Where does the name come from?
Casper Reilly Wood
Casper is a friendly Ghost, but you may not be aware that it is also a religious name. There is a Saint Caspar (with an 'a') of which Casper is a derivative, and Caspar is the name given to one of the three wise men. I know you want to know the other names of the wise men, they were Melchior and Balthasar.
We actually preferred the name Jasper, but the name was too similar to our other son Jetson.
The name Reilly is Clare's maiden name, and is also shared by our other kids of Olive Reilly Wood and Jetson Reilly Wood.
Wood means that our surname ancestors lived near the woods, apparently.
Famous Caspers (and Caspars)
Thanks to Wikipedia, there have been some famous Caspers/Caspars. In addition to the ghost, there has been:
Caspers (with an 'er' ending)
- Casper (Maya ruler), the 5th Century ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque
- Casper ten Boom (1859-1944), Dutch watchmaker who aided Jews during the Holocaust
- Casper Van Dien (born 1968), American actor. He is the 6th Casper in his family (his son is the 7th). Starship Troopers (1997), which he starred in, was filmed in Casper, Wyoming.
- DJ Casper, American musician
- Casper Reilly Wood, yet to be determined
Caspars (with an 'ar' ending)
- Caspar Badrutt (1848-1904), Swiss businessman and pioneer of alpine resorts
- Caspar Buberl (1834-1899), American sculptor
- Caspar del Bufalo (1786-1837), Italian priest and saint
- Caspar de Robles, (1527-1585), ruler of two provinces of the Netherlands
- Caspar Einem (born 1948), Austrian politician
- Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), German painter
- Caspar John (1903-1984), British admiral
- Caspar Netscher (1639-1684), Dutch painter
- Caspar Weinberger (1917-2006), American politician and U.S. Secretary of Defense
- Caspar Weinberger Jr. (born 1947), American writer
- DJ Casper, American musician.
- Clare's friend Tim Minchen named his son Caspar
More Casper trivia
- The name is of German and Slavic origin
- Casper/Kaspar was especially popular in central Europe up to the 18th century
- Supermodel Claudia Schiffer and husband Matthew Vaughn called their son Caspar Matthew.
- Casper is the second-largest city in Wyoming, located in east-central Wyoming at the foot of Casper Mountain.