What Is A Name Anyway?

My family goes way back to the eleventh century… You may have heard about the Norman King of England, William the Conqueror. In the 1050s and early 1060s, William became a contender for the throne of England held by the childless Edward the Confessor, his first cousin once removed. 

William the Conqueror had a beloved lieutenant named Gerald de Tourney. After the famous Battle of Hastings and William became the King of England, he gave de Tourney a title and land in England. The river of Thames (pronounce Temz) ran through that land, and it had a shallow crossing there – a sandy ford… Thus, Gerald de Tourney became the Earl of Sandyford. So, that is my heritage – my ancestors came from Normandy and settled in England. My surname (Sanford) is a place name, which is common throughout England and all of Europe. It is interesting that today the village of Sandford still stands, steeped in history and a very vibrant little municipality.

Incidentally, my family also has an ancient motto written in Latin: Nec Temere Nec Timide. The literal translation is Neither Rash Nor Timid, but the real meaning is “Courage”. If one is courageous, then one certainly is not timid, nor being rash at all… Courage is a bold planned execution, or perhaps a confident purpose-driven approach.

I think about my family motto and my heritage sometimes. It’s not about my lineage from past royalty, but our family motto…. the implication for living my best life – a purpose-driven life. I try to live up to my family motto, but I do fail often. But I believe that my family history helps me to be more grounded today, and it makes me more resilient to handle any obstacle that I may encounter… Sometimes I do wonder about what kind of obstacles my family confronted one thousand years ago – I’m certain that it was a very difficult life then.

Finally, my purpose-driven life does include my business world. So, if you need a courageous team member to help you to realize your real estate portfolio, whether it is for investment or growing your business, I’m your guy, er … your knight!

I can talk about the nuts and bolts of commercial real estate or development ad nauseum and that will come in another newsletter, but I believe it’s good to know me as a person before we do some biz. But if you are interested in discussing your real estate needs, I’m all ears.

Sincerely,
Tom Sanford