Unbelievable baby name: Meconium

I’ve found three people with the unfortunate name Meconium. One got Meconium as a first name, two got it as a middle.

1. Meconium Lock, born in Texas is 1931:

2. Willie Meconium Cage, born in Texas in 1933:

3. Alfredo Meconium Gallardo, born in California in 1936.

What is meconium, you ask? “Fecal discharge from a newborn infant.” Baby poop, basically.

I wish I could tell you how these infants ended up with these names, but all I have are the records, not the stories.

While the association is unpleasant, the etymology is interesting. Aristotle was the first to use the Latin word meconium to describe fecal matter. The Latin word came from the ancient Greek work mekonion, “poppy-juice, opium,” a diminutive of mekon, “poppy.” Aristotle chose meconium either because of meconium’s tar-like appearance, which resembles certain opium preparations, or because he believed meconium induced sleep in the fetus.

Still…baby poop.

Sources:

• Buonocore, Giuseppe, Rodolfo Bracci and Michael Weindling. Neonatology: A Practical Approach to Neonatal Diseases. Milan, Italy: Springer, 2012.
• Meconium – Online Etymology Dictionary