My sister just had a baby. A very cute (ok, so I currently have one picture but I'm the aunt damn it!) little girl. They named her Ellery. It's a really cute name, but not too common. So, as any good auntie who adores the quirky and unique, I started to look for geeky baby clothes (the onsies with 'come to the dark side, we have cookies' or ninja vs pirates). Somehow my internet of cute gifts ended up with me looking for famous or semi-famous people with the name Ellery.
Thank you wikipedia.
I came up with six. Five are men, which of course is forgivable since Ellery started out being a boys name, like Paige, Whitney, Hilary, Dana, etc. But the thing I noticed most, is that none of these Ellerys (and one is a fictional man) are strictly white-bread traditional.
The first Ellery listed comes close. He was an Olympian, but he was also an author (19 books, one was turned into a movie: Caribbean [1952]), amongst other things...you can read the article for more info.
Next comes, a jazz musician. A saxophonist to be precise. Then a rugby player. Oh, what a fun sport to watch. You have to be drinking to watch this sport. I think it is in the rule book actually.
Then comes the only female of the group; an American snowboarder. She didn't quite make the Olympic team this year. Looking over her record, I give her good odds of making it in another four years.
The fifth Ellery listed is a physicist, who is noted for winning a Supreme Court case against his high school. His high school said that all students were required to read the bible during homeroom. He, with the support of his father and ACLU, challenged that requirement. He won...five years after graduating high school, but he won.
The final is my favorite and he's not even real. Ellery Queen. A fictional detective who first appeared in 1929. His authors (two cousins) put a page in near the end of the book telling the reader that they have seen all the clues that Ellery has, and can they solve the crime/mystery. You get a chance to solve the crime before he reveals it. How cool is that! I am a fan of Sherlock Holmes but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never gave us all the clues and made us feel a bit like Watson sometimes, a little slow on the uptake. The series continues and eventually the books are published with Ellery Queen, the fictional detective, as the author. A neat trick. You should read the wikipedia article, if you enjoy the detective stories from the 30's to the mid-60's.
Ok, back to my point...yes I had one and you let me ramble. Shame on you. My sister and her husband just gave their brand new little child, their first-born, a name that seems to go hand in hand with personality traits that read like a thesaurus entry for unique; distinctive, unconventional, individual, original, march to the beat of a different drummer...
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
It's good to be the auntie...
