Where'd the name Jasper come from?

'Jasper?' Where'd that name come from?

We've had quite a few people ask us that question, so here's an explanation.

As much as I love it, and as much as he now looks like a 'Jasper,' I'm a little embarrassed to say what movie Natalie first heard it on.

Ready for this? Jasper was a character on the movie ... 'Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,' which starred, among other chick-flick staples, Sandra Bullock. (Way past her prime, by the way, if she ever had one.)

Man ... why couldn't Jasper have been a character on 'The Godfather' or 'Rad?' You know, movies with manly men and sweet, sweet BMX bike action.

Anyway, with a common last name like Wilson we thought we needed a less-common first name, but we didn't want to choose from the growing list of 'trendy' names.

To us, Jasper has strength, and it sounds 'traditional' without sounding 'old.' We've had mixed reviews of the name, but the more people we talk to, and the older he gets, the more people seem to like it. (Or at least they tell us they do.)

According to www.thinkbabynames.com, Jasper has hovered in the 400 to 800 range of most popular names since 1930, but was up near the 200th most popular name between 1900 and 1920 and broke into the 100s around 1880.

 In 2006, Jasper was the 568th most popular name according to www.babynamesworld.com. On a rather exciting note, in 2006 Jasper was the 51st most popular boys name in Belgium!

If you're interested, Jasper can derive either from the Persian name Caspar of Casper, meaning treasurer, or the Persian word yashp, meaning spotted stone. It is the name of a semi-precious form of quartz. (But I think we'd all agree he's more than semi-precious. Yikes ... being a dad has turned me into a softy already!)

Wikipedia says; According to the Biblical tradition Casper is the name of one of the Three Kids who presented Christ gifts. Casper gave gold. Its biblical reference led to its adoption as an English name in the 17th Century.

Famous Jaspers include no one, really, that I recognize, which may say more about me as a one-time history major than it does about the name. If this list has any determination on how our Jasper turns out, it's obvious he'll at some point be British. Here's a list of the 'famous' Jaspers:

Jasper Carrott, British comedian

Jasper Conran, British fashion designer

Jasper Duncombe, film director

Jasper Ewing Brady, 18th century U.S. politician

Jasper Fforde, British novelist

Jasper Griffin, British literary academic

Jasper Grosvenor, U.S. financier

Jasper Harris, British child actor

Jasper Harvey, U.S. football player

Jasper Heywood, 16th century British theologian

Jasper Johns, U.S. artist

Jasper Mayne, 17th century English clergyman

Sir Jasper More, British politician

Jasper Morrison, British product and furniture designer

Jasper O'Farrell, U.S. surveyor

Jasper redd, U.S. comedian

Jasper Ridley, British historical biographer

Jasper Rine, U.S. biologist

Jasper Ryder, British politician and nephew of noted British antiquarian Edward Ryder

Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford, half-brother of King Henry VI

Jasper Vinall, notoriously deceased cricketer

Jasper Wilson, U.S. Baptist preacher

Jasper Wolfe, Irish politician

and last, but certainly not least:

Jasper Beardly (pictured above alongside a 5-day-old Jasper Wilson in his footie jammies), character from The Simpsons voiced by Harry Shearer. (Thanks to uncle Jason for reminding us of this.)

- According to a list of recurring characters found on Wikipedia, Jasper Beardly is one of the elder residents of Springfield. His most distinguishing trait and the origin of his name is his very long beard. Jasper is a veteran of World War II. Jasper also tried to avoid the draft by disguising himself as a woman and staying in Springfield to play in the local women's baseball league along with his friend Abe Simpson, who was also avoiding the war. Jasper is a diabetic with a prosthetic left leg who was the minister at First Church of Springfield before Reverend Lovejoy took over (only revealed in a deleted scene from season eight.)

- In what is probably his most face time, Jasper was put in crude 'suspended animation' in the Kwik-E-Mart's freezer, and under advice from Dr. Nick Riviera (Hi, Dr. Nick!), Apu kept him frozen. When Jasper's frozen form became popular with customers, Apu started exploiting the spectacle and transformed the Kwik-E-Mart into the Freak-E-Mart, a special interest store dealing with weird items, or perfectly ordinary ones that had been made out to be abnormal. Jasper, of 'Frostillicus' as Apu renamed him, was accidentally unfrozen and stepped out into what he thought was a future world just as Apu was considering selling him to the Rich Texan.

That is all for now. Feel free to post more information on the name if you've got it. 

Adam