How I Got My Nickname, part 2

After my post explaining the nickname “Button,” many fans decried the omission of my original nickname, “Vladimir Otto.” So, I thought I would acknowledge the names that served as my placeholder for almost seven months.


When Mommy and Daddy found out I was a boy, Daddy immediately went to the sports page for inspiration.  Baseball season was at its zenith and there was a slew of Joses, a Hideki and an Ichiro from which to choose.  And then there was Vladimir Guerrero.  Immediately, Daddy and Mommy thought this was a great potential name.  They figured, who would mess with a Vlad on the playground . . . I mean, think about some of the great Vlads in history; would you mess with them:

·         Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431–1476), more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler or simply as Dracula 



·          Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the Prime Minister of Russia.  He is wearing his KGB uniform in this picture . . .come on are you really going to start something with him?
And then there was the choice of a middle name.  Well, Big Sis Ava’s name is a palindrome and so, to be even, Daddy suggested Otto as a middle name.  Mommy was quite agreeable since there are many famous Ottos in history, for example, Otto von Freising (c. 1114 - 1158) who was a German bishop and chronicler and about whom Mommy wrote her graduate thesis.

And so, I was Vlad Otto for the duration of the time I was in Mommy’s belly.  While I was quite happy with this name, it didn’t win the final round.  Check in next for the final naming and explanation of how I got my real name.