Choosing a name for our son proved very difficult for my girlfriend and I. We had many gorgeous, exotic and exciting options for a girl, but all the boys' names in the many books we bought or borrowed left us uninspired. There was one other name that I had been thinking about since the beginning. It started out as a funny idea but gained momentum as the birth grew nearer, until I was finally adamant that it would be perfect for my firstborn. Just about all of my friends and all of my friends' children agreed that it was an incredibly cool middle name, though it took a while to convince my girlfriend. I did my best to explain that it wasn't a novelty or a joke, that it truly meant something to me, that it was a name that still stirred the deepest passion in me almost to the point of obsession, a word that inspires and excites and ignites the imagination. She eventually agreed, but only on the condition that someday I explain to him why it means so much to me. And so, as we celebrate our son's first birthday, here's why his middle name is Batman.Like most Bat-fans born post-sixties, I was introduced to the character via endless repeats of the TV show with Adam West as the titular hero and that wonderful theme tune. This bright and fun show was the perfect children's introduction to Batman and his world of cool cars and colourful foes, and I watched every episode I was allowed to. The cartoon would have been next, probably on Saturday mornings in the seventies, and then when I was old enough to understand them I became a regular reader of the comics. The printed Batman of the 1970s was a much darker and moodier character than the one I was used to, mainly due to writer Denny O'Neil's revamp, along with Neal Adams's art. Gotham's guardian now found himself in macabre, eerie tales and his arch-nemesis, the Joker, was redefined as the psychopathic murderer you hate to love. A few new, now classic, enemies were introduced too, most notably the immortal Ra's Al Ghul, an international terrorist who discovers Batman's secret identity and wants the 'world's greatest detective' for a son-in-law. This new, brooding Batman was just what a six-year-old boy wanted, and I followed his adventures with zeal.

