Names

Stavros knows a lot of people with weird names.

For example, there's him. Stavros. It sounds like a bone or a country or a last name, not something you would call your best friend or your Dad or your little brother. He's had people ask him what his first name was, or assume it's Alexander and he put his names backwards.

But for Stavros, he's just Stavros. It's him, it's his name, an odd trait in someone who can sometimes be depressingly normal and overbearing. And he likes his name—it's interesting, it's different.

And then there's his little brother. Nikko. He's seen it a few times, once on T. V. as someone's dog's name—not something someone would want to be named after. He can tell it's different because he had to add it to his computer's dictionary, a sure sign it's not normal.

Stavros knows that Nikko loves his name. It has that clicking "k" sound and the long "o" at the end that makes it sound like Nicko, but not as nicknameish. It's is a different kind of name, a rock star name that's perfect because it's different but not too different, normal but not too normal.

Another one is Tajid. He's not sure where exactly that one comes from—the Middle East, at least—but there's no denying that it's different. If Jack Bauer met Tajid, he'd arrest him as soon as he heard that name. Stavros doesn't know Tajid that well, just that he's a great beatboxer. He doesn't get along very well with most of the Taccies, for obvious reasons.

But there's one other odd name among them—Caspian. Stavros laughs, at least mentally, every time he hears it—the poor guy got stuck with the same name as a famous Narnian prince. Caspian and Stavros aren't the best of friends, but from what Stavros knows, Caspian isn't that bad—just really theatrical at times. This kind of fits, because besides sounding like someone from Narnia, the name sounds like something a soap opera star would have.

Yeah, Stavros knows a lot of people with weird names.

But that's okay.

Because they fit.