Thinking of Baby Names

It has become increasingly apparent that I am gonna be a dad soon. By May, according to the wife. I think she’s convinced herself, or maybe the internet has, via hocus pocus baby gender guessing games, that it’s gonna be a girl. I’d love a girl, mostly because I think boys are pretty useless (which may be a sign of the kind of boys I grew up and around with).

If it is a girl then it’s going to be Dagny, after Dagny Taggart, the heroine in Atlas Shrugged whom we both admire. We told Jill’s Dad over dinner the other day and he was nothing but praises, even remembering parts of the book that I had forgot. So that’s settled as far as naming a baby girl is concerned.

A boy however would be tricky. I had always wanted, when previously asked, that I’d name my boy kid if I ever had one Ayrton, after Ayrton Senna, a hero of mine since high school when I followed F1 like a hawk. Yes surprise surprise it is not a basketball star but we’ll get to that later. When Senna died in an accident in 94 it was the first time I had actually felt a part of me missing and to this day I still think highly of him.

But now that it’s crunchtime as it were, I’m balking at the thought of naming my kid an unusual name. Of course I recognize the fact that it’s only unusual the first few times, after which everyone gets used to it, but I used to hear my sister Wickie have to constantly spell her name to people over the phone and such, and I was thinking I’d save my kid a lifetime of hassle.

Alternatively (here’s the basketball part), I also like ‘DJ’, after Dennis Johnson, #3 guard from the NBA Sonics, Suns and Celtics. I tried to copy this guy’s every move way back and I still think of him as the ultimate playmaker, an amazing non flashy but effective guy who leaves defenders constantly guessing what he’ll do next. Kinda like myself, except for the ‘amazing’ and ‘effective’.

Anyway the problem is I only like ‘DJ’, but I don’t like the name Dennis which reminds me of a friend who gave up on himself a long time ago. So we’re up in the air over what the DJ would actually stand for. My argument is that it just stands for itself, like A.C. Green of the Lakers, whose AC didn’t actually mean anything, but good luck to me trying to explain that.

So there you go, that’s what’s going on as far as baby naming is concerned. A recognition of people, real or imagined, whom we had found inspiring at some point of our lives, balanced against practicality. In other words hopefully not ending up with something pretentious and uninspiring.

2 thoughts on “Thinking of Baby Names”

  1. “Mostly because I think boys are pretty useless.”

    HAHAH So funny! :) Congrats again, you two! :) I want a girl, too as our first kid. I find ‘big sisters’ more reliable and responsible than ‘big brothers’ :P

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