Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge: Hello. My name is Connie Nordhelm Wooldridge. My first name is Connie, just Connie, not Constance. Wooldridge is my husband Carl's last name and it's the last name of our four children. The middle of my three names, Nordhielm, was the name I had for the 27 years before I got married. No one can ever figure out how to pronounce it so I just tell them to pretend the I isn't there. It's pronounced Nord-helm.

It's also that middle name of mine that has a story attached to it. And if there's a story, I have to tell it. So here it is.

My relatives are all Swedish and back in my grandfather's day last names changed with each new generation. If a father was John, his son's last name was the son of John, or Johnson. If a father was Carl, his son was the son of Carl, or Carlson. My grandfather decided he wanted a last name that wouldn't change and he wanted something more distinctive than Johnson or Carlson.

My grandfather remembered a story about one of the battles the Swedes fought against the Norwegians. Sweden and Norway are friends today but in those days they were always fighting. Anyway the story was that in one particular battle an ancestor of grandfather's held the Norwegians back until help arrived. "You are the helmet of the north" everyone told that very brave ancestor of my grandfather's.

The helmet of the north they called him after that. In Swedish, that's Nordyelm. So Nordyelm was what my grandfather decided would be his last name and his children's last name and his grandchildren's last name from that day on.

My grandfather even got a paper signed by the King of Sweden saying no one else was allowed to have that name. When my grandfather brought his family to the United States he decided to pronounce his name NORD-HELM rather than NORD-YELM so people wouldn't have so much trouble saying it. If you meet anyone by the name Nordhielm, you can be sure that person is related to me. And if you and I happen to meet one day, you might want to shake my hand and say "Hello, Connie Helmet of the North Wooldridge."