GovernmentExecutive.com

Richard Seven of the Seattle Times laments that his last name isn't the good-luck charm that so many of the people he meets seem to think it is. But isn't it a treasured connection to a long line of family history? Not exactly. Here's how he describes the name's origins:

"As my family tells it, some federal employee at the immigration office made it up when my grandparents entered the country from Luxembourg just after the turn of the 20th century. He told them their name sounded too weird to be American and a lot like "Seven." So they and I became Seven."