Shakespeare said "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." And with Thanksgiving being upon us it got me to reflecting on our name - Mayflower Tours.

The history of Thanksgiving is so memorable... beginning with the Pilgrims sailing on the Mayflower…and arriving in the new world. The Mayflower was a typical English merchant ship of the early 17th century which set sail from Plymouth, a port on the southern coast of England. The ship carried 102 passengers, and its cargo was wine and dry goods. The Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest with the locals and Thanksgiving Day finally became a national holiday in 1863.

Many ask John and I about the history of the name Mayflower Tours. As co-owners and founders we began in 1979, and fulfilled our passion for travel. We are the typical entrepreneurial company started from scratch and invested with all the money we had (or didn't have.) We located the office midway between our home and our kids' school, and each location was about six blocks apart as we did not have extra time to travel.

So how did we select the name Mayflower? All the credit goes to John. We like to say the first travelers came to this country aboard the Mayflower so what better name could we have. The reality is much different. We had a very short window in which to get our business up and running. Here were the alternatives:

Camelot Tours - The Illinois Secretary of State said there was a "Camelot World Travel" and if they were OK with the name so would they be. Turned out that the other Camelot was skittish about it because an agency with the same name as theirs went broke in New York and the Camelot we were talking to was receiving notices because of it. So our offer of several free tours did not help.

Sunrise Tours - a no-go here - a local Japanese travel agency was named Sunrise Travel.

Prince Tours - What a dumb name. We look back and realized people would think the word was "Prints" as if we were a company that had tours only for photographers. In any case we filed for the name and our attorney phoned it in to the state, as we were trying to go to press. We were initially approved for the name but when the paperwork came through it was rejected as belonging to someone else.

Magna Carta Tours - Our attorney felt so bad he said he stayed up half the night working on substitute names. His first choice was (and only a lawyer would have come up with this one) Magna Carta Tours - when I expressed my disbelief he said what about his second choice...

Mayflower Tours - We were up against a wall and I said, "We’ll take it".

As it turned out the name turned out to be perfect. New England in the autumn was to be one of our first four offerings, and the name said "autumn colors" like no other. In our first year alone we operated many departures to New England, not to mention our other programs.

So you are in on our little secret, as we still let our travelers believe that the name "Mayflower Tours" should remind them of some of the first visitors to our wonderful country.

A very blessed Thanksgiving holiday season to all of you!