What's In a Name?

       North Dakota just recently passed into law an anti-abortion bill outlawing abortions at about six weeks. Isn't that about the time many women find out for sure they're pregnant? But what really caught my eye is the name of the Governor of North Dakota who signed that bill into law. Governor Dalrymple. Dalrymple, isn't that a neat name? What could it possibly mean?
       Most names have their beginnings in a description of where the person lived or what he did or whose son he was. A person named York might have lived in that region of England. Someone named Miller can probably trace his ancestry back to a millwright. Or a guy named Donaldson was very likely the son of Donald. But there are the Mcs and the Macs and then there were the Micmacs. The McCarthy family hailed from one region while the MacDonald family owed alegence to another region.
       Up in the Scandinavian countries it's not unusual to know a person by his ancestral founding father like Erickson, as in Erick's son. Erick was big in Scandinavian folklore and history. But what about names like Dalrymple. Could a Dal have rympled someone somewhere back in prehistory? What's a rymple? As for Micmacs, that's the name of a tribe of native Americans.
       That's another thing. Some people talk like they're native Americans and don't want any more non-white, non-Christian, Non-Americans to be allowed to enter their country. These folks almost always turn out to be children of fairly recent immigrants who live in commune style encampments in the Dakotas. They often carry military style firearms.
       But even those folks we refer to as Native Americans actually came from somewhere else. It just happened to be thousands of years ago. So who can claim to be true natives of America. Well, legally it means anyone who is born in North or South America. Of course in the U.S.A. we think of Americans as those born in the U.S.A. Sorta arrogant don't you think?