The Naming of Things (part II)

Ok, this going to be a quick one. Yesterday Sara and I were out at Bucket pick-up (Bucket is an elite level co-ed frisbee team that we both played on last season but are not playing on this year). While we were warming up a few of the players were talking about baby names. One of the women, a teacher, told (an urban legend?) story about a girl named "l-a." When she was in class and the teacher called her name as "la" she responded, "it's pronounced "ladasha." I couldn't help but think of this as a clever and simple way to play with the English language to create new words and sounds.

So, I present to you my new proposal for Champ's middle name - C'. This would be pronounced "Capostrophe."

Ok, so before you think I'm crazy, please read on. At one point there was a rumor or report that distinctively black names resulted in worse life outcomes for a child. However, more recent studies indicate that controlled for familial and economic circumstances that has not been found to be the case. Here's an actual study and here's a popular article on the subject. Anyway, it appears that names are typically an indicator rather than a cause.

Even considering that a name might impact a child's life outcome, in this case, we're talking about a middle name. I don't know about you, but I hardly use my middle name and most people probably don't even know it. On most forms or applications you are usually only asked for your middle initial. If, on reading the name, people pronounced the name as "C" that would not be inaccurate.

Interesting and semi-related side note, President Harry Truman middle name was actually just "S." The "S" didn't stand for anything.

Ok, so hopefully I've allayed your concerns about the Champ's life outcomes if we were to give him the middle name C'.

So, why do it? First, C' is interesting and unique. I can pretty much guarantee that no one else has that name. Capostrophe is unique by itself but C' takes it to another truly fascinating level.

I'm a big fan of voiceless fricative sounds for words and names. These are sounds that are made by pressing air out through small openings. "F", "Sh," "S," "Th" are the primary voiceless fricative sounds in the English language (each are made by pressing the mouth together at different points to restrict air flow). C' has two voiceless fricatives in in it: "Cap-Os-tro-fee." This is just a fancy way of saying that I like the sound of C'.

The first half of the name "Capo" is a word meaning "a movable bar attached to the fingerboard of a fretted instrument to uniformly raise the pitch of all the strings." Sara and I are both guitar players (in fact one of the first things we bonded over) and own and use "capos."

Finally, the middle name C' would start with the same letter as the nickname we've been using for Champ in utero.

Ok, so Sara thinks C' is crazy. I want to hear from folks that we are close with: is C' ridiculously awesome for a middle name or just ridiculous?