Name Origins

Almost everyone asks me where we got his name from so I've decided to write a blog post about it. First of all for anyone who doesn't know (and to officially announce his middle name), his name is:

Mattimeo William Robinson

In the UK, Mattimeo is pronounced "Matt-eh-Mayo", but Robbie and I have been pronouncing it with an American accent and saying "Matt-eh-Mee-Oh".

I have always loved the name Mattimeo, and dreamed of one day naming my baby that. So I was really happy when Robbie seemed to love the name as much as I do, and agreed whole-heartily on naming our first son that. I think it is a very round and pleasant sounding name. However, it is quite unusual and I haven't found it in a single baby naming book or website.

Mattimeo comes from the Redwall series written by the late Brian Jacques. Brian Jacques was a British author who wrote a total of 21 books in the Redwall series alone (Click here for a list of books). These are young adult books that take place in Mossflower (an imaginary world that reminds me a lot of the English countryside) where the main characters are woodland creatures and no humans exist. They are divided into good creature such as mice, hares, moles, hedgehogs, badgers, voles, squirrels, sparrows, shrews, otters, etc. and evil creatures such as rats, weasels, stoats, foxes and snakes. Usually in each book there is some magnificent adventure that you follow the creatures on, and the books are all well paced and engaging. My sister, brother and I all read them growing up and would often spend long days outside pretending to be characters from the stories and having our own great adventures. In particular I remember many a time we would pretend to be mice and sea rats and have epic battles in our big in-ground pool. I also remember collecting lots of fruits and berries from the foliage in our yard to try to mimic the grand feasts that are so prominent (and always sound so delicious) in Redwall books. These were the only books I remember fighting over who would get to read the new one first when we went to the book store to pick up the next in the series.

The name Mattimeo itself comes from one of the main characters in the book Mattimeo. In this book, Mattimeo is the son of the champion of Redwall Abbey (the dedicated protector), and you follow him as he grows up from a slightly mischievous young mouse, to a brave warrior, hero and magnificent friend through his dangerous adventure imprisoned by a slaver (Click here for a full description of his character on the Redwall Wiki). Robbie hadn't actually read the book Mattimeo before, so we have been taking turns reading it out loud to each other before we go to bed.

One of the US covers

UK Cover

Although we did not pick this name because we want our son to grow up into a brave warrior like his namesake, Mattimeo's qualities of being kind, having a good heart, having strong morals, a sense of humor, being responsible, and having a great understanding of the importance of family and friends are all welcome traits. Mostly I just love the name! We are planning on calling him Meo for short.

As for his middle name, we had a very difficult time on deciding that. We needed to find something that flowed well with the rest of his name, something we liked, and something that had significance and meaning. So eventually we settled on William. This name has English origins, just as Robinson and Mattimeo have, which is what Robbie's family heritage largely consists of. The name William is also the name of Robbie's uncle on the Robinson side, so it has familial ties. The name "William" itself means "strong-willed warrior" so it goes along well with his first name. Besides all those reasons, I think the name William is lovely, and I think it makes his name as a whole sound stronger, more masculine, and well-rounded.

So there you have it- our reasons behind choosing this unique name. I always loved that no one else in my classes growing up shared my name, and I hope that Mattimeo will also appreciate his name (hopefully even love his name like we do) and be happy he has it.