It may not be stunningly original, but I adore Lin-Manuel Miranda.
I mean, there’s Hamilton, which explored American history in a fresh, unexpected way. (I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. Like Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet, or opera update Carmen Jones.)
But here’s why I’m talking about him today. He’s now involved in at least three Disney productions: he scored Moana, back before he was a household name. Miranda will play a character in the Mary Poppins sequel, opposite Emily Blunt. And AV Club reports that he’ll be working on the Little Mermaid live action movie, as well as a possible fourth, early stage collaboration.
In all the chatter about the Miranda-Disney connection, someone pointed out that his son is named Sebastian. That’s a Disney name par excellence, thanks to the sometimes cranky crustacean friend of Ariel. Lin-Manuel and his wife, Vanessa Nadal, welcomed their son in 2014. I’ve no idea if the Disney connection influenced the couple – after all, Sebastian makes for a mainstream choice today.
Still, can I tell you I feel a little cooler being such a Disney superfan if I’m in the company of someone like Lin-Manuel?
I tend to think that it’s a good thing when your fandoms overlap with names you might have chosen anyway. Do you prefer names with a tie to your favorite movies/books/sports teams/places and so on? Or do you try to avoid it?
Elsewhere in baby naming news:
- Did you have a period of name regret? Did it pass, or does it linger? I think The Name Lady’s response is correct in this case, but I also think it’s reasonable to consider changing a newborn’s name if it feels completely wrong.
- Oh, I love stories like this one: Welcome to the world, Justin!
- A great list of word names from real birth announcements – would you consider Arrow or Legend, Sunshine or Love?
- I’m fascinated by a sentence in this post from Design Mom’s Living with Kids series: “Enter Mia Kateryna. (I still sometimes forget how to spell her middle name).” I remain forever addicted to the series – in fact, it might be time to update this post.
- Some interesting numbers from Emily on how consonant-light popular names for girls are lately. Confession: I’m completely contrarian on this topic. I tend to prefer consonant-heavy names. Which isn’t to say that I automatically dislike the vowel-heavy variety.
- Kate’s theories on why we don’t see more girl juniors are worth a read. I think she’s on to something!
- They did use Ignatius, only in the middle spot!
That’s all for this week. As always, thank you for reading – and have a great week!
I personally love names with ties to my favorite books and movies. Will be interested in seeing if this is true for others.
Did you see this quote from NPR?:
“The creators of Moana wanted to build on that formula, so they went looking for the brightest star on Broadway today. The choice was obvious: Lin-Manuel Miranda, who created the smash hit Hamilton. Turns out, Miranda was bitten by the Broadway bug when he saw Little Mermaid at age 9. ‘When Sebastian the crab began singing a Caribbean calypso number in the middle of a Disney movie, my life has sort of never been the same since,’ Miranda says.”
Looks like Sebastian did have a Disney connection for him!
Meredith, you SO made my day!! That’s a great find!