Our third (and final) kid arrived Earth-side a little more than 24 hours ago. Somehow, he managed to arrive both right on time and all at once. But not before Sarah had some tacos before leaving for the hospital.
Sarah and I thought hard about what we would name each of our kids, so I want to write down why we named our kids William Francis, Malcolm Jonah, and, now, Nico Bert Carter.
“Will” is named after one of my mentors, the longtime Dean of Students of Davidson College, William Holt Terry, and my best friend, William “Billy” Parker.
In what will quickly be revealed as a consistent theme in our naming decisions, Dean Terry ("DT") guided, helped, corrected, cajoled, chastised, and—mostly—encouraged thousands of young people like me over the course of his life. I have realized only recently, now that I am apparently old enough to be asked to "mentor" some young people, how much damn work it is to do this well. Here’s to the mentors… (click for a pic of young, big-bearded Ben + appropriately skeptical DT)
I had the benefit of DT's encouragement for almost two decades; he passed a few months before our Will was born.
Will's middle name, “Francis”, is Sarah’s dad’s middle name. (And, while the Prayer of St. Francis isn't actually by St. Francis, for our purposes... close enough.)
Will and Malcolm on CCL’s lake last summer. Will gets to go to camp as a camper next summer (which means Dad gets to go to camp, too. 🤠)
“Malcolm” is named after Malcolm Williams, the founder and director of Camp Country Lad in Monterey, Tennessee. Growing up as a camper and a counselor at CCL, Mr. Malcolm and the place he created had a huge influence on what I wanted my life to be about and for. When Sarah learned Will was going to be a boy, the way she told me the news was, “Well, you’re going to have a good excuse to go back to Camp.”
We also liked that if Malcolm’s initials ever became a nickname, he would be MC, like my mom, Mary Carolyn.
Like Will, Malcolm was born a few months after his namesake passed. (And, yeah, if we had been sure we were going to have third kid and that it was going to be a boy, we probably wouldn't have named the middle one Malcolm.)
“Jonah” is Malcolm's middle name, after Sarah's mom, Joan. It didn't hurt that Sarah's dad name is Joe. ;-)
A Nick, a Ben, a Joe, and a Big Day.
We arrived at “Nico” (nee-co, no matter what my sister tells you) after wanting to name “New Kid” after my dad, Nick, and learning that "Nico" means "victory of the people".
Heck to the yeah! That's what this anti-gerrymandering, pro-voting rights, America-is-a-democracy house is here for.
My dad, “Big Nick” to his grandkids, is Nick because Nicholson is a family name. So, “Nico” is a kind of echo of an echo.
“Bert” is in honor of my mom's dad, Hubert Denton “H.D.” Jasper. I only ever knew Pop as a fish-catching, fish-frying, garden-growing grandpa, but, in his 20s, Pop walked from Belgium to Berlin as an artilleryman and had quite a ride during his time on Earth. (Here’s my remembrance of Pop when he passed in 2017 a few weeks after he got to meet a great-great-granddaughter.)
Bert is also a nod to Bert Combs, a Governor of Kentucky whose heart never left its mountains and whose case, Rose v. Council for Better Education, forced Kentucky's legislature to fairly and adequately fund schools across Kentucky in the late 1980s (and unleashed a wave of similar, progressive, necessary litigation in other states). No telling how many kids' lives that case helped. "Bert" means "bright."
I mean, a grandfather and a Democratic Governor / judge / litigator from eastern Kentucky? Come on. That’s just good naming.
(If your name is "Robert" and you are a friend of mine, “Bert” is also, obviously, for you. 😉)
So, that's it for the Carter Kids' names. Sarah and I know we are ridiculously blessed to get to do the work we do and to enjoy the thin veneer of security we enjoy. Our lives are propelled forward by the ones who cheered us on and up, sat us down and picked us up.
We should all be so lucky.
Actually, we should build a world where it doesn't take luck to have the support, love, and care we've had and that Will, Malcolm, and Nico have and will have from their teachers, mentors, counselors, and guides.
We can do it. The people, after all, will have their victory.