About the work

A closer look.

You give me one name: a first name, a surname, or both. I trace where it actually comes from. You get back a short piece you can read or print, roughly 400-600 words (about a page and a half), with: - the root of the word and what it first meant, from a real source - for a surname, the place it points at, and whether that place is still there today - what the name stopped meaning, if it changed along the way - every source I used, and a plain list of what I could not verify Free first look: send me the name and I write the opening paragraph back before you pay. It is yours either way. If there is no true story worth keeping in the name, I tell you before anything starts. One revision included. Delivered within three days. Card only, after we agree. Add a surname to a first name for $10 more (agreed as a quote before you pay).