I always secretly believed that my parents had run out of names by their ninth child and that was why I was named Heather. Most of my siblings were named after saints or relatives, but there were none left when it came to me. Since I was born in the '70s, I think my parents let the social/cultural environment lead the way when it came to selecting my name.
To me, the name Heather is super '70s and here is why:
1. It was the eighth most popular female baby name in the United States in the 1970s. If you want to check out if and when your own named ranked in the US, check out these government charts.
2. TV shows and movies from the '70s seem to have been populated by hippie women, foxy blondes and redhead bimbos named...Heather.
3. My father would always sing this traditional Scottish song called Wild Mountain Thyme and tell me this was where my name came from. To me, the song was evocative of running away and freedom--and it must have also gotten a similar response from '70s artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Marianne Faithfull and The Byrds, who covered it.
"Wild Mountain Thyme" lyrics
Oh, the summer time is coming,
And the trees are sweetly blooming,
And the wild mountain thyme
grows around the blooming heather.
Chorus: Will you go, lassie, go?
And we'll all go together
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather,
Will you go, lassie, go?
