I was deeply moved to read a recent piece in the New York Times by Connie Wang called, “I Got My Name from Connie Chung. So Did They.”

It’s about the influence of Connie Chung, the journalist who became the first Asian person and second woman to be an anchor of a major weekday news program. Along with Dan Rather, she appeared every night on CBS News.

The article explains:

A version of the same scenario was playing out in living rooms and hospitals across the country. Asian American families from the late 1970s through the mid-‘90s—mostly Chinese, all new immigrants—had considered the futures of their newborn daughters, and, inspired by one of the few familiar faces on their TVs, signed their own wishes, hopes, and ambition onto countless birth certificates in the form of a single name: Connie.

The thing that made me tear up? Until the author of this article told her, Connie Chung herself was completely unaware of the effect she’d had.

The photographer of the photo shoot—a woman name Connie Aramaki—told Connie Chung why her parents had given her the name Connie. She explained: “I realized what it means is…your parents want you to work hard, and be brave, and take chances.”

Connie Chung choked up when she answered quietly, “I did do that.”

I can’t imagine what Connie Chung must have felt when she learned that, without her knowing it, her life had touched the lives of so many people. How wonderful it must have been.