One of the most notorious, and successful, politicians of 20th century America was South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. He got his unusual name from his mother, whose family name was Strom. Like or dislike Senator Thurmond, you had to recognize he was a strong man…like a tree. In Czech, strom means tree. Compare this with the diminuitive, less powerful but also sometimes frightening, “stromeček”, or bush.