A New York City couple has turned to the internet for help in deciding their son’s name. The dispute has turned into a battle of signatures, as the father-to-be, Nicholas Soukeras, insists on naming the boy Spyridon, after his father.
“I don’t want to call my son something I can’t even pronounce,” the flustered mom-to-be said, who is a native of Belarus.
Countering, dad noted that “(my) wife is a native of the Republic of Belarus and has been exposed to such barbaric names as Arman, Osip, Igor, Rurik, Ruslan, Artem, Vadim and Zoran (to name a few) throughout her Soviet childhood,” according to the tongue in cheek text he wrote in his online petition which he hopes will get 100,000 names.
“(My wife )has not been afforded the time nor opportunity to accept the quite common and well-received name “Spyridon” in not only Greek communities, but in the United States as well. Had President Nixon resigned a mere ten months earlier, in fact, the 38th President of the United States would have been Spyridon Theodoros Agnew, rather than Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. Additionally, the current President of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, can claim that his paternal grandfather, Spyridon Ivanovich Putin (1879-1965), was the personal chef to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself. The point here being, the name has been held by the highest and most honored officials and patriots of both the U.S. and the former Soviet Union,” the petition statement reads.
Nicholas also argues that his wife’s “Russian ear” is simply not trained “for the sweet, musical sounds of our Greek nomenclature”.
Although the online petition is seen by both as a joke— the naming of their newborn has been a serious matter, according to an interview in The New York Post. “The argument is serious — it’s not a joke,” Kseniya confirmed.
“I’ll settle for 100,000 (signatures) — this is an approximate population of my hometown Maladzyechna,” said Kseniya, who is due in August and who favors the name Michael, to honor her late father.
But Nicholas has two things working against his odds. First, the petition, despite the attention it has received in the local New York media, has less than 2,000 names at the time of this story’s writing. And second issue: the couple don’t even know if their newborn will be a boy.
“But my husband is convinced,” Kseniya said. “He thinks he’s a psychic . . . he thinks he can see through the belly.”
Photo: The New York Post
10 comments
Easy next time marry a Greek!!
Spyridon Michael, honors both of the fathers and flows well.
i love the name Spyridon, that’s my husbands name, it’s Spyros for short. It’s also tradition to name the first child after the fathers parents in greece
I am Greek and I find this one tradition )because I love our traditions’ just ridiculous. They couple should choose a name that they both like because some in-laws have very ugly names! Why should you force your other half to give an ugly name to the child and the child carry an ugly name for the rest of its life? By the way, I would also refuse to call my son Spyridon.
I totally agree Katerina! Some Greek names should never ever be repeated! I have been in this situation, and I won! : )
My fathers name is Spyridon and my son has it as his middle name. Its a beautiful name
petition, really? i’m Belorussian myself married to Greek, we have 2 boys now, so i’ve been there,done it)) i know this greek tradition goes to honor the grandparents, but then why not to honor her late father… or just pick the name u both like, and set ur own tradition people. this was our case, and shortly after everybody just had to accept it, now they even fancy their different ( from the rest of the family) names. Just be Happy and most importantly, DON’T STRESS PREGNANT WOMAN, especially the one u should be caring for!)
I also married a Greek. I got lucky with our son’s name, thankfully. Not sure I would have gone with Spyridon. What other Greeks have done is baptized them with a Greek name but used an Anglicized name. For example Constantine….Conner, Ioannis…Ian. What about Spencer? Sydney?
What are you talking about IAN for IOANNES. Ioannes-Yianni -john. Keep the tradition. I am proud to be named after a relative. It’s one of the greatest honors. And if you say names don’t mater. Name him juda or hitler.
I’m Greek, my husband is not. My dad’s name is Elias. We named my son Anthony Elias.