Baby name story: ChamberMaster

Baby ChamberMaster Mead
ChamberMaster Mead

On March 10, 2006, a baby boy was born to Chris Mead (the vice president of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives) and his wife Laura.

The baby was named ChamberMaster Mead “after a software company that won the naming rights in a charitable auction mounted by his father.” (Chris hoped the auction would raise money for the ACCE’s scholarship fund.)

The highest-bidding company, ChamberMaster, “bought naming rights for two weeks, paying $375.”

After the two weeks were up, the baby’s name would be changed to John Douglass Mead.

Source: Zaslow, Jeffrey. “Meet John ‘Your Ad Here’ Smith.” Wall Street Journal 16 Mar. 2006.

[Here are more for-profit baby names.]

Baby name story: Champ

Super Bowl LVI logo

While Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Vanchi LaShawn “Van” Jefferson was playing in Super Bowl LVI last month, his pregnant wife Samaria suddenly went into labor (several days early).

Samaria was forced to leave SoFi Stadium mid-game — before the Rams eventually beat the Bengals, 23-20 — to go to her birthing center.

Not long after the game ended, the couple welcomed a baby boy.

They considered the names Miles and Wynn, but finally settled on Champ, which Van said was “very fitting for the type of situation we just had.”

(I discovered this story via Appellation Mountain — thanks Abby!)

Sources:

Baby born aboard Pullman car “Jamestown,” named Jimmie

Pullman car

On the night of November 19, 1915, the conductor of Southern Railway train No. 24, heading for Atlanta, stopped for thirty minutes in Tallapoosa, Georgia. Why? So he could track down a doctor to attend to passenger Mrs. E. M. Looney, who had just given birth to a baby girl.

Mother and baby were in such good condition upon reaching Atlanta at 10:30 p.m. that the ambulance awaiting them simply took them to their home on West Peachtree Street.

The little girl was named ‘Jimmie’ after the Pullman car in which she was born, the “Jamestown.”

(Interestingly, the Jamestown was Pullman’s first all-steel sleeping car. It was built in early 1907 for the Jamestown Exhibition in Virginia.)

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Pullman car exterior (public domain)

Baby name story: Wyangala

Wyangala Dam (in NSW, Aus.) in the 1930s

The Australian town of Wyangala was established as the Wyangala Dam (1928-1935) was being built across the Lachlan River (in New South Wales).

Dam workers and their families began moving to the site in large numbers in January of 1929. By August of that year, there had been “three deaths and two births” among the newcomers.

The first baby to be born in the territory was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Field. The child was named “Wyangala Doris.”

The place-name Wyangala is of indigenous origin (possibly of Wiradjuri origin specifically), but the meaning is unknown.

Source: “Wyangala News.” Carcoar Chronicle 30 Aug. 1929: 6.
Image: NSW State Archives