Mitch Albom: Hi, I'm Mitch Albom. My last name, Albom, I believe was a creation at Ellis Island. My paternal grandparents may have had a longer name and it was cut down by somebody who just didn't want to write all those letters in the book. Probably the biggest thing I get with my last name is everybody thinks it's A-L-B-U-M, and they think I made it up. And, before I was a writer, I was a musician, and I used to tell people my name is Mitch Albom and they would say, "Oh yeah, and I'm Johnny forty-five." They thought I was making it up or I was being cute. My first name, Mitch came about by an interesting accident. My mother had a younger brother whose name was Mike Myron, and her father was Morris and it turned out that I was going to be born on my uncle's birthday.

She gave her younger brother the option to name me if I was born on his birthday, but it had to begin with an M. So he said, "Okay." And sure enough, seven o'clock on May 23rd, I was born, which was his birthday. So he got his wish, he got to name me. And my mother said, after she recovered in the hospital, "Okay, what's his name going to be?" And my uncle said, "Marmaduke Bagatella." My mother looked at him and said, "I'm revoking your privilege to name my baby. I'm going to name him Mitchell." So I never could complain about my name, even though all kids do, because I knew the alternative could have been Marmaduke Bagatella.