what's in a name?

a lot of people have asked us where we got the name quentin. some people have even thought that we just made it up. others think we must be huge "pulp fiction" fans. it's really not an exciting story - we just liked the name :) - we wanted something classic but not super common. we also wanted it to be a cute name for a kid but also a name we could picture as a respectable adult. neither of us like the trendy names that are out there (jaden, brayden, anything that ends in ayden) for our kids so i played around on baby name websites and made lists of boy and girl names i liked. jeremy and i just both really liked the name quentin. plus how cool is "q" as an initial?!?!?! add in joseph as a middle name - after jeremy's grandpop - and there you have it! - after about the 10th time i had to explain to someone that quentin is in fact a legitimate name and not something i made up by playing with refrigerator magnets i decided to scour this fine internet to assemble a more extensive list of existing and recognizable quentins. here are some of the highlights of what i found for "quentin" on wikipedia:

• quentin tarantino, director of movies such as pulp fiction, kill bill, and reservoir dogs. he's the quentin most people have actually heard of. he also once played an elvis impersonator on an episode of the golden girls. awesome.
• quentin lee cook - aka fat boy slim of the rockafeller skank fame - coincidentally in one of my fave teeny bopper movies of all time "she's all that" starring ironically rachael leigh cook (hahaha see it quentin lee cook, rachael leigh cook... i think it was meant to be!) i love a good modern-day shakespeare adapation. (see also: the leo version of romeo + juliet and 10 things i hate about you.) i also love a good inexplicable choreographed dance scene in said teeny bopper flicks, which "she's all that" has to you guessed it, the rockafeller skank. (see also: romy and michele's high school reunion and superstar.)
• quentin richardson is a basketball player for the new york knickerbockers
• saint quentin is a minor christian saint who gives his name to a town in france
• quentin blake is the beloved illustrator of many children's book including those authored by roald dahl including matilda, james and the giant peach, and charlie and the chocolate factory
• quentin jammer plays in the NFL for the san diego chargers
• quentin compson is a character in faulkner's "the sound and the fury" and "absalom! absalom!" who ironically went to harvard. there's actually a plaque on a bridge over the charles river in boston that commemorates his "life" and "death". we'll have to go find it one day!
• there's a town in pennsylvania named quentin as well as san quentin in california, home to the infamous san quentin state prison where johnny cash played as concert in 1969 and where metallica filmed its "st. anger" video in 2003.

of course none of these people influenced our name choice, but still fun to know some random quentin facts!