A friend of Pete's, who had no middle name, was given one for his eighteenth birthday: his mum paid for the Change of Name Deed, and he got to choose his own middle name. He opted for Xavier.
What is it with names at the moment? Everyone seems to be thinking about them. (Or maybe it's just another case of that perceptual vigilance thing.) On BBC Radio 1, Colin Murray has decided that he wants a middle name and is getting listeners to provide suggestions. He will then legally change his name.
This follows (suspiciously) hard on the heels of a young mother-to-be on Scott Mills' programme last week, who agreed to name her child after the listeners' most popular choice of a name, following his predicted birth last weekend. The final two contenders were Merlin and something Spanish-sounding that I don't remember (it began with O).
Sanity prevailed - as much as it ever could in such a situation - and the kid is now, in theory, called Merlin. I quite liked that - it sounded really good with her surname (which, unfortunately, I forget). However, I did wonder whether the mother would ultimately bottle out and just call him Kevin instead.
In an ideal world there would be some point to this post, some conclusion drawn. I'm not sure, though. My puritan streak thinks that naming is much too serious a business to be dealt with in such a frivolous way. My inner anarchist loves the idea that labels can be switched, with the implication that there are no rules. Maybe they're both right.
Posted by Hg on Tuesday 12 October 2004 at 22:16.
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