Composer, Curmudgeon, Cat?

I was reminded just now that yesterday marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn. Relevant, you ask? Not especially. No.

It did get me thinking about my little Felix, though. When we first tossed the name around, almost two years ago, we were basing it on Mark's great great grandfather Felix. We thought, not too strange, but not so common either. I Googled it, and got a local politician, a South American football player, a cartoon cat, and The Odd Couple. These were all references I could live with. Somehow, it escaped me that a composer of Mendelssohn's importance also shared the name. Apparently that degree really is rotting away and leaching out of my brain. Actually, we get asked more offten than anything else if he's named for Felix Gaeta, the Battlestar Galactica character. Mark watches the show, so I guess that could have been a possibility, and two years ago, Gaeta wasn't the scumbaggerous traitor that he's turned out to be this season (or so I overhear from the other room while Mark's watching it on the DVR). It was not, however, why we chose the name.

Like most names that have been around a while, there are lots of them throughout history. Check out the Wikipedia page for a varied sampling.

I like his name for its meaning (Latin for "happy" or "lucky"), and its connection to my husband's French Canadian family. His generation doesn't speak Woonsocket Quebecois anymore, and most of the deep connections with Canada are lost, but we've at least tied our son to his heritage through his name.

Of course, now that he's grown into it, what other name could he have?