Candace Parker spelled out the 'several meanings' behind her newborn son's striking first name
- WNBA superstar Candace Parker welcomed a baby boy with her wife, Anna Petrakova, in February.
- The two-time WNBA champion and MVP told Insider that there are "several meanings" behind his name.
WNBA superstar Candace Parker and her wife, former Russian national teamer Anna Petrakova, welcomed their first child together earlier this year.
Airr Larry Petrakov Parker was born on February 11, 2022, the two-time WNBA champion and league MVP announced by posting a family portrait to Instagram featuring herself; Petrakova; Parker's daughter from a previous marriage, Lailaa Williams; and her newborn son.
Parker told Insider that while she and Petrakova "just like the name" Airr, there are "several meanings" behind their choice.
"It's not just jumping," Parker insisted. "It's the element of not being able to breathe without him. And then also the element [that] he's inheriting whatever we give him — knowledge, everything — so that's the H-E-I-R."
"The double letter at the end — R R — is [because] my daughter's name is A A at the end," she added. "So that's how that came about."
Airr's middle name, Larry, has a much more straightforward source. It comes by way of Parker's father, who was a Division I college basketball player himself and helped coach his daughter until she left to play for Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee.
But for all of the effort Parker and Petrakova put into their son's unique name, no one actually calls the now-3-month-old Airr. Instead, "everybody calls him Goose."
"He barely gets called Airr at our house," Parker said with a chuckle. "Everybody calls him Goose — my family, my friends, everybody."
Fittingly, the infant's nickname traces its origins to the basketball court. It's short for "gooseneck," or the shape one's arm should make when practicing proper shooting form.
"His mom — my wife — played in the 2012 Olympics," Parker further explained. "[She's a] shooter. So when we first found out we were pregnant with him, we didn't know if it was a girl or a boy, so I just started calling him Goose. So that's his nickname because she's a shooter. It's like gooseneck."
Parker seems to be enjoying having an infant around again — though she says there's "not a lot of sleep" to be had in her house at present. She joked that the age gap between Airr and Lailaa — 12 years — "was just long enough for me to forget" how babies can be.
Plus, she adds, "boys are fussier."
Parker's back on the court for what could be her final WNBA season. She hinted that she nearly retired ahead of the 2022 campaign but decided to return for another go with her hometown squad — the reigning champion Chicago Sky.