Name Origins (Second Time Around)

Since a lot of people have been asking us we were our name our second son, I feel I ought to official announce his name and it's origins as I did Mattimeo when he was still a little womb creature (http://ouvrezvosyeuxjdr.blogspot.com/2011/07/name-origins.html). His name is:

Link Johnathan Robinson

To begin with, I must say that choosing a boys name this second time around was much more challenging! Probably because even before we got pregnant with Meo, we had a boy and girl name picked out, we just needed to come up with a middle name. So if Link had been a girl, it would had been a cinch (Lyra Elizabeth Robinson), but as he is most definitely male we had to start from the beginning. It was a fun process though!

The name Link comes from the numerous Legend of Zelda video games. Both Robbie and I grew up playing the old Zelda games. In fact, some of my earliest childhood memories are of sitting next to my mom on our living room floor with my brother watching her play through The Legend of Zelda. Robbie has similar memories of him and his parents playing all the NES games.  In high school, I had a major crush on Mr. Robert Robinson ever since he moved to our small town junior year and joined our band class. He played trombone, and I played clarinet...eventually I would learn tenor sax and join the intimate jazz band to become better acquainted with him but that is a story for another time. As I slowly worked up the courage enough to try to talk to him, I eased my way into having a place at his lunch table. The majority of the people at said lunch table were geeky boys whose passions were mainly music and video games. As most of my friends prior to that time were not really into playing video games, I actually found it a fun and welcoming change to finally hang out with people that I could talk about games with and eventually even hang out and play games with. During those good ol' lunch days, some of Robbie and I's best first conversations were about our love for the game Zelda. So in a way, Robbie and I's mutual passion for Zelda was one of the factors that ultimately brought us together.

Our love of the game bloomed as did our relationship, and through college and beyond, we enjoyed many evenings of taking turns playing through numerous Zelda games. I vividly remember playing through The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess after moving into our first apartment together in college. At our wedding, we actually played the Kokiri Forest theme song (from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time) as the song all of the wedding party was introduced to at the start of the reception.

After Meo was born, Robbie and I started playing through the most recent Zelda game: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, but at the that time, Meo was still needing me to either sleep next to him all night to nurse or put him back to sleep every hour or so, so we never made it really far in the game before we got too busy with moving into our first home and whatnot. We are both looking forward for the day where we can pick up where we left off. Link is the main character that you play as in all of the Zelda games. He is always very humble, but incredibly brave and is often tasked with saving the Princess Zelda and/or the world he is a part of. Here is a description of him from Zeldapedia:

"But then, when all hope had died, and the hour of doom seemed at hand... a young boy clothed in green appeared as if from nowhere. Wielding the blade of evil's bane, he sealed the dark one away and gave the land light." — The Wind Waker Prologue

Link is the main protagonist of the Legend of Zelda series. He is usually depicted as a courageous young boy or teenager in green clothing who leaves his home and any relatives to pursue his destiny: fighting the evil forces threatening the land. On his journey, he learns to make use of many different weapons and items to adapt to, and overcome, the enemies and obstacles in his path. After navigating both a game's Overworld and its dungeons, Link ultimately vanquishes his enemy and becomes a legendary hero. He is considered an iconic character in video gaming and the very symbol of the Zelda franchise, and remains one of the most popular video game protagonists. A peculiarity of Link, as well as other characters, is the several different incarnations of the person throughout the Legend of Zelda series.

All incarnations of Link share a number of characteristics, the most common of which are his physical appearance, sense of bravery, and selflessness.  Link's physical characteristics fluctuate from game to game, though he usually has light-colored hair (ranging from brown to blonde to orange), blue eyes, and a medium build. Other characters sometimes think of him as handsome. It is unlikely that Link's age exceeds nineteen years at any point in the series thus far. In many installments of the series, Link is the bearer of the Triforce of Courage. Several games mention a Triforce mark on Link's left hand, which identifies him either as a chosen hero or the holder of the Triforce of Courage.

In each of his adventures, Link grows to become proficient with the sword, his primary form of attack. He wields his sword in his left hand in most games (though there are exceptions). The Master Sword, a legendary blade that Link wields throughout several adventures, has become as synonymous with the series as Link himself. Link is also remarkably proficient with a wide variety of magical musical instruments, being able to use them immediately upon obtaining them.

Of these characteristics, we hope that our Link will also be courageous, adventurous, intelligent and humble.

The other aspect of the name Link that contributed to our decision is that it feels like a great combination of Robbie and I. The character Link comes from a beautiful, very nature-oriented, old-world feeling land which we feel is representative of my interests as a conservation biologist and all-around lover of nature. On the other hand, the word link has many associations with information technology, in particular computer science which is Robbie's passion. Thus, the name Link seems to be an appropriate melding of our passions. For Link's middle name, we wanted to choose something English and classic, just as William is for Mattimeo. So we decided to select Johnathan. Robbie's father, who has played an important role in our family's lives as both a role model and a wonderful source of support, guidance, and love is named John. Robbie and I both really like the name Johnathan and thought the elongated version of Link's grandfather's name would be an appropriate choice for his middle name.

So that is where our baby boy's name comes from. Hopefully he will grow to love it as much as we do!