"Ryker"

“What’s in a Name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
-Act II, Sc. II Romeo & Juliet

Because so many people have asked about Ryker’s name.

While it was fairly easy for us to pick out a girl name, we had a difficult time deciding on the right boy name. J & I both knew we wanted something a little different. However, our tastes are pretty much opposite. I liked names like Simon, Hollis, and Oliver. J was rooting for Neo. So, we turned to almighty google. We came up with a short list of names we liked – Rufus, Duncan, Thomas, Sawyer, etc – but none of them seemed like the right name for our boy. Looking back, I’m so glad we started thinking about names as early as we did because it took us a while to find Ryker.

Anyhow, J came home from work one day with a list of boy names that were a little out of the box but not too weird. Ryker was on that list. We pretty much immediately loved it. Then I demanded that the middle name be David (my dad’s name). J agreed.  And that was it.

After we agreed that we both loved Ryker, I did a little research on his name because if there had been a serial killer named Ryker then we’d be back at square one. We discovered that Ryker means strong power and to become rich. We also discovered that Ryker is a Danish variation of Richard (J’s dad’s first name). And, that just made us like the name all the more.  Our boy will be named after both of his grandfathers and it will be a memorable name that will stand out in a sea of Jacobs and Matthews. Not that there is anything wrong with those names, just a little too popular for our tastes.

Almost everyone we tell says they like the name. I’m inclined to believe them because people have no problem telling you when they don’t like your decisions about your unborn child. The most common negative thing we hear is something about Rikers Island prison. Why would someone think I would name my child after a prison on the other side of this country? Ultimately there will be something negative said for any name, so we decided to go with a name that we both love and think will fit our little guy. A lot of people think that because we’re nerds we named him after William Riker from Star Trek. For the record, we did not name him after the character… that was just a happy coincidence. J