Let's call ourselves Orlando

Surfing the net and stumbled upon something fun. Orlando is the Italian equivalent of Roland. Not that there is anything wrong with Roland, but I must admit, Orlando is a bit more popular than Roland, when thinking of a destination, or for fun.

Here's the skinny on Roland, from one of my favorite books, From Ackley to Zwingle-A Collection of the Origins of Iowa Place Names. Here is how Roland got its name, "In memory of the legendary character in ancient Norwegian history." Not in the book , but I also remember reading somewhere it was chosen, because it was easy to pronounce in both English and Norwegian, which is what everybody spoke around here when it was first settled.

Though I think the character "Roland" also is claimed by the French. He must have done a lot of running around in Europe back in the day.

And here is the definition of Roland, "The name Orlando/Roland goes back to Germanic origin and means, One who is famous throughout the land.

So not to denigrate our fine Norwegian forefathers, but I'm hereby calling the week of January 9, 2011 as "Call Roland By The Name Orlando Week"