I've gotten a couple of emails, asking if my son is "really" the 9th David. Yes, he is. I hesitated to write this because of weird internet stalker potential, but I decided the story is worth the lack of anonymity.
As the story goes, the first David fought for Bonnie Prince Charlie during the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland in the mid 18th century. He was one of the few survivors of the Battle of Culloden. Most of the members of the clan didn't participate in the rebellion, so David #1 was a bit of a rebel, and apparently quite a character. He was a younger brother of the clan laird, and his involvement in the rebellion almost cost the clan their lands... instead, he was imprisoned and briefly exiled.
The British response to the Battle of Culloden was severe and destructive to Scottish culture. The clans were systematically destroyed. David's older brother, Walter, was the last laird of Clan MacFarlane; after his death, the clan lands at Arrochar were sold; the clan was broken.
David #1 returned to Scotland and married after his brother's death, but he and his wife had trouble having children. They lost their first 3 sons to stillbirth. Their fouth son survived, and they named him David, with a promise to hold true to the history and heritage, and to always name first born sons David.
We've lost the "a" in Mac to an immigration oops, but the first born David tradition lives on. We hope to visit his ancestral land in Scotland some day. I am very proud of the gift of this name, even if it does get complicated at family gatherings ("Dave! Which one? Big Dave! Big Dave the son? No, the Grandfather! Oh, Grandpa? No! #7, Dammit!").
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| Davids 6, 7, 8 and 9 |
Does your baby's name have a story? Do tell!
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