When you think of Dwyane Wade right now, you think of a suave, 3x NBA Champion, who had the ability to jump out of the gym and put your team’s best defender on a poster. You’d probably call him cool too. But the man himself didn’t think he was all that cool for a long time in his life, and it all stemmed from the name he was given at birth.
Advertisement
In his memoir ‘A Father First,‘ Wade takes readers through the process by which his parents chose a name for him. It’s a pretty fun one, so buckle up.
He wrote about how both his parents disagreed on what name they wanted to give him at first. His mother had 3 daughters before DWade was born, so she was pretty excited. This excitement pushed her to suggest the name ‘Blessing.’ His father vehemently disagreed, and instead pushed for the name ‘Aramis.’
Naming her child after the third of Alexandre Dumas’ three musketeers didn’t sit well with Wade’s mother, though. As a compromise, she offered the name ‘Joe’ and Wade wrote down a hypothetical situation of how his father probably disagreed with such a common name.
“Mom was so excited after three girls to be having a boy that she wanted to name me Blessing. Dad said simply, ‘Blessing? No way.’ He wanted to name me Aramis. ‘Aramis?’ Mom asked. ‘No. If not Blessing, let’s call him Joe.’ ‘Joe? No.’ Dad probably said, ‘Hell, no.'”
Three names in and still no closer to seeing a resolution caused his parents to come to the most logical compromise – name him after his father. And so the legend of Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr. came to be.
Although Wade didn’t think his name was very cool, his deeds in Marquette and Miami elevated it to a status that neither of his parents ever would’ve imagined – that of a legend.
“So they named me Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr,” he wrote. “Not the coolest, most distinctive name, I know. Even so, it’s been sturdy over the years and has served me well.”
Wade never forgot the names he almost was given, though. He revealed how he ended up giving his children the middle names he almost had. His eldest son Zaire received the middle name ‘Blessing Dwyane,’ and his daughter Zaya received the middle name ‘Malachi Aramis.’ All’s well that ends well right?
Wade’s name led to the name of his podcast
Standing out has always been what Dwyane Wade has looked to do. His name allowed him to do so since birth as the name ‘Dwayne’ is usually spelt the way it was a couple words ago. Attaching the ‘w’ and the ‘y’ together isn’t all too common in the slightest.
So, when it came time to choose a name for his podcast, Wade knew exactly the route he wanted to go down. He used his name as a gimmick that’s quite intelligent in hindsight.
“We highlight the ‘y’ because my whole life I’ve been dealing with the ‘y’ being misplaced in my name and so you see out beautiful ‘wy’ logo up there. This is why we’re doing this,” said Wade on his pod when he first started out.
‘The Why’ Podcast with Dwyane Wade plays on the fact that the ‘y’ in his name is placed in quite the unorthodox position. The letter ‘y’ rhyming with the word ‘why’ works out in the Miami legend’s favor as well and fits perfectly with the essence of what a podcast is.
