Well here’s an update on finding a name for the oncoming boy. As previously mentioned, ‘Ayrton’ was strong in the running but I had misgivings due to how unique it is. I imagine he’d always be explaining it his whole life, with people wondering where it came from or how it is pronounced. And so we nixed it.
Not that I do not like Ayrton Senna any less. In fact I watched the docu about him a second time and he is even more impressive after taking in the nuances of his personality and how well spoken he was in interviews. Clearly he was a brilliant passionate competitor just as I felt way back when, but it takes an educated man to express himself properly otherwise you would always be misinterpreted as brash or self centered.
So anyway, we settled on ‘Angel (pronounced Anghel) Christopher’, and how it came about is an interesting story. I had decided that trying to find a name based on someone we were impressed with was harder than just trying to think of a ok name per se. I mean I liked Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King and any number of authors and actors, but I wasn’t going to name him Ernest, and while Stephen wasn’t so bad I started to get interested in calling him ‘Ace’, which would be short for his initials. At that time Christoph Waltz was hosting SNL, so ‘Christopher’ got into the picture.
Then the other day we were pressed to enter a name on tickets we were purchasing for a Piso Fare trip to Vietnam this December, and so ‘Angel Christopher’ was decided. And since that ticket has been booked it may as well be final, so there it is: Angel Christopher Mercado aka ‘ACE’.
Ok so you might think this post is over but not yet. Along this long and winding road to think of a name, I had come to some conclusions. Herewith:
Thinking of naming your kid after someone you idolize is harder than you think. – Either because a.) the person has a weird name or the more obvious b.) there really isn’t anyone out there you idolize so much that it’s actually worth naming your kid after, especially if he’s someone you don’t personally know. I mean, if Superman happened to have saved either of us from a burning building one day we would have no problem naming our kid Clark (assuming he told us his secret identity), but in real life such things do not happen and so were left to choose from books or movies we read. Which is fine except you’re thinking ‘why in the world am I naming my boy after a fictional character’, and realize you’re not as enthused as you would’ve been 20 years ago. Get it? Hope that made sense.
Failing to find an appropriate ‘idol’ to name your kid, a cool name is the best. – In fact it is absolutely imperative to name your kid something special. Here’s the thing – it surprises me that adults forget how tough kindergarten was. I was bullied when I was a kid, and I know how unfortunate it is that you are being picked on via anything unusual about you. Your hair, skin color, how big your ears are is all fair game, especially your name. My wife’s friend gave her a kid a really odd name, one that’d make you say ‘pinagtripan ng magulang‘, that her mom said he actually breaks out in tears when he talks about it. I have zero doubt kids double over with laughter at his name and his parent’s lack of foresight just shocks me.
In my case, here’s what I see happening. Come roll – call when my kid announces his name, his classmates are going to say ‘His name is Ace? He’s probably cool. I’ll hang with him.’