It is the month of De­cem­ber and with that comes a lot of ex­pec­ta­tion and in some cas­es loads of trep­i­da­tion.

So, as I be­gan to look at sport­ing names with a child in mind, I now will re­flect on what they could or may mean de­pend­ing on where you sit or stand. Ei­ther of which, will not mean the analy­sis is im­per­fect, but rather that re­al­i­ty is dri­ven by per­cep­tion, more than most are will­ing to ad­mit.

So if on Christ­mas Day, go­ing for­ward in­to 2025, if you name your son or your daugh­ter these names, the sport­ing im­pact, could be grey…or black or even white maybe even pur­ple.

Jereem – Pos­i­tive and un­daunt­ed by any task. In­spired by self-con­fi­dence and char­ac­ter in­spired by fam­i­ly love and trust. Will not go down with­out a fair fight, and for­ev­er in love with coun­try more than self.

Dy­lan – Suc­cess­ful and de­ter­mined on goals. Well-man­nered and pro­fes­sion­al, but still with a great sense of hu­mour, and full of hu­man kind­ness rarely seen at the high­est lev­el, know­ing that his fam­i­ly is al­ways there.

Nicholas – Fo­cussed and learn­ing from in­juries and pain, un­aware of dan­ger, and will­ing to give his all in his ef­forts…not afraid of long hours and train­ing every day of the week, how­ev­er, there is a sense that a change is com­ing in one form or fash­ion.

Akeem – Even when life presents you with ob­sta­cles, finds a way to suc­ceed and prove many wrong be­cause of faith and hon­est ef­fort.

Col­in – Can eas­i­ly lose ob­jec­tiv­i­ty, and be in­flu­enced by oth­ers who know less. Per­haps in need of glass­es, be­cause the wa­ter drops from tears of pain have af­fect­ed his vi­sion… a change of name is sug­gest­ed here, or maybe spelling to Collin.

Nigel – Strong, tough, and a leader. He says a lit­tle but de­liv­ers a good punch when ready both phys­i­cal­ly and ver­bal­ly. He may al­so be a very good cook, bet­ter than you would ever ex­pect, and prob­a­bly got it all from his moth­er.

Earl – Self-doubt in­de­ci­sive, both com­bat­ants of a tough up­bring­ing, but ca­pa­ble of change and sen­si­ble thought, when fol­low­ing some­one, but not a leader of men or women. Best to for­get that.

Dwayne – Con­fi­dant, not afraid to speak his mind. Self-mo­ti­vat­ed and flex­i­ble, and wears a smile on his arm, as well as most and bet­ter than many.

Den­nis – Tall, strong in be­liefs, not giv­en to favouritism, de­mands the high­est qual­i­ty and re­spects those around him.

Bri­an - Thinks out­side of the box, is not afraid to take chances, ac­cepts re­spon­si­bil­i­ty at all times, is con­cerned for ath­letes, and de­ter­mined to leave a lega­cy that will speak for it­self. Ac­cepts and adopts gen­der equal­i­ty.

Chris­sy - Gra­cious, hands-on, fo­cused and will­ing to give every­thing for the cause. Wit­ty and brings life to what­ev­er she is in­volved in, and very de­pend­able.

Richard – Unas­sum­ing, but ef­fi­cient, and works well in qui­et places, but yet still knows when to get his own way and will make you smile and hap­py and win great ac­co­lades.

Dave – Cun­ning, giv­en to a lot of ex­trav­a­gance, both in talk and ac­tion but a true com­rade.

An­tho­ny – Qui­et re­solve un­der­neath a tough ex­te­ri­or, but ad­ven­tur­ous and trust­ing if you de­serve it.

Ian – A tru­ly great per­son, first and fore­most a friend for life.

Char­lene – Bril­liant at what she does, cap­ti­vates a room with her vi­sion.

John – Two sides of a coin, can be fun­ny, can be a pain, but over­all, a true friend with a kind heart and gen­er­al­ly present and pleas­ant in char­ac­ter.

David – Un­per­turbed by crit­i­cism, deal­ing in facts not hearsay, a firm be­liev­er in the truth shall set you free and will em­ploy self-styled strong tac­tics when per­ceived ob­sta­cles can hin­der suc­cess.

Michael – On the straight and nar­row track, seek­ing uni­ty but aware of de­struc­tive forces all around him.

Valenti­no – A lover but al­so a re­al­ist and this self-as­sured­ness en­dures him to many and gives his talks a lot of flavour and de­liv­ery whether by word or pen.

Joel – Fun­ny but prac­ti­cal, so­lu­tion-dri­ven and able to mix with any­one. Down to earth and in­tel­li­gent and can en­er­gise a crowd.

Mar­cus – Tough talk­ing, opin­ion­at­ed and will­ing to en­gage in a fight to prove a point.

Gor­don - Want­ed to be in Box­ing in his pre­vi­ous life, but his left up­per­cut, is still bet­ter than his right over­hand, one can cut you all up, and leave you won­der­ing why no one was will­ing to as­sist.

Rachael - In­tel­li­gent, un­der­stands a lot more than she will re­veal and gets it done qui­et­ly, but don’t push be­cause she will prove how cor­rect she is.

Kei­th - Knowl­edge­able and if giv­en the chance to suc­ceed will do so among his team mem­bers and car­ries a lot of con­vic­tion in his work and eas­i­ly gets oth­ers to fol­low him.

Nad­i­na - Smart, and at­ten­tive, but al­so finds it dif­fi­cult to hide her feel­ings, can be opin­ion­at­ed but al­ways has a fi­nite con­clu­sion, if any­one cares to lis­ten and un­der­stand. At times her weak­ness is that she may doubt her­self, when many oth­ers do not doubt her.

Michelle - Strong-willed, classy and down­right 200 per cent T&T loy­al­ist, can be moody, but is al­so quick to dis­miss fools and will em­pha­size a lot, the in­tel­li­gence of those around her. At times will be dif­fi­cult to deal with it. Some are soft-spo­ken but do not get fooled.

Teneil - Dri­ven, in­tel­li­gent…aware of her sur­round­ings, wants to be the best she can be and will not al­low any­thing to up­set that dream. Even when she falls, un­like oth­ers she re­gains her com­po­sure and con­tin­ues to fight on.

Leonard - A pro­gres­sive, whose stealthy aware­ness of en­sur­ing facts come be­fore fic­tion, en­sures that he is ad­e­quate­ly equipped to han­dle most sit­u­a­tions.

Dex­ter - Ag­gres­sive and is not in­ter­est­ed in fa­ther time but al­so does not lis­ten much and likes his own way.

Gary - Ac­tion-ori­ent­ed, and will not eas­i­ly re­lent. Trust­ed and re­spect­ed be­cause he says it like it is, a strong and con­fi­dent leader.

Can­dice – Strong…can han­dle pain, men­tal­ly tough, not eas­i­ly de­terred by cir­cum­stances and nor­mal­ly gets her own way but likes to be chal­lenged. How­ev­er, her achieve­ments set a stan­dard, which can be fol­lowed.

Asha - Stead­fast­ly de­ter­mined in her ac­tions, thinks a lot, per­haps at times too much, but will get the job done…thrives on self-im­prove­ment and looks ahead not be­hind her. Pro­gres­sive in the main but needs to lis­ten at times.

Dou­glas - Very prac­ti­cal, qui­et­ly gets the job done with­out too much fan­fare, un­der­stands po­lit­i­cal tricks, smart at times maybe too smart, but has great qual­i­ties of a leader

Pe­ter - In­spi­ra­tional, not daunt­ed by ob­sta­cles, thrives on self-con­fi­dence, and wears his na­tion­al colours on his sleeve. Will stand up for his team­mates and those around him.

Joyce - the ma­tri­arch, the true leader, wit­ty, beau­ti­ful and quick with her re­spons­es and her mem­o­ry ap­pears to get bet­ter with age.

Fi­nal­ly, An­dre - Just sim­ply - Fear­less and will live and die by that…but he knows the truth suc­ceeds even if it of­fends at first and be­lieves that Good al­ways over­comes evil, even if the process seems long.

So, there you, par­ents in 2025, as you choose your child’s name, choose wise­ly, fol­low­ing some thoughts on names in 2018, that have ap­par­ent­ly led to some of the pur­port­ed but not ex­act con­clu­sions above, but which could “make or break" your child’s ca­reer in sports or oth­er­wise.

Soon it will be Christ­mas again, the birth of Je­sus Christ, so choose wise­ly, I know whom I will not choose and that is most im­por­tant. Hap­py New Sport­ing Year!