Name Game

In a meeting last week, one of the department heads mentioned that I had a unique name and asked if I like poetry and I said no. He then asked what was the pronunciation of my name “dee-lun” or “die-lan” to which I replied that the pronunciation doesn't matter as long as the spelling is correct. He further said that two of the greatest poets are named Dylan. I said I only know one – Dylan Thomas. I can’t recall the name of the other Dylan poet and can’t seem to find him in the internet too.

From the internet, I learned that the name Dylan is a Welsh name, from the Welsh elements dy, meaning "great" and llanw, "rising tide". A given name in Wales, where the first syllable is pronounced closer to "dull" than to "dill", it is now also a surname in other parts of the world.

My mother who is an English major is fond of poets reason why I was named after the Wales native. My father on the other hand used to listen to Bob Dylan music. The connection between the two, Dylan Thomas and Bob Dylan, seem to be the fact that they’re both good writers. In fact, Bob Dylan’s influence is Dylan Thomas reason why he used the screen name Bob Dylan when his real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman.

DYK

Did you know that Bob Dylan's most recent album "Love and Theft" was released in September 11, 2001.