Thanks to Berton Gunter and Peter Ehlers who both effectively solved
my problem.  Prof. Gunter's solution, slightly more succinct, is:

foo <- function(x)
{
  if(is.name(sb <- substitute(x))) deparse(sb)
   else eval(sb)
}

(appropriately modified to fit into the ``mv()'' context.

Duncan Murdoch expressed the worry:

How could you tell what a user intended who typed this?

name1 <- "a"
name2 <- "b"
mv(name1, name2)

Well, I guess I couldn't.  I am not actually bothered by this
however.  I only want mv() to work with the arguments being
either names or expressions which evaluate to explicit text strings.

What ***I*** would intend by mv(name1,name2) in those circumstances
would be in effect:

        name2 <- name1
        rm(name1)

I.e. I want mv() to apply to the objects ``name1'' and ``name2''.
The fact that these objects consist of text strings which *could*
name other objects is of no importance (to me).

Thanks again to all who responded.

        cheers,

                Rolf Turner

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