My eldest
When I was younger, I watched a film. I can't remember what it was now, but one of the characters was called Mercedes.

I loved unusual names, even as a kid, and naming your daughter after something so beautiful appealed even more.

When I was seventeen, I got my first car. They say you never quite get over your first love, and I spent many months honing her to perfection. Her paintwork shone in the sun as I applied another coat of wax, and her engine purred beautifully.

Unfortunately, she was an old model, and despite maturing like a fine wine, as time went on it became obvious that I'd have to let her go. I can honestly say that no car since has come close to being as great as she was.

Skip forward a few years and I've driven newer cars, faster cars and more expensive cars, but nothing emulated what I had felt before, and as time went on I realised that what I felt was a kind of love.

A few more years later and I'm in a relationship, with my first baby on the way. Money was tight and we'd generally spend our time chatting. Many a night was whiled away with me talking about that first car. So much so that my then partner fell in love by proxy.

Just a couple of weeks before our baby was born, we still hadn't settled on a name. Several baby name books were stacked in the corner, each one read and re-read without success.

Then This Morning came on tv, with a segment about baby names. We watched intently as they discussed our very problem, before they came up with the solution that we chose: Name your baby after someone you admire or love.

We'd been down the actress / singer / politician route without any luck, but it seemed as if we hit on the same idea at the same time. Name her after the car I had loved, and that my partner had grown to love.

That was ten years ago now, and time has flown by. We've had more kids since then, and naming them seems to have gotten easier.

You're not allowed to have favourites as a parent, but hearing my eldest's name always brings a smile to my face, and I dedicate this post to her.

JHK 331Y, I love you and you make me a very proud daddy. 
( SeasonTicketless is too often the statue, and rarely the pigeon., Fri 17 Apr 2009, 9:23, 4 replies)

Arf
Old as the hills, but a good delivery there :)
( chart cat has an itch, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 10:15, closed)

Office lol
Not heard that one before.
Should get me through till lunchtime.

Cheers mate!
(TheColonel, Fri 17 Apr 2009, 11:35, closed)

If it was a boy,
Austin would be a cool name, or Mini for a girl...
(tubeman trousers, Sat 18 Apr 2009, 21:40, closed)

I used to know..
..Someone with the unlikely name of Austin Manifold. And a group of us tried to persuade a friend with the surname Healey to name his firstborn Austin.
( Stevedix http://www.stevedix.de/blog, Thu 23 Apr 2009, 12:45, closed)