What's In A Name

Quincy James Martin
Xavier Davis Martin

The Martins maintain a few basic rules when it comes to names. Here they are in no particular order:

1. I don't not believe in the narcissism of naming my child after me. God bless those of you who do, but for me I believe in allowing my children the opportunity to have their own name and make their mark in this world with that name.
   
2. We don't believe in naming our child one thing but then insist that everyone in the world call him or her by a completely different name that is not a nickname. For example naming William Xavier Martin but then insisting that everyone call him Xavier.
   
3. The name should not lend itself to an immediate nickname to the general population, thereby leaving the child with the lifelong task of either reminding everyone what your given name is or accepting the name change thrust upon you by the world. For example, naming him William to only have everyone automatically assume his name is Bill and having the child either defend his given name or adopt the new name.
   
4. Boys names have to be strong sounding names and preferably not names likely to be converted or already converted to a girl's name.
   
5. The names have to have some level of originality. For example, we would prefer our child to have a high probability not to share the same name as even one other child while he is in school.
   
6. The name must pass the résumé test, it must be straightforward to pronounce and spell.
7. We wanted the name to have either a family tie and/or a biblical tie.

James is Quincy's grandfather's middle name and his great grandfather's first name.
Davis is Xavier's great grandmother's maiden name.

Here they are together for the first time. The Martin boys.