Each week, the TODAY Parents team highlights a favorite baby name or set of sibling names. It may be unique, trendy, newsworthy, classic, or just ... fun! And there will always be a fascinating story behind it.
Utah mom Brooke Wilcox, 40, found her baby name inspiration right on her grandmother’s television set.
Her 12-year-old son is named Maxim after “Dancing With the Stars” pro Maxim Chmerkovskiy. Her 10-year-old daughter is named Sloane after the character in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
And for her youngest daughter, Wilcox chose a name her favorite childhood movie, “Dirty Dancing.” The 8-year-old is named Swayze, after actor Patrick Swayze.
“I like that it has an edge to it, and it’s not common,” Wilcox tells TODAY.com. We have to agree, which is why we selected Swayze as our Baby Name of the Week.
Wilcox readily admits that not every young child would list “Dirty Dancing” among their favorite movies, but watching Patrick Swayze dance was a way for her to bond with her late grandmother, Maxine.
“She watched me a lot of the time while my mom worked,” Wilcox says. “Back then there were no phones or iPads. She would record VHS tapes for us, and she had about every Patrick Swayze movie you could think of.”
Her grandmother admired the actor’s smooth dance moves and good looks, so Wilcox followed suit. “I was just as obsessed with him as she was. We shared that little infatuation and laughed and joked about it,” she says.
Like the actor, Swayze is quite a dancer. In fact, she is now on the most competitive dance team at her studio. “She’s a nut, the craziest kid ever. She just has no fear, has all the confidence and I hope she never changes,” her mom says. “Crazy Swayze!”
Wilcox has introduced each of her kids to their onscreen namesakes, so Swayze has seen “Dirty Dancing.” Wilcox says, “She’s like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of weird that you named me after him,’ and I’m like, ‘No, it’s not weird. Promise! It’s super cool.’”
Wilcox’s husband approved of the name and didn’t think it was “weird” at all.
“Luckily, he was fine with it,” Wilcox says, then adds, “I mean, I don’t know if he really had a choice!”
