On an episode of his podcast The Steam Room, former basketball star Charles Barkley mentioned that Syndey was his “favorite girl name” and that he’d use it for a daughter if he ever had another.
Then he revealed how he named his first daughter (and only child), Christiana:
Well she’s named after a mall, in fairness. There’s a Christiana Mall in Delaware that I used to always go by. That’s how she got her name, Christiana.
When co-host Ernie Johnson asked why he named his daughter after a mall, Charles answered:
I don’t know. I just liked the mall.
Later in the conversation, Ernie joked, “If you’d had a son, how about Orange Julius?” Charles one-upped him with: “Burger King.”
The Christiana Mall was named for its location — the community of Christiana in northern Delaware. The location was named after the Christina River, which, in turn, was named after 17th-century Swedish queen Christina. The river was once part of Sweden’s only New World colony, New Sweden, which existed from 1638 to 1655.
Sources:
- Chuck Really Named his Daughter After a Mall | The Steam Room [vid]
- Christiana, Delaware – Wikipedia
- New Sweden – Britannica
Image: Adapted from Christiana Mall between Macy’s and Target by Dough4872 under CC BY-SA 3.0.
