ShareThisWhen Kobe Bryant's team emerged from a timeout trailing by one in the final seconds of a USA Basketball intrasquad game almost three years ago, more was at stake than just bragging rights among some of the sport's biggest stars.
Riding on the outcome of that final possession was also the name of a Sacramento couple's first-born son.
If Bryant sank the game-winning shot, Derrek Gillespie's pregnant wife promised her husband he could name their boy after his basketball idol. If Bryant either missed or didn't shoot, Renay Gillespie won the right to choose any name she wanted.
They shook hands to seal the wager. Twelve days later, Kobe Adrian Gillespie was born.
"I always wanted to name my son Kobe because his work ethic and will to be the best are traits I want in my son," Derrek said. "My wife wasn't too thrilled about the name at first, but now she's become a big Lakers fan and a big Kobe fan. She's happy with it now."
Americans have always taken cues from Hollywood, so it's no surprise that baby names are celebrity-driven. You're more likely to meet a newborn "Rihanna," "Jude" or "Jada" these days than you are a "Jane," "Harold" or "Helen."
The name "Kobe" never cracked the Social Security Administration's list of the nation's 1,000 most popular boy's names until Bryant's rookie season, but its stature has mirrored the ebb and flow of the Lakers star's career ever since. It rocketed into the low 200s by the time Bryant captured his first championship in 2000, dipped noticeably after he was accused of rape three years later and more recently has steadily climbed again.
"When a celebrity's name enters the general population, in some cases it's a direct fandom thing, but usually it's the name more than the celebrity," said Linda Rosenkrantz, co-author of "The Baby Name Bible" and co-founder of nameberry.com. "With Kobe, it's probably both. He's a champion athlete and his name is distinctive but appealing."
The more than 10,000 American families who named a son or daughter Kobe in the past 13 years represent a diverse ethnic and geographic background. There's a hoops-crazed pastor in Orlando, an aspiring rapper in Pittsburgh, a women's basketball star turned elementary school principal in Georgia and two pro beach volleyball players in Santa Barbara. Their admiration for Bryant is the common thread tying them together.
Of course, epicenter of the trend is the Los Angeles area, where multiple Kobes can be found in elementary school classes.
It still amazes Bryant that his name is now so pervasive because he used to hate that his parents named him after the pricey, well-marbled steak they saw on a restaurant menu. He doesn't recall ever encountering another "Kobe" as a kid but insisted he's now flattered whenever he meets a young namesake.
"It's an honor," Bryant said. "It means that they're feeling you at a much deeper level than just basketball. Either that or they just think the name is cool. Either way, I'm comfortable."
Parents who name a kid after Bryant often go to great lengths to make sure their child grows up to love the Lakers star as much as they do. They hang framed posters or jerseys above the baby's crib, shell out $100 for baby shoes modeled after Bryant's latest basketball sneakers and place Nerf hoops around the house so little Kobe can master a jump shot while learning to walk.
Nine-year-old Kobe Tyler Mirto, of Hubbard, Ohio, has been able to point out Bryant on TV during games or commercials since he was a toddler. He's such a devoted fan that he once passed up the chance to meet LeBron James his father had set up.
"He was worried I would take him to meet LeBron and Kobe would get mad," John Mirto said, chuckling. "I think he thought Kobe would be jealous."
It's rare for a Kobe mini-me to actually have the chance to meet Bryant in person, but an Orlando pastor and his son hatched a plot that caught the Lakers star's attention three years ago. The Grandstaff family received plum tickets across from the Lakers bench for a game in Atlanta, so then-5-year-old Cobe donned a No. 24 jersey and matching pair of Nike sneakers and waved a homemade sign that read: "Kobe My Parents Named Me After You."
Although a simple wave or head nod would have been enough to delight the Grandstaffs, Bryant far exceeded their expectations, inviting the family to the locker room after the game, posing for pictures and autographing Cobe's poster. The evening made such an impact on the young boy that he still regularly asks his father if he can change the spelling of his first name to "Kobe" and his middle name from "Robert" to "Bryant."
"I have a picture of him holding my son. That's more than I ever need," said Tim Grandstaff, who has supported the Lakers since childhood because his native Virginia doesn't have an NBA team.
No matter how passionate their parents are about the Lakers, not every young Kobe shares the same appreciation.
Kobe Elizabeth Wilson, the 11-year-old daughter of former Jacksonville State women's basketball player Deaidra Wilson, likes the originality of her name but didn't inherit a sliver of her mother's enthusiasm for the sport. That's been difficult for Deaidra, a self-described "sports fanatic" who has rooted for the Lakers since the 1980s.
"She is not a basketball player, which is absolutely breaking my heart," said Deaidra, a basketball coach and elementary school principal in Georgia. "She did play soccer, so maybe there's hope. She's going to play a sport or I will die trying."
As a lifelong Lakers fan that had just watched Bryant lead his favorite team to three straight championships, Riverside, Calif. resident Geoffrey Buyco never considered naming his first-born son anything besides Kobe in early 2003. Friends and family bombarded him about changing the name once the sexual assault case against Bryant became public a few months later, but Buyco insists he "completely had faith" in his guy.
"The Colorado thing did make me think a little bit more though," he admitted. "Some kids are named after O.J. (Simpson). How bad must that feel?"
To Derrek and Renay Gillespie, Bryant's work ethic and competitiveness far outweigh any negatives.
"I want my son to be named after a great," Renay said. "If it wasn't Jordan, I'm happy with Kobe."
(Contact Jeff Eisenberg at jeisenberg(at)PE.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
