If you want your name...
Illustration
If you want your name to live on after you, consider petitioning the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to officially slap your moniker on a peak, creek, prairie, or some other geographic feature. With that Board's approval, your name could appear on government-issue maps. You have to provide a description of the natural feature, its location in longitude and latitude, your reason for requesting the name, and evidence the feature is not already named.
Actually, you'll have to line up your survivors to do the petitioning for you, because the Board won't name a natural feature after anyone still living. "You never know what a person might do in the future," explains Roger L. Payne, executive secretary of the Board. "He or she might disgrace him- or herself."
The whole process takes months, but about 90 percent of the proposals are accepted. "The secret to acceptance," says Payne, "is to make sure local people like the name." (Source: Brad Wetzler, "The Wild File," Outside, January 2002).
For a better idea, recognize your adopted name: child of God.
Actually, you'll have to line up your survivors to do the petitioning for you, because the Board won't name a natural feature after anyone still living. "You never know what a person might do in the future," explains Roger L. Payne, executive secretary of the Board. "He or she might disgrace him- or herself."
The whole process takes months, but about 90 percent of the proposals are accepted. "The secret to acceptance," says Payne, "is to make sure local people like the name." (Source: Brad Wetzler, "The Wild File," Outside, January 2002).
For a better idea, recognize your adopted name: child of God.
