Stumped for a name for her first-born son, Heather and her husband took inspiration from an unusual quarter...

Heather, is a rational, rather upper-class sounding mother of two sons, who are are twenty-two and twenty-four years of age. All quite normal. Then Heather reveals her sons' names and things don't look quite so normal anymore, "The elder is Heston Kenneth Plowright Harper, and the younger, Toddington Warwick Harper," she says, firmly, going on to explain, "My husband and I just couldn’t agree on a name for Heston - not Harry or Charlie or anything. As we drove from the nursing home in Wimbledon back home to Iver, in Buckinghmashire, we started calling out all the names as we went along. Roehampton, Putney - but on the M4 we still didn’t have a name, so we called out any name we could see, even the offices we passed - Siemens, Honeywell. Literally the exit before home was the Heston service station - I said, "Great! Sir Heston Harper sounds brilliant!"

In retrosepct Heston seems to have got off lightly, given what he could have been called. Heston, himself, however, is quite pleased with his name. Heather explains, "He said every time he goes for a job interview, they remember me." she goes on with what she insists is a true story, "A lot of people associate his name with with Charlton Heston. A friend of mine was the theatre manager of the Savoy where Charlton Heston was appearing. I said, ‘Go on, get an autograph for me and tell him my son was named after him.' My friend did just that, but Charlton Heston said, 'I bet he wasn’t named after me, I bet it was that service station on the M4!’

To call one son after a motorway service station might be overlooked, but two? Heather has a perfectly rational sounding explanation for naming her second born, 'Toddington'. "A friend of mine said, if you’ve called your first son after the first service station on the M4, how about calling second son after the first service station on the M1, 'Toddington'? 'Great!", I said, 'It’s got a lovely ring to it.' "