Many many moons ago (7th grade), I wanted to make Christmas cards for all of my friends. We had an IBM PC Jr. at home, and I decided to take lots of Christmas-themed words and type them in the shape of a Christmas tree (read: triangle on a square). So I made my tree in 1980s word processing. When I got to the trunk, I wanted to sign it “Love, Heather D.” This is what it looked like:
LOVE
HEAT
HERD
My friends thought this was hilarious, and for a while they called me Heat Herd. After some time, the Herd got dropped, and I’ve been Heat ever since. There were two Heathers in my social circle, so being Heat eliminated confusion. When I got to college, one of my freshman year roommates was named Heather, so again, less confusing.
I have introduced myself as Heat and had reactions such as:
“I can’t call you that!”
“Pete?”
“How is Heat short for Heather?”
“But Heather is such a pretty name.”
As well as a variety of facial expressions.
*sigh*
Fortunately, I’ve also had many many positive reactions, and really, I like my name. So Heat it is!