Before my son was born, my wife and I spent months deciding on a name. After two years trying and two miscarriages, I felt that if we were ever going to have a child, it would be a random act on the part of the universe so I kiddingly suggested Random as a name if it was a boy. The wife liked it (She said) but suggested maybe it would be better as a middle name (Easier to pretend it’s something else, I guess.) I got the name from the book Nine Princes in Amber and have seen it in other books since. Anyway, Alec Random is now eight years old and the story of the origin of the name doesn’t seem as cute or funny as it was then. I can’t help this feeling that he’s going to end up on a tower with a deer rifle saying “That’ll teach you to give me a silly name!” Blam, blam…
So did I screw up or what?
Anyone else with a silly middle name have an opinion?
You can tell your son the truth (I don’t know how he’ll react to being considered a random act of the universe) but for everyone else, this line will do nicely.
My middle name is Dean and, AFAIK, it has no special meaning – my folks just liked the name. It worked out well, though, because I have a common first name and a VERY common last name. I’ve met lots of people with the same first and last, and even with the same middle initial, but never with the whole moniker.
First kid: middle name – Scott. No reason, as above.
Second kid: middle name – Dean. After me.
Third kid: middle name – Lynn. After wifey.
Fourth (and final!) kid: middle name – Dean. At the suggestion of second kid who pointed out that it gave a nice symmetry to our family. Six people, three middle names.
I’m a junior. I was supposed to be named Robert, after my mother’s father, but at the last minute my dad, figuring I may be the only son (and he was right) wrote the R and O and then gave the B a miss and went on to spell Ronald and just kept going all the way to “Junior” at the end.
Could be worse…my middle name is R. That’s it, just R. My parents never offered an explanation, and honestly, I never cared that much. The thing that makes it bad is having to explain to EVERYONE that I AM correct, I DO know what my middle name is and NO it doesn’t stand for anything. And then you get the idiots who still think I’m lying and they spend the next 30 minutes trying to “guess” what it stand for. (Ruprecht is the best one I’ve heard in a while)
Explain it to him, if he asks. If he has half a brain, which I’m sure he does, he will understand why you gave him the name you did. And if he still wants to be a sniper, well, he’s got other problems.
The daunting task I have ahead of me is explaining to my oldest daughter why her middle name is the same as the love of my life, who is NOT her mother nor related to her in any way. (They’ve met, BTW, and my little one thinks it is just the coolest thing. “You know what??? You’ve got the same name as MEEEE!” she howls with delight…)
Besides, at least Random is an actual word, as opposed to some of the names I’ve seen on nametags at McD’s and so forth…
Same thing happened to me. I was supposed to be named “Susan”, but while my mother was in post-delivery fog, my father decided I would be named after her. I think I’m better as a Barbra than a Susan. I always thought it would be miserably to be called Suzy, but then again, “Barbie” ain’t no great shakes.
FWIW I like the name Random. If you are embarrassed about telling him why, blame it on your wife. Tell your son that your wife was ready romance novels while she was pregnant with him and got fixated on Random.
Throughout my pregnancy, my daughter’s name was going to be Christina Michelle. During my eighth month, my aunt/mother figure was killed in an auto accident. My aunt had always wanted me to name my children Michael(there’s already 6 Michael’s on my hsuband’s side of the family) or Michelle and had said that this was the name she would use for them. In her honor (and because my aunt hated her real name) we named my daughter Michelle instead of Christina.
I’m lucky enough to have the middle name of Jerome, who is traditionally described as being the first to translate the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures into Latin, leading to the later Vulgates and to the opening of people reading the darn words for themselves and making up their own minds.
My brother, though, is stuck with the awful middle name of Gerard.
My wife, though she doesn’t like it, has the wonderful middle name of Dorothea.
Brian Andrèa Michele Van Noneofyourbusiness.
I have two girls middle names, basically.
But hey, it coulda been worse-I coulda been Drew Alison (sp?) Carey. <grin>
That’s the first thing I thought of, too. I’m not sure that particular Random would be much of a comfort to you, Cynical1, but your son might get a kick out of her when he’s old enough to read the books.
I agree, Random is way cool. How would you like the name Lea. Pretty ordinary, huh? Blah!!!
We picked our son’s middle name out pretty quick (named after a good friend, and that is the name he goes by), but his first name took some intense discussion. My husband wanted Augustus (named after the Robert Duvall character in Lonesome Dove). I told my husband that since he chose the middle name, I got to chose the first name. That got me off the hook. So I picked one of my favorite names, and my husband, to my surprise, readily agreed. (But, since Hurricane Hugo hit while I was in labor, my husband wanted Hugo-I nixed that one in a hurry while enjoying my epidural).
It wasn’t until the actual completing of the birth certificate that I realized we had 2 different spellings in mind for the first name! I had Quentin in mind, he had Quinton in mind. I had to ask the nurse to call me back. By the time she called back, I was ready to tell her just to put my husband’s middle name (the name he goes by), Steve, as our son’s first name, but I didn’t. My husband won the spelling contest (bet it is the only spelling contest he ever won!).
The only thing that bugs me more than people that never argue about names is a new mom telling me about her fast labor (mine being 16+ hours then a C-section)!
I have a very unusual first name, and a completely unique (hyphenated) last name. So my parents broke that “unusual” mold by giving me the idiotic middle name of Helen. God, I hate that name. My mom’s aunt was Helen, though, so at least I’m named after someone.
One of my very best friends had a baby when she was eighteen. She knew right away she wanted to name her son Cole, it was her favorite name. But middle name…hm, she couldn’t decide. Back in high school, we had both read The Three Musketeers, and had a goofy inside joke rise out of it. As a result, I nicknamed her d’Artagnan (for the Dumas-impaired, d’Artagnan is the main character and the fourth musketeer in the book). Yup, you guessed it. Cole d’Artagnan. I think it’s kind of cool, especially since I have something to do with it, but I don’t know what he’s going to think when he’s older. (He’s three now.)