Unto Us a Child is Born

'Tis the season for miracles, and as Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston enters the world, just as his grandmother faces drug charges, the secret of naming kids in his family is revealed. Actually, it was friend SH-L who hit on this, but she doesn't have a blog so I can't link to her and give her proper credit.

The key is to go straight for the nickname. Don't give your son a formal name like "Murray" and sit around hoping his friends will happen to give him the nickname you want for him. The friends don't know. The boy could grow up to be really big and his friends might innocently call him The Refrigerator. Or he might fart a lot and be called Turd Blossom. All this time you might have wanted him to be known for his ability to follow the footprints of a moose and sneak up on it. You may harbor all your life the unfulfilled dream of his being called "Tracker" and then Track.

Well, fulfillment is now yours. Tripp's other grandmother, the one not facing drug charges, taught us that anyone could be president; now, we learn that anyone can give their kids the nickname they want for them. Just do it. Get it in writing, on the birth certificate, so there's no question. Though, I guess in the case of Trig, there still is question about that birth certificate. But never mind that.

This time, maybe there were not two Easton Mitchell Johnston's already in the family to provide proper prerequisite for this newborn being a "III," which would readily grant him the pass to being nicknamed "Trip(p)." But they really wanted to have a "Tripp" around. So they went for it.

Also note, Easton is a manufacturer of hockey equipment. This we learn from a commenter on The Mudflats, your source for all breaking news of this family.