It might soon be that if the Legislature wants to name a road or a bridge in honor of you, it will have to wait until you've met your maker.

In a state where every chunk of mortar seems to come with a dedication plaque and a ceremony attended by the person whose name is on the plaque, House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, filed a bill Tuesday that would ban the naming of any state road, highway, interstate highway, bridge, interchange or intersection for a person before his or her death.

The proposed bill comes on the heels of last year's scandal in which former Lt. Gov. Earle Morris was convicted on fraud charges. Morris has a section of S.C. 153 in Pickens and Anderson counties named after him. Legislation is being considered to strip that designation.

"It's logical to draw that conclusion," Wilkins said about the bill's timing. "But in and of itself, (the Morris scandal) didn't spur this."

Rather, the bill is a reaction to a seemingly endless raft of structures legislators have named for each other or fellow public servants. "It's been a long time coming," Wilkins said.

Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau, who sits on the Senate Transportation Committee, supports the bill with some age or time-of-service amendments.

"I think it's probably a wise thing to do," Grooms said, because of the possibility of having a structure named for a public servant who might end up caught in a scandal, "not someone the community can look up to."

The bill also follows controversy over naming the new Cooper River bridge after the long-serving former Sen. Arthur Ravenel, who helped secure funds to build the bridge. The Statehouse's black delegation considered a move to rename the bridge after Ravenel made a remark seen as racist.

But both Wilkins and Grooms said there was no consideration of the Cooper River bridge in the proposed legislation.

"We're not going to do anything in the Senate to prevent Sen. Ravenel from having the bridge named after him," Grooms said.

The bill itself would have no sure lifespan. In not only South Carolina, but across the Southeast, dedicating structures to honor living people is a long-toothed, scratch-your-back custom.

The North Carolina transportation board set a policy in 1998 stating that persons must be dead for five years before a structure could be named after them. The next year, however, the board rescinded its action, figuring the naming "would be of more value if (the person) were still alive," said North Carolina Transportation Department spokeswoman April Little.

Wilkins said putting the bill up for a vote may be the only way to determine South Carolina's feeling on the matter, and he thinks it's the right thing to do.

And, no, Wilkins said, the state has not named a structure after him, although there is one with his name in the Greenville school district.

"Nothing legislatively named, not for me or any member of my family," he said.