What's in a name?

For some reason, a writer on the BBC website has focussed on 'Derek' as a topic of interest this week. In a feature entitled 'In search of a baby called Derek', he questions whether people will ever call their babies Derek (or one of its variants) ever again. Apparently only 22 babies born in the UK last year were named Derek and it's 1,158th on the baby name list, equal with Ace, Kofi and Om. Actually I'm quite proud of being a Derrick and couldn't care a toss if it's popular or not. In fact, being 1,158th in the list is just fine with me. I thumb my nose to the 1,157 above. Ya, boo, sucks to the lot of them!

The feature has generated a lot of correspondence from 'Proud Dereks: Readers lumbered with unfashionable names' and, from what they write, it's obvious that Dereks are witty, wise, handsome and self-effacing. Who am I to disagree?

(I could only identify 8 in the rogue's gallery of Dereks shown by the BBC).