Fifteenth Bank?

OK ... we were driving home from a wedding in Toccoa (second weekend wedding in a row for us, with both young children as the flower girl and ring "bear," and the eldest child as a bridesmaid in today's wedding.) But I digress from the topic at hand.

There was a billboard in Gwinnett County on I-85 that left me in a more discombobulated state than I already was. It was an advertisement for a bank. Now we all have heard of banks like "First National Bank" or "First State Bank," much like we hear of First Baptist Church or even Second Baptist Church (did they lose a race or something?)

But this bank ... it's way down the line in the standings. Fifth Third Bank.

What what?

I blinked and rubbed my eyes to be sure I was reading it right. Yep, Fifth Third Bank.

Are they serious?

Well, it demanded some research. There had to be a logical reason to make your bank sound like an odd fraction or a cryptic rendition of "Fifteenth Bank."

Let's start at their website ... http://www.53.com ... I'll give them credit. That's easy to remember. OK, let's find their history under About Us. Goes back to 1858 as Bank of the Ohio Valley. Nothing weird about that. Then Third National picked it up in 1871. And in the turn of the century, the Thirds wanted to fraternize with the Fifths, and so they did. (The Fifths never forgave the Thirds for cutting in line at the bank charter store.)

Anyhoo ... fancy the thought that on this weekend wedding, I'd encounter a bank with a funny name that was the product of a wedding of their own. Fifth National and Third National (kissing cousins?) became Fifth Third.

And the rest is history. I think I still prefer my bank, which was a merger of Sun Bank and Trust Company (yes, you know who). It's much easier to say. You try to say Fifth Third three times fast and see what you come up with. Don't blend those "TH"s ... enunciate, enunciate, enunciate. Fifthird is not what we're talking here. They've worked hard for that name.