It’s difficult enough to name one child.
Imagine having to come up with names for three at the same time.
Mother Pep came up with Manny. Moe and Jack, a trio that made a lot of money.
Donald Duck’s sister — or sister-in-law — came up Huey, Dewey and Louie, who were actually more famous than Mickey Mouse’s two, Mortimer and Ferdinand.
Then there was Miene Schoenberg, whose sons Leonard, Adolph and Julius grew up to become probably the most famous comedy threesome in history as Chico, Harpo and Groucho Marx. Adolph later changed his name to Arthur for reasons that ought to be obvious.
Miene, known as Minnie, had another three sons — Milton, Herbert and Manfred. If you know movies, you know that Milton was Gummo and Herbert was Zeppo.
But who’s Manfred?
Manfred, or Manny, actually would have been the first Marx Brother. He was born in 1886 and died in infancy. Herbert, the youngest of six sons, was given Manfred as a middle name.
Then there are the somewhat generic names for triplets — Thomas, Richard and Harold. You ought to know them as Tom, Dick and Harry, as in “any old …”
By now you may have realized that none of the people mentioned — with the possible exception of the cartoon ducks — are actually triplets. There really haven’t been any famous triplets in history. I paged through Wikipedia’s list of famous triplets and I didn’t recognize a single set.
You may be aware that there is no such thing as identical triplets. Identical twins happen when a fertilized egg splits in half. There are no cases of fertilized eggs dividing into more than two pieces, so triplets are essentially like having identical twins and fraternal twins in the same birth.
I never fathered a child, although my first wife and I did discuss possible boys’ names if we ever had a son. I suggested Aloysius and Sylvester (pre-“Rocky”), which was probably the first time my bride realized that we probably weren’t going to grow old together.
Her suggestions were Leopold and Loeb.
“No, they weren’t.”
Heck, I would have been fine with Milton, Herbert or even Manfred.
Of course, at my age I’m never going to name babies. My daughter Pauline actually came up with beautiful names for two of hers that didn’t even make it into the big name books — Lexington and Albanie.
Who knows? Maybe in some future life I’ll get the chance. If I do, I’ve got the perfect names for male triplets.
Willie, Mickey and the Duke?
Nah, too on the nose.
Meet my far future sons — Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Betcha they grow up to be firefighters.