Daedalus is pronounced DED-ah-lus.

The word is Latin, from the Greek Δαίδαλος (Daidalos). It also appears in Hellenized Latin as Daedalos and Etruscan as Taitle.

Daedalus was the Greeks’ original skillful artificer and inventor, the personification of resourcefulness and innovation. His name means “cunning worker.” Stories about him are thinly peppered throughout Greek mythology. They vary greatly, with tantalizing parallels threaded through grand inconsistencies.

Daedalus did not fly too close to the sun. That was his son, Icarus. Daedalus made it all the way from Crete to Sicily. This is a point of honor for people named Daedalus.

In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses, James Joyce exiled the first A to give Stephen Dedalus more Irishability.

No, I’m not Greek. Yes, I’ve had the name Leo Daedalus all my life. No, telemarketers never get it right. Yes, it’s amusing to hear them try.

I’m not the heir to the Daedalus Books fortune nor that of Daedalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Nor the Oregon winery, Daedalus Cellars. If there are any such fortunes, and they need an heir, I’m happy to step up.