Alex Prewitt, a former Star Tribune sports intern now toiling away at Sports Illustrated, had a fun piece recently catching up with a bunch of now-adults born in the 1990s and named after Shaquille O'Neal.
It made me just a little curious as to how many young adults in Minnesota bear another unusual but familiar name: Kirby. After all, Kirby Puckett's heyday would mean anyone named after him would be roughly anywhere from their early 20s to early 30s now.
A tweet with that query only yielded one affirmative response from a Kirby named after Puckett, while someone else chimed in that, "There were a lot of dogs, not many kids, named after Kirby." Another person said they had a bird named Kirby.
Alas, maybe human Kirbys are rare. Per a search of the Social Security website, Kirby wasn't among the 100 most popular birth names in Minnesota any year from 1986-96.
Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.
