"Of the Dark Water"
Okay, I have a confession to make. Growing up -- as a kid and well into my adult life -- I was never really wild about my birth name. "Douglas" always seemed so stodgy, outdated, and just plain un-cool to me. Why couldn't my parents have christened me with something more popular, normal, and straight forward like Johnny [as in Depp], Steven [as in Tyler], or Mickey [as in Mantle]? I mean, who of any notoriety or stature or "coolness" was ever named Douglas? Well, okay... I suppose there was the Hollywood movie star, Douglas Fairbanks, who then named his famous son, Douglas. But who else? Let's see ... there was Douglas Hamilton who was the 14th Duke of Hamilton [1903-1973] who was also an aviator, politician, and landowner. Ever heard of him? (I found him on Wikipedia). And then there's the Douglas Squirrel of the squirrel species Tamiasciurus Douglasii; the Douglas Fir, aconiferous tree of the Genus Pseudotsuga; and that cartoon character named Doug on Nickelodeon. And me.
A pox on Mom and Dad for cursing me with such an unpopular name! And how did I ever endure all those psychologically scarring years when my grandparents insisted on calling me their version of a term of endearment: "Dougie"! [God help me!]
Eventually, I became cognizant of the origins of my name ...and had a change of heart about it. "Douglas", I learned, is the Anglicized form of Dubhglas, a Gaelic name derived from the elements Dubh (black, dark) and Glas (blue, green, gray). Dubhglas was a common Celtic river name, and the surname might have originated to denote one who lived near the black river ... or was "of the dark water" ...
I kinda liked that: "of the dark water" ... and so, finally embracing my birth name, and eventually manifesting my dream of starting a production company, Dark Water Incorporated seemed the obvious choice for my company's title.
But for the record: I'm still not too keen on "Dougie"!