first glance

it’s not japanese – even though it was my japanese grandfather who passed this name on to his descendants – his name originally was yamasaki – but he changed it – and somehow – his children didn’t learn its origin

the uncertain facts are – (1) my grandfather may have adopted the name of the family who took him in when he immigrated to the US – and (2) that family may have immigrated from the UK

according to kate monks dictionary of names – the scots use “eyon” as a variant of “ian”

i found a handful of people mentioned on the internet with the same family name – going back to the 1600s in the UK and in early America

theres an english novel from the late 1800’s entitled “miss eyon of eyon court” by katherine marquand

while touring the UK – i was told of a soccer player with the same family name

so the evidence is mounting – the source of our name might be celtic britain

it was a great relief to me to have discovered this much – the mystery of it seems to have affected me even though it is only a name – it was like i had been adopted and came to learn of my real parents

my quest is not over however – i’m still looking for the family who took-in my grandfather – around san francisco – around 1900

by the way – we pronounce it the way most people pronounce “eon” – someone once joked “that’s a very long name”

(first published in 2003 on an early personal website – minor alterations to content and a big leap to freed prose occurred in in 2023)