Despite several rounds of debate and compromises, Denny Hamlin and fiancée Jordan Fish finally landed on a name for their newborn son: Jameson Drew Hamlin — with a little help from artificial intelligence, that is.
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On the latest episode of his podcast Actions Detrimental, Hamlin recounted the challenge of narrowing down the perfect name. He said, “My niece Caitlyn actually helped with this. So she took those 12 names (shortlisted by the couple). She took a picture of the piece of paper of our 12 names that we like, went to ChatGPT and says, ‘Create a spreadsheet with all the combinations of these names.'”
Hamlin then described how the list ballooned. “Well, so then it spits out a thousand names, right? And so then I go through them and I highlight which ones I like. So then, we tell ChatGPT, ‘Okay, take out any combinations with this name as a first name,’ because I like it only as a middle name. So then it narrows it down. It keeps shrinking it and keeps shrinking it. And then finally it gets to the final like 38 names or so,” he added.
Still, Hamlin had a clear preference for keeping “JD” in the mix. As James Dennis Alan Hamlin himself, the recent Michigan race winner drew inspiration from key figures in his life who shared the initials, including the late JD Gibbs, an important influence on his racing journey, and James Dean, his former late model car owner.
Wanting his son to carry a piece of that legacy, Hamlin settled on Jameson, meaning “son of James,” and paired it with Drew to preserve the “D. Hamlin” lineage.
He also admitted being intrigued by Kyle Busch’s method of name selection, matching the initials as in Brexton Busch, “BB.” Hamlin explored several “D” names before Drew ultimately stood out as the most fitting.
