“Congratulations, it’s a healthy baby boy!” exclaimed the nurse, holding a wet, shriveled, and screaming Trey Burke in her arms. “Have you come up with a name for him?” she asked, handing the baby back to his exhausted, sweaty mother.
Trey’s mom exchanged a look with her husband, who was standing beside the bed. “Well…” she started. “We were thinking something like Jama-”
“TREY!!” his dad shouted, interrupting his mom’s suggestion. With the sudden loud noise, Trey cried with even more gusto than before.
“Come on, honeybun, we’ve been over this,” wheedled his mom, exasperated. “We’re going to name him Jamal.”
“But, if he turns into a basketball player like we both hope, then his name will correspond uncannily to his ability to hit three-point shots!” explained his dad. “Even better, we’ll be able to morph his full name of ‘Trey Burke’ into the nickname ‘Treyburculosis’. We’ll make so much money from T-shirts.”
His mom was visibly tired and clearly losing her resolve. “Fine. But I get to pick the names for the rest of them.”
“Deal!”
Trey had stopped crying, and now looked around with tiny eyes at the hospital room. “So, Trey it is,” confirmed the nurse, writing down the name on a clipboard.
“You had better not screw this up,” the dad said to his son, putting his large, bearded face up against the tiny skull of the newborn infant. “It’s a funny nickname and we’ll be making mad bank if you make it to the pros.”