Or they simply giggle and ask, "So where is Peter?" Even our school accountant can't resist humming a few bars when I walk in. One of my coworkers told me the other day that his daughter was ecstatic to learn that her dad works with a woman named Heidi. She's been asking when she can meet me. Hate to disappoint the kid, but I don't think I look much like the girl in that cartoon.

All things considered, things could be much worse. At least Heidi is cute.