A tough act to follow: Will LeBron James Jnr ever escape his father's shadow

The tradition of giving your child your own Christian name —technically known as a “patronym”— goes back several centuries, when a child (usually a first son) was named after a parent (usually a dad) as a symbol of familial fealty.

BIG SHOES TO FILL: Bronny James. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Mon, 22 Aug, 2022 - 07:03

Colin Sheridan

Colin Sheridan is a writer and columnist. A former officer in the Irish Defence Forces he has extensive deployment experience as a peacekeeper with the United Nations, having lived and worked in the former Yugoslavia, West Africa, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine.

FIRST, a little history: The tradition of giving your child your own Christian name —technically known as a “patronym”— goes back several centuries, when a child (usually a first son) was named after a parent (usually a dad) as a symbol of familial fealty.

Nowadays, bestowing your own name upon your eldest is a much more curious gesture. Some might call it lazy, devoid of imagination, others, a grand act of narcissism, but when you’re one of the most recognisable athletes in the world, and arguably one of the three greatest basketballers to every play the game, calling your son LeBron James Jr is the act of a dad clearly oblivious or uncaring to the pressure such an act of filial responsibility carries. There are grandmothers in Geesala who may have never watched basketball, but still have heard LeBron James’s name. That’s the power and the reach of the man, the myth, and the legend. Almost 18 years ago, during his sophomore season in the NBA, James’s now wife Savannah gave birth to their first son.