Marcelo,

>I think of a Connection object as being one which manages a connection,
>through its preparation stages, lifetime, and disposal.

If this is an object that manages a connection -
then - a proper name for it - ConnectionManager.

>I don't expect my String object to actually hold a bunch of characters - I'm
>fine with an empty string. I just want my String object to be able to manage
>the characters it has, if any, and be able to know whether it really has
>any.

Right - because an empty string is still a string.

It might seem that I bother too much about such niceties,
is that I consider proper naming very important part of
programming practise. This is especially true when you
designing classes or libraries which will be heavily used
by other people. This is something about respecting them.

Glebas