Inspired by Citizen Willow's comment on my last blog about having a dog with the same name.

I have a thing about names.  I like them to be different.  When it comes to naming pets or kids, i want to come up with something that will separate my progeny (can pets be considered progeny without people thinking me deviant?) from the rest of the hordes that populate this planet.  i also like them to have some sort of significance, so that they get that their lives have meaning.  the kids, not the pets, that is.

I guess it comes from my reactionary bent to being raised (and named) in the June Cleaver era of middle class, white bread, naming conventions and coming into my adulthood and child raising years when stupid yuppies were infesting the population with Brittanys and Justins and Austins and Ethans.  Yuck!  No offense to those of you with those names, but you don't exactly stand out from the crowd do you.  Neither did I.  I've seldom been in a group of any size where i wasn't one of 3 or 4 people with the same name.  So then you end up being given a nickname (which is usually not very nice) or being called by your last name (which i didn't like either until 'The Drake' came along).

All of my kids have names which while not totally unheard of, are nonetheless unique among their peers. 
 
There's the daughters:

 Brooklynn - her mom liked the name Brooke, but it was hugely popular at the time, so we combined it with Lynn.  Using the meaning of each name, i've always thought of it as denoting 'beside the beautful stream' because it sounded like a Psalm.

  August -  'of a quality inspiring mingled admiration and reverence' - our tribute to the sanctity of life in general and our feelings about her in particular

And the sons:

  Dechlan - which i found in a byline of the Irish music mag Hot Wax to an article about U2, who of course i'm a big fan of.

  Silas - a 'minor' figure in the New Testament, in that he spent a lot of time with Paul spreading the Gospel to us Gentiles

  Ezekiel - a prophet from the Old Testament.  it means 'whom God makes strong'.  he had a vision of a valley of dry bones being brought back to life by the power of God. 

Each of them knows where there names came from, and i sincerely hope that the end result is that they will be blessed

Then we named the cat (a male) Neo, after the Matrix.  I really dig that story, and you probably won't find too many cats named Neo.  It's a departure from the whole Biblical theme, but, hey, he's just a cat.

But it was a different story with the new puppy.   i lost out to convention and my wife (not the mother of any of my children, for those of you keeping score). She tends to be much less concerned with uniqueness.  She dragged out the same baby name she used to name her two sons - Vanilla and Bland.  If she would have waited until she got to know them a little bit, she probably would have called them Manson and Bundy.  But that's a story for another time.

A baby book!  Sheesh!  I ask you, is that any way to name a pet?  I don't need no stinkin' baby book!  When i need to name a living thing, i start looking around for the inspiration of the moment, for the sign from above.  Call me a mystic, but i like the results so far.

My daughter August had the best idea of all.  Trinity.  It was perfect!  Neo and Trinity, plus the obvious allusion to a central tenet of the Christian faith.  But the wife was having none of it.  It didn't fit her, she said. 

Anyway, the dog's name ended up being Maddie - short for Madeline.  The original name was Madison, but that was just too much for me.  Reminds me too much of the pretentious, vapid, bourgeoisie, and i can't allow myself to be associated with them.

I guess because a cutie pie lap dog like Maddie needs to assume a lady-like aura of pretentious dignity.

Horseshit!

I shoulda got an ugly dog, like a pug or terrier-type mutt.  Then i coulda named it whatever i wanted.  And kept the coolness going.

- posted by The Drake @ 4:10 PM