I like my name. I like my initials. The letter R is a very special one to me. I used to love the blinking R that marked replays on sports broadcasts. I sign my emails with just a single R, and my little hand-written notes to friends and family with a backwards R, like the one in Toys R Us.

I don’t have the same relationship with P, but together, as RP, they’re a secret code to something wonderful. On sixth grade, I made a belt buckle with RP on it (and without knowing it, I was smart enough to also attach it to a belt that was long enough for me to wear even today). On eighth grade, a classmate designed an RP logo for me. I still use his design where there’s first two vertical lines, and then a loop over both of them, ending in the second leg of the R, when I have to put my initials here, here, and here.

The combination, “RP” is not a very common thing to see, but when I see it, I feel the universe pulling for me. And yes, “Ristorante” still, after all these years, always makes me smile a little bit.

I liked Bulgarian soccer star Hristo Stoichkov, and there was always the Count of Monte Cristo, but because there haven’t been too many Hristos, Ristos, or Krysztofs for me to cheer for, I extended my connection to all the cool Richards out there. That was also the name I chose for myself in English class on third grade. Everybody had to pick one, and the teacher always addressed us with our English names during that class.

We even called each other by the English names outside the class so much so that some of us still carry their third grade English names as their nicknames. Like Nicky Ojala.

Everybody wanted to be Steve because the coolest man out there at the time was Steve Austin, a k a the Six Million Dollar Man of the popular TV show. “Steve” wasn’t on our teacher’s list and it was therefore out of bounds. “Steven” was available. I didn’t get it.

Instead, I said I wanted to be Richard. But being shy, and having heard some of my buddies butcher their names, when it was my turn, I didn’t want to stand out. So, I just stood up next to my desk – as was the custom then – and pronounced it “Rick-hard”. My teacher shook her head and told me that I wouldn’t get the name until I learned to pronounce it correctly. I nailed it with my second try.

The ending of Robin Hood wasn’t boring anymore, thanks to King Richard the Lionheart. My other favorites included Richard Burton, Richard Nixon, and Richie Cunningham.

Last week, Son asked me if Hannes Kolehmainen – that one famous namesake of his that he knows – would be running at the Vancouver Olympics in February.

“No,” I said. “But Hannes Kolehmainen did run at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912, and won three gold medals at the Stadium you and I saw a soccer game last summer,” I added quickly, to make it special.

Another Hannes, doing big things in Stockholm. I thought that was kind of cool.

But to be safe, I then told him that Han Solo’s first name is really “Hannes”.

It could be!