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This man's name is perfect for a baby, but his family took 78 years to name one after him

It's always nice when someone says they'll name their kid after you, but this man had to wait forever before that happened. And his name isn't even weird.

This man's name is perfect for a baby, but his family took 78 years to name one after him

Photo: Love What Matters via YouTube

Baby names are tough, but one classic option that's hard to regret is naming your kid after a grandparent or other relative. Because this tradition is fairly common, you'd think a 108-year-old great-great grandfather with 71 descendants would have more than a few babies named after him—but nope.

Among his six children, 17 grandchildren, 36 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great-grandchildren, none of them took his name. Now, you'd think that his moniker was something totally outdated like Ebenezer or else seriously random, but it's not. In fact, we think his name is actually super cute in an old-timey, hipster kind of way that's definitely in right now.

What is it, you ask? Esmond.

You read that correctly. While most parents today would prefer the more popular Desmond, according to Nameberry, Esmond is an English name that means "graceful protection." Not bad, right?

Esmond Allcock is one of the oldest living Canadians and currently lives in Kerrobert, Saskatchewan. And after 78 years, no one in his family had named their child after him.

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Although some family members carry Esmond as a middle name, Allcock's great-granddaughter Jenna Lehne was the only one to give first-name honours to her baby, now 18 months old.

Lehne recently submitted her story to Love What Matters, where she explained how her second son became her great-grandfather's first namesake. "When I got pregnant with my second, he mentioned to my grandmother that he was responsible for 71 descendants and no one had named their son after him," she wrote in the post. "My husband and I had wanted to name our new son after family, and that just sealed the deal."

Her post goes on to explain how she got to introduce her great-grandfather to his namesake when they travelled from Alberta to Saskatchewan to visit him. When they arrived, Allcock didn't recognize Lehne at first but was instantly attached to adorable baby Esmond. You can see a clip of their first meeting below:

Eventually, Allcock remembered Lehne as the "Walk Walk Girl," since she used to come up to him as a baby and say "walk walk" when she wanted him to help her walk around the house. "He takes such joy in his family and his descendants," Lehne told CNN. "He's met all of his great-great-grandkids and he loves each and every one of them."

When he realized that he finally had a baby named after him, Allcock "kissed his head and said over and over again, 'You don’t know what this means to me. You don’t know what this means to me.'" We're not crying, you're crying.

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We're still a bit perplexed as to why it took this long to snap up that charming name, but we're glad Allcock was finally able to have a namesake of his own.  Esmond is officially #17,991 on the list of baby names in 2017—but who knows? Maybe in a few years, it will make it to the list of most popular baby names—we definitely think it's cute enough and we bet Allcock and Lehne would agree.

Read more: 7 baby name trends for 2018 14 celebrities reveal the stories behind their baby names

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Kevin is an associate editor for Canadian Business in Toronto, Ontario. More of their work can be found in MSN Canada, Chatelaine and This Magazine

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