David Ostow: Hello, my name is David Talmun Ostow and here is the story of that name. My great-grandfather, Talmun Ostasinsky, hailed, not surprisingly, from the eastern European village of Ostasien. Talmun left Europe for America when he was only a teenager, and when he arrived at Ellis Island, the authorities shortened his exotic name to a much more easily pronounced, much more American two syllable Ostow, O-S-T-O-W. So, that's how I got my name, David Talmun Ostow. I'm told that my mom wanted Talmun to be my first name, but my dad decided life might be easier for me with a more common American name like David. Life hasn't always been easy, but my name's never really been a problem.