“Speaking as a former baby don’t get too hung up on baby names. I was named Walter Jr. after my father until I was about six or so when my parents changed their minds… my brother was born and my parents felt that he better exemplified the Walter Jr. name so they gave it to him. I was given ‘Andrew’ which they got out of a baby name book.”

-Andy Bernard, The Office

I know I’m thinking too much about this kid’s name.

Twice now we have come up with numerous acceptable names for girls with no actual intention of ever naming a boy, even though we both know before the ‘tell tale’ sonograms that we are having a boy.

This worked out okay last time because we ended up giving our son the greatest name ever conceived of by human minds.

Zane’s full name is Alexander Rand.

I love his name. Because we use a nickname we rarely see his full name printed out but every time I do I just stare at it and think of how incredibly awesome it is. If it wouldn’t be inconvenient for him later in life I would have his social security card framed next to his baby picture, because his name is just that great.

Alexander is the middle name of the three generations of men preceding me. We also happened to like it.

Our last name means “warrior”. A few months ago my dad was rambling off all of the different versions of our last name and when he came to the German word I just about passed out… “Luthor”. So without even realizing it we had named our son “Lex Luthor”… sort of.

Zane, apart from being a perfectly legitimate nickname¹ for Alexander, is also a derivative of my own name, John.

Rand ‘al Thor is the name of a character in my favorite series of fantasy novels, The Wheel of Time. Brandy only conceded to the possibility of this name once, but it was the time that mattered. For months she wouldn’t even give me a “we’ll see” or a “maybe”. It was always a flat out refusal. Zane was born on a Saturday so it was two days before the people came by with the birth certificate forms… I filled out everything but the middle name, I gave Brandy the saddest look I could muster (which probably wasn’t all that sad… I had a two-day-old son after all) and asked, “Are you sure?” She hesitated and said, “fine”. I wrote the name down as quickly as I could then raced down the hall after the lady before Brandy had a chance to change her mind.

We didn’t really pick Zane’s name for its meaning, but all together it means, “Defender Shield Warrior”… which, again, is awesome.

‘Nick’! What does that mean?
Oh nothing. My dad thought of it while he was shaving.

-Top Secret

Apart from just being a good sounding name I happen to sort of like all of that information that goes with his name. He doesn’t only have a cool name but there’s a fun story behind it. I don’t know if there’s a story to my name, John David. I think it might have been the name of one of my dad’s friends… or the name of 8 or 9 of my distant relatives. Brandy doesn’t know her name’s story either, but we know it’s a type of booze. When I first brought Brandy around to meet my family one of our family friends called her by a different alcoholic beverage every time she addressed her.

I don’t really need a story because at the end of the day it’s just my name. But I like that Zane’s name has one.

I posted something about names on Facebook and one friend commented, “Did we tell you the story about picking Blake’s name out of a Dallas Stars media guide?” So I’m curious to know if any of my blog-readers have a name story to share…

¹Other nicknames for Alexander: Al, Alec, Alek, Aleksi, Alex, Alexi, Lex, Sander, Sandy, Sasha, Sashko, Sasho, Xan, Xander, Zander… just don’t call Zane any of those names.

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