Names are funny. From generation to generation, they wax and wane in popularity. When we named our son Ryan, I knew of only one other child by that name;  my sorority sister’s son was 6 years old on the other side of the country. Now, “Ryan”  is as common as John used to be. Alastair, however, seems never to have achieved a high ranking in the past 100 years.
Which is why my daughter and her husband, Harvey, chose it. Every name that they considered was first checked against a list of the 100 most popular names in the past 100 years. “Alastair” was clearly absent from each. So that’s the name they chose.
Shortly after my grandson’s birth, a friend of Harvey’s commented, “With a name like Alastair, it’s knighthood or failure.” Thus, the choice of this embroidery design for his Valentine’s Day shirt.
After choosing the knight from Planet Applique www.planetapplique.com , I decided on the text, “Soon I’ll be your knight in shining armor.” But a senior moment denied me access to the proper spelling and I typed in “amor.” Continue reading