What if your name
Was Heironymous Bosch?
And everyone told you
"My goodness! my gosh!
Your name's very strange
I can hardly pronounce it!"
Would you hide your name -
And be scared to announce it?

What if your name
Was Timothy Bottoms?
And all through the winters
Springs summers and autumns
The people would say
"You're the tops, Mister Bottoms!"
Would you be upset
And run home feeling rotten?

What if your name
Was Thelonius Monk?
Would you hang around
Every day in a funk
Because people said
"Hey Monk! Aren't you praying?"
Would you get the blues?
Would you mind what they're saying?

What if your name
Was Karel Kondrashyn?
Would you live your life
With a vigorous passion?
Or just sit and wilt
If folks started trashin'
You - 'cause your name
Was Karel Kondrashyn?

What if your name
Was Leonard Rose?
And when people met you
They'd wrinkle their nose
And say "What a smell!
How grand! How inspiring!"
Would it turn you off?
Make you shy and retiring?

Well let me assure you
The folks with these names
Went forth in the world
To gain fortune and fame!
The moral is this:
(As I'm sure you can guess - )
A name's what YOU make it -
No more and no less.