April is here, so it’s time for another batch of name quotes!
From a 2011 interview with former child actor Meeno Peluce:
My parents split the country when I was conceived. They traveled across Europe looking for the perfect place to have their perfect child. It was 1969, a voice had spoken to my mom. It said, “Go to India.” Then a short time later it said, “You’re pregnant.” They had been married 10 years and my mom was not supposed to be able to have kids. But the voice spoke and so they left America behind and headed for the world. They made great friends in Yugoslavia, one had the perfect name. Miroslav, Man of Peace. So I was named after him, but not in Yugoslavia.
[…]
My folks pulled into Amsterdam on a snowy night with all the lights glistening and my mom knew it was the perfect place and that’s where I was born, their little man of peace, Miro.
A couple years later we were in Katmandu at the foot of Swayambhunath where Buddha had come to make his last speeches. A monk came over, picked me up, and asked my name. “Miro,” my mother told him. “No,” I corrected her. “No more Miro, only Meeno, only Meeno.” And I wouldn’t answer to anything else.
(Meeno, the half-brother of Soleil Moon Frye, co-starred with Jon-Erik Hexum in the early ’80s sci-fi TV show Voyagers!)
From a 2009 NPR interview with jazz singer and pianist Blossom Dearie (1924-2009):
It is my real name, and everybody asks me that, but I don’t mind answering that question. […] I was born in the springtime, and my father gave me the name Blossom cause I was born in April and my bothers brought blossoms in the house.
(TV character Blossom Russo was named after Blossom Dearie.)
From an article about the first spoken dialogue system used in space:
Since Clarissa’s developers planned to set her up on the International Space Station (ISS), the team “went looking for names that had ‘ISS’ in them,” said [John] Dowding. “There aren’t many of those. Clarissa won out,” [Manny] Rayner told Space.com, adding that the team thought a woman’s name would make the system sound friendly.
(The system was first used aboard the ISS in 2005 — about a decade after Clarissa Explains it All was on the air.)
From an Instagram post by Irish television presenter Lisa Cannon:
I always feel oddly yet loosely connected to [the late Lisa Marie Presley] as I was an only child too and was named after her… Lisa Sara Marie Cannon – Lisa Marie because my father like the rest of the world was an Elvis fan and my middle name Sara after Bob Dylan’s Wife. My father at the time was a budding Rock Journalist for Hot Press Magazine & the NME in London so music of all genres was always playing in our home. When people ask you the origin of your name or who your named after it was always “Elvis’ daughter & Bob Dylan’s Wife” which always got a smile.
From a recent article about YouTube influencers The Newbys:
Tiny traveller Crusoe Newby is less than two years old — but has already tottered his way around 24 different countries.
[…]
Named after fictional castaway Robinson Crusoe, the hero of the 18th century novel by Daniel Defoe, he had travelled to 11 countries while still in the womb. But his official tally of 24 have all been racked up since his birth. His adventure started when Tara and John decided to sell their Bristol home and convert a £3,000 van to travel the globe in May 2020.
[…]
“Robinson Crusoe is John’s favourite book of all time because it inspired him as a young boy to think of a life of adventure.”
From a 2016 article about Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo:
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was named, in part, after Ronald Reagan, president of the United States at the time of his birth [in 1985] and his father’s favorite actor. “My parents named me after him because they both liked this name and thought it sounded strong,” he tells me. “I know that my father admired him.”
For more quotes about names, check out the name quotes category.
