Star Wars! They want their child to be reminded about Star Wars over and over for his whole life! Why would any parents name their child like that?

William Shakespeare posed a similar, though better put (ahem) question and answer in Romeo and Juliet. In that play the lovers are members of two warring families. In one famous scene, they are trying to get beyond the social and political implications of their warring family names.

Juliet says, "What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet."

She is trying to convince Romeo that it is not the family history of the Montagues that makes him who he is and whom she loves.

Romeo responds: "I take thee at thy word: call me but love, and I’ll be new baptiz’d; henceforth I never will be Romeo."

Indeed, that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet, but I don’t think the name "swamp daisy" sounds as rosy! Do you?

And I wonder how Shakespeare might have answered that same question had he been present at my friend’s great-grandson’s baptism. "By what name will this child of God be called," asks the minister of the sacrament. I wonder what "Willy" would have written if he had heard the godparent respond, "Darth."

Does this child who is now fixed in the body of the Son of God by such a silly name sound as sweet?

When I was a parish priest, I could never understand this phase of trying to name a child as if the parents had just discovered a new galaxy and had to find a name that had never before been thought of in the heavens or heard upon earth.

We priests often got in trouble with folks because the name they had chosen was simply not a "Christian name," and thus could not be the only name of the one to be baptized. (Saint Darth?)

It took me a while to realize what was really going on: somehow a whole generation had come forth who did not know that the name chosen for a child at birth is part of his or her baptism and thus belongs with that sacrament.

This isn’t about "what’s in a name," and how to pick a distinctive one. It’s about a sacrament and what belongs therein.

I suppose my parents could have named me "Peachy" after their favorite ice cream. Though I would have been the butt of many a neighborhood joke, certainly nobody would ever have forgotten Peachy McNulty.

But I am thankful they didn’t name me Peachy, not because of the childhood difficulties it would have caused, but because I would never be a rose as sweet as one who bears the name of a saint, St. Patrick—or any saint for that matter.

And because they named me "Patrick," I have a personal, distinctive way to recall that holy moment of my baptism throughout my whole life whenever I hear the name "St. Patrick."

I bear the name of someone who knows full well the joy and the struggles associated with life in Jesus Christ, one who would not sound the same by any other name.

What’s in a name? It is baptism which answers that question for us Christians.

Not only is it then and there that we become a "child of God" obviously needing a godly name, but the very meaning of the word "to baptize" (to christen) is where we get the term "Christian name." The word means the name we are given when we are christened/baptized.

The gospel account of the baptism of Jesus is a powerful image of our own baptism, although he was not baptized with the same baptism we are.

There is that powerful scene in the Gospel of Matthew where, after Jesus is baptized, the heavens are opened and John sees the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. And a voice spoke from heaven, ’This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Mt 3:16–17).

For all practical purposes, here is a depiction of the mystery of our own baptism as well: if we could see beyond the water being poured on us and hear beyond the words of the priest as we descend with Jesus and rise up again, we would see the heavens open and the Holy Spirit coming down upon us too.

Then we would understand why a saintly friend is given to accompany us on our journey of faith, and what a privilege to bear his or her name.

What’s in a name? Baptism—that’s what having a given name, a first name, is all about for us Christians. Yes, a child by just any name will be sweet but "will not so sweetly smell of sacrament."

And for the rest of his life, his name will not remind him of that event when the Holy Spirit descended on him, too, at his baptism and called him a beloved child of God, with a name to fit that moment forever.

"I take thee at thy word…and I’ll be new baptiz’d; henceforth I never will be Romeo." What then? Darth? Peachy?

How about Kris, Kit, Brant, Palmer? Or Carmel, Bryn, Alena, Stina? If you want a unique, distinctive name, there are thousands of unique and distinctive saints’ names with which to seal off that baptismal moment in the mind and heart of your child for their whole lifetime.

Who knows, you might even pick "Patrick!"

(Of course, my mother would say a child by any other name would sound as sweet, but you’d have to go a long way to be as sweet. Thanks, Mom. I love you, too.)