Choosing a name for our son proved very difficult for my girlfriend and I. We had many gorgeous, exotic and exciting options for a girl, but all the boys’ names in the many books we bought or borrowed left us uninspired. There was one other name that I had been thinking about since the beginning. It started out as a funny idea but gained momentum as the birth grew nearer, until I was finally adamant that it would be perfect for my firstborn. Just about all of my friends and all of my friends’ children agreed that it was an incredibly cool middle name, though it took a while to convince my girlfriend. I did my best to explain that it wasn’t a novelty or a joke, that it truly meant something to me, that it was a name that still stirred the deepest passion in me almost to the point of obsession, a word that inspires and excites and ignites the imagination. She eventually agreed, but only on the condition that someday I explain to him why it means so much to me. And so, as we celebrate our son’s first birthday, here’s why his middle name is Batman. Read more »
