The Daily Post: The Story of my Name

The Daily Post topic today is what is the story behind your name

Being a child of the 1970s, 1971 to be exact, and my mom and dad being of the flower child generation you would think I would have ended up with a cool name like Moonbeam or something like that.

Instead I ended up being named after Dick van Dyke’s character, Rob Petrie. Yep, how square is that?

Hey Dick is cool and all. And I have watched the show several times trying to figure out what the attraction was for my mom and I just can’t put my finger on it.

Lots of people are named after popular names in the bible but most are named just like every one else. In fact there is even a cool site on Al Gore’s Internet that allows you to check out the most popular names for the year you were born.

For 1971 the top ten names for boys were:

  1. Michael
  2. James
  3. David
  4. John
  5. Robert
  6. Christopher
  7. William
  8. Jason
  9. Brian
  10. Scott

Well, my name, Robert, is in the top five. Not bad. But where is the originality? I thought the 60s and 70s was about expression and freedom and unabashed spirituality.

Every one of these names are so BORING!

I think back and every single one of my friends were named after the most popular names on this list.

Except for one.

Zeke

Yep, thats right. The coolest name on the block and he was the kid that none of us kids were aloud to hang around with.

I wonder why? He didn’t do anything (that I recall). He was only six for cryin’ out loud!

But with a name like that, I doubt Zeke grew up and became a Fortune 500 CEO. Those guys have boring names like Steve (Jobs), Warren (Buffett), Charlie (Ergen–Dish Network) , William (Bill Gates), Donald (Trump).

Zeke probably grew up and became a biker or a tattoo artist or was the lead singer in a heavy metal band…

Well, at least with Robert on your drivers license there is a pretty good chance when someone yells out your name in a crowd more than one person will turn around to look.

What is the story behind your name?


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