Origin of My Name

Why did you name him Dylan?

Mainly because we like how his name sounds with our last name, Paterson. We chose one of the most common spellings, since ‘Paterson’ with one ‘t’ is difficult enough. Although we are both used to saying to the person on the other end of the phone “Paterson with one ‘t’", we would rather not give him a first name with a strange spelling. The name Dylan is Welsh, and means “of the sea” and “son of the ocean” or just plain “ocean,” which we thought was interesting since we both love nature. Also, there are a few great musicians, poets, etc. who have the name Dylan, whether as a first or last name (Bob Dylan, Dylan Thomas, etc.) and we thought that was pretty cool as well. Another happy coincidence is that Dylan is an Aquarius, the 11th sign of zodiac, represented by a man pouring water. Curiously, Aquarius is classified as an air sign.


What’s up with George, his middle name?

We wanted to give him a family middle name, and after considering a few different names of deceased male relatives (we thought that was quaintly yet refreshingly traditional), we went with George, primarily because there are interesting relatives on both sides of the family named George. Victoria’s grandfather on her father’s side, George O’Brien, was a well-known doctor in Chicago who’s clients included Al Capone's mother (and possibly Capone himself) and the Mayor of Chicago, and Victoria’s dad’s given first name is George, although he goes by Dennis, his middle name. Rob’s great grandfather on his father’s side was named George Flannigan, and was one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. We thought that if nothing else, his middle name would be a good topic for conversation.


Dylan has his own domain? But he was just born!

Since Rob waited over eight years to finally get his hands on www.robertpaterson.com (which currently points to his main domain name that he previously registered, www.robpaterson.com), we decided to buy Dylan’s domain name so he wouldn’t have to worry about this later on when he’s actually old enough to think about such things. Coincidentally, there was an article in the Fashion and Style section of the NY Times on January 15, 2006 called Web Sites for the Brave New Electronic B@by, but we thought of this well before the article came out, so I guess we were being “trendy” without knowing it. We decided to refrain from setting up an e-mail address. He is obviously not old enough to do e-mail, and besides: why would we want him to be inundated with spam before he’s even old enough to walk?


How’s your cat, Cecelia, dealing with the new addition?

Our cat Cecelia keeps trying to get into Dylan’s stroller, like she wants to go for a ride. Other than that, we think she’s wondering who this little, tiny human/cat person is, and why it only screams and doesn’t make sounds like we do. They’re getting along just fine.