It took us a while to settle on the name Eric. It so happened that our first child had the same initials as his father (J. R.) so we thought it would be fitting that the second child have the same initials as his mother (E. J.). Another requirement was that the first name have the same spelling in French and in English.

After considering many names starting with E, such as Emmanuel, Eugene and Ezechiel we finally settled on …

The only thing that Jacques doesn’t like about Eric is that the name is so common — everyone knows someone called Eric (at least in the United States). James, his middle name, came from Elizabeth’s grandfather. (By the way, James is the English version of the French name Jacques.) According to etymology sites, Eric, an old Scandinavian name, can mean “always the ruler” or “honoured ruler”.