It was a name to remind my daughter that she is special and that she is loved. I rarely use my kids' names in this column. As evidenced by your e-mail, there are some disturbed people in this world and there's something profoundly unsettling about having one of them speak familiarly of your child. I agreed to do what I almost never do. I suppose I need to point out the obvious here.
Black folk have no monopoly on odd names.
The talk show host named Conan, the singer named Madonna and the actress named Uma should be enough to settle that point. If not, there's always Frank Zappa's kids, Dweezil and Moon Unit. Not that I expect you to let fact get in the way of your hate. There are, I know, some white people who are simply threatened by those black people who aren't named Sam, John or Susie. Five years back, the late columnist Mike Royko also criticized black names although, to his credit, he promptly recanted.