When Sylvan was about a year and a half old, I dropped him off at school one day as usual. I took off his jacket to put it in his basket, and I noticed that the label on his basket had been changed, from “Sylvan” to “Sylvan J.”
Right next to his basket was another, marked “Sylvan B.”
So not only was there another little kid named Sylvan in Eugene, despite the name not having appeared in the top 1000 U.S. male baby names since 1935, and despite it never having cracked the top 500 baby names, but this kid was in Sylvan’s class at school! Crazy. (Names that were more popular than Sylvan in 2005: Markell, Daquan, Adin, Jaheim, Jaren, Gauge, Messiah)
We didn’t really get to know Sylvan B., though, because he wasn’t in Sylvan J.’s class for very long. I don’t think their school schedules overlapped either.
Eugene/Springfield has a population of almost 200,000, but it’s a pretty small town. Everybody we know knows everybody else. So this means, naturally, that we see Sylvan B. once or twice a year at some event or other. Some of our good friends know his family.
We were introduced to him at the Cascadia Wildlands Project Hoedown in 2007 by a mutual friend. I don’t think I have a picture from that one.
We saw him somewhere else in 2008. I forget where.
So when we walked into Cozmic Pizza for kids’ night at the end of September, who was there, of course? That’s right.
Sylvan J. (age 4) and Sylvan B. (age 3) at Cozmic Pizza, 30 Sep 2009
At least you didn’t name him Finn. Everyone is named Finn these days.