A century of Slinkard men to welcome two new additions and a welcome resurgence of vintage names

My youngest nephew, Caleb James “CJ” Slinkard turned five years old Tuesday. 

He was, as you probably surmised, named after me. My twin brother Joshua and his wife Sara surprised me with that honor five years ago, when I walked into the hospital room and CJ was wrapped in a blanket displaying our shared name. It’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. 

Over the past five years, CJ has brought an immeasurable amount of joy to my and my family’s life. He’s funny, goofy, energetic, thoughtful and kind. CJ loves it when you play cars or Legos or any number of his made-up games with him. He loves animals and bread and his “Bubba” and “Sea Star” (brother and sister). 

During the pandemic, photos and videos CJ were the daily serotonin hit I needed to make it through the onslaught of terrifying news. He may never know how critically important he was to my mental health in 2020 and 2021.

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CJ won’t be my youngest nephew for much longer. Both of my sisters-in-law are pregnant. CJ will soon have a younger brother, Luke, and a cousin, Liam. Luke and Liam are both due this summer, the latest in a long line of Slinkard men. 

In fact, I have to go back about a hundred years to find a director ancestor who is a Slinkard girl. My grandfather James Slinkard, who was born in 1924, was the youngest of nine children, including three older sisters. He had three boys — my dad and uncles Bill and Dale — and my dad had three boys: me, my twin brother Joshua and my younger brother Nathan. 

Joshua and Nathan will have had three boys between them by the end of the year. For those keeping score, that’s 10 Slinkard males in the past 106 years, enough for a basketball or baseball team. The last Slinkard girl was my great aunt Helen, born in 1919.

Does that mean anything? Not really. Across the world, there’s slightly more boys born than girls. With such a tiny sample size, odd runs are bound to happen.

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The run of Slinkard males does mean that some names are getting reused. Not just mine. CJ is named after me and two of his great-grandfathers. Luke shares a middle name with my late Uncle Dale. It’s another way to reach back over the decades and build a real sense of connection with our forefathers.

This past weekend, I was talking with some friends about a resurgence of, let’s say, vintage names like Eleanor, Edith and Harold. I’m a big fan. If you read Ed Grisamore’s column in today’s paper, you’ll note some other fantastic names: Aldine, Rowena, Ezma and Leonora.

I’m hoping Leroy makes a comeback…

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Five years ago I was leaving my job at the El Dorado News-Times and preparing for my move to Macon. I wrote about CJ my exit column:

“I hope that I’m able to build a small legacy of my own. I want to be known as someone who cared about other people, who helped those in need, a hard worker, a compassionate friend. I want to give CJ every reason to be proud of his name.

There’s a song in the musical Hamilton I softly sang to Baby Caleb when I held him that first day. Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr sing it to their infant children, Theodosia and Philip. My favorite line from that song is ‘If we lay a strong enough foundation, we’ll pass it on to you, we’ll give the world to you and you’ll blow us all away… someday, someday, you’ll blow us all away.’

It’s a big world out there, and CJ will need to carve out his own path in it. But he’ll have two great parents and hundreds of family members and friends cheering him on.

No one will be cheering louder than me.”

All of that still holds true. Except I’ll have two more nephews to cheer for soon enough.

Caleb Slinkard is the managing editor of The Macon Melody. Email him at caleb@maconmelody.com.