PENSACOLA, Fla. — Milany Ocampo-Russell, the mother of Chicago Cubs shortstop Addison Russell, is ready to ‘fess up about her son’s namesake.
“I always thought I’d marry Bruce Willis,’’ she told USA TODAY Sports of the movie star. “Obviously, that didn’t happen.”
So she stole his name.
Well, kind of.
When Addison Russell was born, she told Russell’s biological father that since the Moonlighting TV series was her favorite show and Willis played the show’s protagonist, a detective named David Addison, she wanted her son to be named Addison.
While Cubs fans often note the kismet that their shortstop shares a name with the address of Wrigley Field — 1060 W. Addison Street — his mother wasn’t thinking that far ahead on Jan. 23, 1994.
“When I gave birth, I was kind of out of it with the drugs,’’ Milany Russell said, “so when I came out of it, there was already the name on the birth certificate:
“Geoffreye O’Neal Addison Robert Watts Jr III.”
“I know, kind of the crazy spelling with Geoffreye,’’ she said, “and a Jr. and a III too. When he was younger, he always had nicknames. He was called ‘Grits,’’ when he was in kindergarten because he always loved grits. When he was in T-Ball, he got bored at shortstop because the boys weren’t hitting the ball to him, so he became ‘Mole Cricket.’
“When he was 13 and my husband adopted him, I told him, ‘You get a free name change. It’s whatever you want.’
“He said, ‘Well, I definitely want Addison. Can I think about the rest a little later?’”
A week later, Addison Russell reported back to his parents. He wanted his middle name to be Wayne,’ after his father, the man who raised him since he was 30 months old.
“Wayne couldn’t stop crying,’’ Milany said. “Who would know that a 13-year-old would think of something that deep?”
