Good Grief: Much Ado About Nothing or Uptight in Utah

Utah city renames Morning Glory Road due to sexual connotation

 Jan 04 2013

LEHI, Utah (AP) — The Lehi City Council has renamed Morning Glory Road after a technology company planning to relocate to the street raised concerns about the name's sexual connotation.

Council members in the city about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City voted unanimously last month to change the name to Morning Vista Road.

Minutes from the meeting show that Xactware Solutions Inc., which provides software for the insurance industry, asked for the name change so that the road would fit with its "international corporate image."

"Morning glory" is the name of a flower and part of the title of a popular 1990s song from British rock band Oasis. But the term is sometimes used to describe male arousal.

Councilman Johnny Revill, who moved to approve the resolution at the Dec. 11 meeting, told the Salt Lake Tribune that he didn't know about the term's slang meaning previously but was happy to appease Xactware officials.

"That name has a negative meaning for some reason," Revill said. "When you use the word, there is a different meaning that can be taken from that."

Councilor Mark Johnson told the Daily Herald that he only knows of the noxious weed called Morning Glory that is difficult to control, but he also voted in favor of the resolution. Johnson said Lehi doesn't like to change street names, but it does in some cases to "honor people or organizations."

The street name was a red flag for Xactware officials when they began considering moving their company's headquarters from Orem to Lehi's Traverse Mountain, said Jonathan Gardner, commercial venture project director for the planned community.

The company was worried that the sexual connotation of morning glory would become too prominent in the minds of prospective clients, Gardner said.

Morning Glory is far from an R-rated word in most of America. It is the name of a 2010 Hollywood film starring Rachel McAdams as an upbeat television producer trying to revive a struggling morning show. That movie is rated PG-13.

In the popular 1960s TV show "Bewitched," the family lived at 1164 Morning Glory Circle.

Morning Glory is also the name of a small community near El Paso, Texas.

Xactware went "a little overboard," in requesting the street name change, said Lehi resident Emily Scanlon. She said she has never thought of the sexual connotation in her four years driving past the road.  Xactware is the one drawing attention to the word.  They apparently have someone in their organization who is obsessed with the connotation.  He or she needs counseling and more to do with their time.

Lehi, with a population of about 48,000 people, is named after a prophet in the Book of Mormon and is the former home of the Brown family that stars in the reality TV series, "Sister Wives." Kody Brownmoved his wives and 16 children from Lehi to the Las Vegas area in January 2011 after Utah authorities began a bigamy investigation.