Baby born on George Washington’s birthday, named George Washington

American statesman George Washington (1732-1799)
George Washington

George Washington, the first president of the United States, was born on February 22, 1732.

A few minutes before midnight on February 22, 1931 — almost 200 years later — Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Bushman of Chicago welcomed a baby boy. They named him George Washington Bushman.

But it doesn’t end there.

A few minutes after midnight, the baby’s twin sister was born. Her name? Martha Washington Bushman. (The real Martha Washington was born in June, incidentally.)

The twins’ patriotic names were chosen by their father, who was out of work at the time.

“That’s because I love America,” he said. “I love this country even when times are bad.”

(The twins were born in the middle of the Great Depression.)

Source: “Twins Named After George and Martha.” Portsmouth Times 24 Feb. 1931: 1.

Image: George Washington (1795) by Gilbert Stuart

Babies named for Fay Wray

Actress Fay Wray in the movie "King Kong" (1933)
Fay Wray in “King Kong“

Canadian-American actress Fay Wray appeared in films regularly from the 1920s to the 1950s. Her most memorable role was that of Ann Darrow, the object of King Kong’s affection in the now-classic monster movie King Kong (1933).

Dozens of U.S. baby girls have been named “Fay Wray” over the years, and it’s likely that those born during Wray’s career — particularly the early part of her career — were named with her in mind. Some examples…

Fay Wray was born Vina Fay Wray in Alberta, Canada, in 1907. She said in her autobiography:

That “Fay” is almost as a punctuation mark to the longer, fancier names my mother favored. She had been disappointed not to have had a boy, so my father took the opportunity to name me after both his wife and a former lady friend.

Because she never used Vina (the name she shared with her mother), she was known by the self-rhyming name Fay Wray throughout her life.

In her 80s, she observed, “People always ask me if Fay Wray is really my name.”

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of King Kong

Tom Morello named his baby after Randy Rhoads

Guitarist Randy Rhoads (1956-1982)
Randy Rhoads

Classically-trained heavy metal guitarist Randall “Randy” Rhoads is best remembered for his work with Ozzy Osbourne in the early 1980s. (You can hear him playing on “Crazy Train.”) Though he didn’t live long — he died in 1982, while on tour — his small but impressive body of work influenced a number of future rock guitarists.

One of those guitarists was Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. Here’s what Morello told Rolling Stone a few years ago:

Randy Rhoads is my favorite guitar player of all time. It was his poster on my wall when I was practicing eight hours a day, and I named my firstborn son, Rhoads, after him.

Baby Rhoads was born in 2007.

Morello and his wife Denise welcomed their second son in 2011. This time they went for a sports name, choosing Roman in honor of 1960’s Los Angeles Rams quarterback Roman Gabriel. Again, Morello explained the decision in terms of posters:

That was the poster on my wall. Before I had rock and roll posters on my wall I had Roman Gabriel on my wall.

Which name do you like more, Rhoads or Roman?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of a performance with Ozzy Osbourne [vid]

Baby named Tennys, becomes professional tennis player

American tennis player Tennys Sandgren
Tennis player Tennys Sandgren

Did you know that there’s an American professional tennis player named Tennys? (It’s pronounced just like the sport.)

Tennys Sandgren, who was born in 1991, was technically named after his great-grandfather Tennys — a first-generation American whose parents were Swedish immigrants. That said, his parents were inspired to pass the name down largely because they were avid tennis players. (They first met at a tennis club, in fact.)

Sandgren told the New York Times that having the name “Tennys” made him feel obligated to become a reasonably good tennis player:

I had a little bit of expectations just to be not terrible, because you can’t be named so similar to a sport and not be at least adequate at that sport. I don’t think there’s been expectations to be really good, because my parents never put that kind of pressure on me, but I had to be at least decent.

He also admitted that he uses a fake name in restaurants:

When I order sandwiches or coffee, I don’t give my name, I’ll say ‘David’ or something. It’s just not worth it. They never mess David up. I just want my sandwich; I just want my coffee.

In early 2020, Sandgren played Roger Federer in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. During a humorous pre-match interview [vid] with John McEnroe, Federer discussed his opponent’s first name:

JM: Finally, Roger […] your next match is against a guy — I think he’s got the greatest name for tennis in tennis history, his name’s Tennys Sandgren. I don’t know why his parents named him Tennys, but God bless them, cause he’s in the quarterfinals. And he’s the only American left. So what do you make of that, coming up in a couple days?

RF: He was not gonna be a baseball player, that’s for sure, with that name. It’s unreal, actually. I’m looking forward to playing against him, I’ve never played against Tennys. I’ve played a lot of tennis in my life, but never against Tennys.

So far, I haven’t been able to figure out the etymology of the name Tennys. It could be related to the Swedish name Tönnes, which is a diminutive of Antonius. It also reminds me of the English surname Tennyson, which ultimately comes from the personal name Denis.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Tennys Sandgren Challenger of Dallas, Feb 2013 by Khall1323 under CC BY-SA 3.0.