Naming a Character

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The last day, I've been trying to name a character. He appears as a three year-old, but there's probably going to be stories where his mother is pregnant and they're discussing names. I've gone with Benjamin Michael Grayson at the moment, and I do like the name, but I'm unsure if his parents would name him that.

His parents are married when he is born, but they weren't even really dating when he was conceived. The mother (Helena Rosa Bertinelli) is Italian, Catholic and very religious. She attends Mass nearly every Sunday, and will go to Confession, do the Rosecrans, etc. She comes from a mafia family, but they were murdered when she was little and she's very anti-mafia and criminals in general right now. She was a vigilante up until she got pregnant, and then was forced to retire because of the baby.

The dad's name is Richard (Dick) John Grayson. Dick's father is Romany and went, at least, by the name John. Dick's mother was middle to upper class Caucasian American, who basically ran away from her family to marry an acrobat from the circus. Her name was Mary. Dick was raised in the circus until the age of eight, when his parents were murdered. Until that time, he was Catholic and attended Mass regularly with his family when they could. He ended up in the care of a rich man who was (for the sake of the story) raised protestant, but never that devout, and hasn't attended church in years. Dick was never confirmed within the Church, and only attends Mass on holidays, and even then, the only time he's sure to attend is during Advent and Christmas- he doesn't mind missing Easter or Pentecost or any other Holy Days.

Helena wasn't an only child, but her entire family is dead and she wasn't exactly choked up. Her parents were either Carmela and Guido Bertinelli or Maria Bertinelli and Santo Cassamento, though she believed Franco Bertinelli to be her father for a time (two different continuities, but the current version uses Maria and Santo as her parents). I highly doubt she's going to want to name her kid after a family member.

Dick was very close to his parents and missed them terribly when they died. His adopted father is Bruce, and his adopted brothers are Jason, Timothy and Damien,(but Jason's become the family outcast, he dislikes Damien and I don't think he'd name a kid after Timothy). I also don't think he'd name a kid after friends, who are still alive.

This is probably entirely too much background, but I always feel the more I know about the background of someone, the better, when searching for the perfect name, so...

I'm thinking that Dick and Helena would want to go with at least one Catholic/Religious name. I chose Michael because the baby was born on May 8th and in the Latin/Western Catholic Church, May 8th is St. Michael's (the Archangel) Feast. But I can also move the birthday around to fit in another Saint's day (though her due date has to stay April 29th, she can have the baby any time around them, as long as the baby is sure to be healthy). I originally thought about April 24th and naming the kid Benjamin Alexander, before I decided that his initials would be BAG and...I don't want to saddle a kid (fictional character or not) with those initials.

So erm, would you still go with Benjamin Michael, or do any other names pop out at you? I'm not dedicated to Benjamin, I simply chose it because it is religious and I couldn't come up with anything else one day when I was first contemplating the character.

Just keep in mind: Mother is Italian, Dad is half Romany, both are Catholic, with the mother being very religious, and neither parent is really inclined to name a baby after family members (though Dick might want to use one of his parents' names).



And erm, yes, this is a fan fic involving Nightwing and Huntress, and the Bruce mentioned is Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, if the names seem familiar to you.