Saturday, July 25, 1998

Child has a prestigious name

By Ken Garfield

Knight Ridder Newspapers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - When Veronica McCall wasn't sure the son she was carrying would live, she had a thought:

Why do some of us hold buildings, jobs, titles and material things in such high regard? Why shouldn't we honor people instead?

If our baby boy makes it, she promised herself, we'll praise him in a way that shows the world how our family feels.

Greg and Veronica McCall's son did make it into the world - at 9:13 p.m. May 18, 1987, a Monday at Carolinas Medical Center that the family will never forget. And just as she had vowed, mom and dad didn't forget the thought they had carried with their baby through the hard and uncertain pregnancy.

So let me introduce you now to the 11-year-old Huntersville boy who is living proof of his family's conviction that people matter most.

Meet Prestigious Unique McCall.

"Names," Veronica said. "They mean something."

'I like my name'

His full name is Prestigious Ramell Unique McCall, Ramell being a family name on her husband's side. People ask all the time what to call him for short. The family says Pres is fine, but they really prefer Prestigious. That includes the well-spoken little guy who answers to it.

"Yeah, I like my name," he explained in the language of an 11-year-old: "Sometimes when you like, go to like, schools and stuff and you go to graduate and they're calling short names, they call your name and it's longer. They call your name and everybody just looks at you and claps."

Prestigious is telling this story because he just had his name called when he graduated from fifth grade at Huntersville Elementary School. Folks clapped.

Veronica said the name was tripping off her son's tongue by the time he had turned 2. Every year when he started school, he'd rush home with the happy news that yes indeed, he still had the longest name in class.

Prestigious, who loves riding his mountain bike and playing outside with best friend Kenny Berry, isn't the first McCall child to wear a distinctive name. Jeton, 14, is named for a family friend. Denai, 13, is named for Veronica's best friend growing up in Charlotte.

"I love being different," said Veronica, 33, who works in Mecklenburg County's tax revaluation office.

Said Prestigious: "I think it's good to not go along with the crowd. You're not the same as other people."

Prestigious, in fact, is part of a trend. At the turn of the century, 50 percent of American children were given one of the top 10 names for their gender. Today, the top 10 names - Ashley, Brittany, Emily, Christopher, Michael, Matthew, et al - account for only 25 percent of the nation's children.

But of all the artfully named children, who can top Prestigious for originality, not to mention logic?

When Veronica and Greg, 37, a construction worker, were batting around possibilities, Prestigious came up because that's what they wanted him to be in the eyes of others. A first name thus chosen, it was Veronica who spoke the next prophetic words:

That'll be unique.

And so a child was born, not just to answer to an unusual name but to give flesh and blood to the belief that we are all good and unique. That we are all the greatest gifts that God put on this good Earth.

Just remember.

Don't call him Pres.

He's Prestigious.

(Ken Garfield is the religion editor at The Charlotte Observer. Write to him at: The Charlotte Observer, 600 S. Tryon St., Charlotte, NC 28232.)

(c) 1998, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).

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