[R] character string to name

[Jim Lemon]

Hi folks,

I thought I recalled a request for turning a character string into an 
object name as in:

x$as.name("y")<-1:4

OR

x<-data.frame(as.name("y")=1:4)

However, as.name and a few other uninformed attempts didn't even come 
close. A search of "character to name" produced no helpful functions. 
This isn't a very urgent request, but if anyone knows some trick to 
perform this transformation, I would like to hear about it. Thanks.

Jim