Honoring Childhood Hero?

My wife and I are expecting our first in the next few weeks. We do not know the gender.

We’re having a very hard time coming up with a middle name for a boy (we’ve got our first name picked out for a boy and both first and middle for a girl). Often, when we are discussing names we end up joking around, and one time I jokingly suggested “Messier” as a middle name (pronounced mess-ee-yay) after the hockey player [name]Mark[/name] Messier, who was my childhood hero as a New [name]York[/name] Rangers fan. My wife actually loved it and seriously wants to use it, but I’m actually not sure how I feel about it! We are Rangers season ticket holders, the team actually means a lot to both of us (not just me), and Messier is an iconic figure in the team’s history. On top of that, naming my child after [name]Mark[/name] Messier, who embodies the wonderful qualities of leadership, perseverence and intensity in accomplishing his goals, is appealing to me.

That being said, I’m afraid of three things: 1) people will think it is really ridiculous that I named my child after an athlete; 2) the spelling of the name (especially if he is anything like his father and doesn’t like to clean up after himself); and 3) other children might make fun of it, especially if they have no idea who [name]Mark[/name] Messier is.

I would love some opinions! Please be honest and don’t hold back. Thanks so much!

Honestly, I love it (even though I’m a die hard Devils fan). I think it’s great. He’s not a bad person to be named after, at all. And it’s his middle name, not his first. You’re son will most likely go by his first name, and the middle name will become an intial. If even that. I don’t think kids really pick on other kids middle names, how will they even know what it is really? And if it is used, your son will have a story behind it. The spelling, well, I wouldn’t change it, it loses it’s touch. It’d be kind of ironic if he is a little messy, another little cute/funny thing about it.

I think it is fine for his middle name.