When Trudy started labor with Luke we still didn't know what we wanted to name him.  I had always had the idea that I would name my first boy Luke because Star Wars had such a huge influence on me as a kid.  I figured that Luke was tasteful and with its biblical roots didn't necessarily connote Star Wars.  My biggest fear was that I would be branding my son with a name that would forever link him to something that he may or may not have any interest in.  I didn't want to force anything on him.  That's why I never considered any of the other Star Wars names...there's just no getting around where a name like “Anakin“ comes from.  I figured that if I named my son Anakin or my daughter Leia that was a sure fire way to get them to hate Star Wars and possibly resent the hell out of me.

So as I sat (and Trudy lay) in the delivery room and we debated names we just couldn't come up with any that sounded good.  My Grandfather's name was Herbert...but that just wasn't going to fly these days.  We thought of naming him Tanis for a bit but those familiar with the Dragonlane books realize that put me in much the same situation as the name Luke did.  Finally we decided to go get a baby name book out of the hospital library.  I brought the book back and we began to flip through the names. 

After about a half our of flipping through the baby name book it became clear that nothing was sounding right.  I got frustrated (my wife never gets frustrated...she's perfectly awesome and never gets stressed.  Hard to imagine that a woman in labor could be less stressed than I was) and got up to take the book back to the library.  As a joke I stopped at the foot of her bed and said “Ok, let's just try a random pic one last time.”  I started flipping the pages of the book with my thumb and as they flickered by I suddenly stabbed my index finger down trying to randomly pick out a name.

This is a true story.

The name I was pointing to was Luke.

I looked up at my wife in a stunned sort of way and said “You're not going to believe this.” She said “It's Luke isn't it?”

Me: “Yes.”

Trudy: “Well, I guess he's a Luke.”

And because I knew this was just too cool a story *not* to name him Luke I put my minor fears aside and we named our boy Luke.  Every once in a while I wondered if he would like Star Wars or even care about it but it was nothing more than a passing thought and to tell the truth the name Luke has ceased to conjure any images of Luke Skywalker for me.  Luke is now Luke, my boy.  I think of Luke and all I think about is little dimples and his cute chuckle. 

Two days ago I walked into the kitchen and my kids were eating breakfast.  Trudy had recently picked up and box of Corn Flakes with Darth Vader on the front and all kinds of Star Wars characters on the back.  I'm usually in the shower when Trudy feeds the kids in the morning, so Trudy had told me for the past few days that Luke had demanded Darth Vader Corn Flakes.  As I walked into the kitchen neither of my kids noticed me.  But I noticed Luke.

He was sitting facing forward (which he never, ever does...this kid can not stop moving and we have to tell him to get back in his chair about 30 times at each meal) just staring at the back of the Corn Flakes box.  I ran down to my office, grabbed our camera and took a few pics.  He had no idea I was behind him snapping away.