The Name Game

We have a game that we play as a family. Truth be told, it is an old college drinking game (not that I ever played one of those) where one person says the name of a famous person and the next person must think of another person whose first name starts with the same letter as the last name of the person before (confused yet?). It is supposed to go very fast, but we take it slow at the Melchior’s.

During a recent car version of the game, J.J. suddenly said, “You know what I’m going to name my son, if I ever have one?”

“Tell me,” I said back.

“Ja’Derrick,” was his reply, and then he spelled it out,”Big J small A apostrophe big D small E-R-R-I-C-K.”

I paused a minute before I answered. I was confounded, to say the least, but wanted to respect J.J. choices. But it only took a second of imagining myself 20 years from now telling my friends at the garden club meeting that my grandson’s name was Ja’Derrick to suddenly start pursuing a line of questioning.

“What an interesting name,” was how I cautiously began, “did you invent it?”

My son glanced at me with that incredulous of course not look on his face. “No, I didn’t make it up. I read it in a word problem in my math book. It said, ‘Ja’Derrick and Ahmed decided to run a 100 yard race to see who was faster. They both knew that Ja’Derrick was much faster than Ahmed because Ahmed could run 4 yards per second and Ja’Derrick could run 6 yards per second. So, Ja’Derrick decided to give Ahmed a 10 yard head start. Who wins the race?”

One of the things that I love about my children, and many of their friends, is how they have completely embraced different cultures. When I was a kid, even though there was not a hint of intentional racism in my home, if I was describing a kid at school I would say, “He’s the black guy who wears the Chuck Taylor’s…” or whatever. I was not judging him based on the color of his skin, but I was identifying him by it.

My children do not do that. Names like Kushal and Ramya and Miguel and Joe and Malik and Victoria and Chan and Kioski and Justin are all said at the dinner table without any other descriptors. "Chan told the funniest joke today" and "Malik got an A on the English test" or "I think Ramya likes Joe."

Ja’Derrick Melchior is growing on me. At least he is kind enough to give the other kid a head start – and in the long run - that’s what really matters. My math skills aren't good enough to figure out if he wins or not.