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Quincy’s parents are named Sappho Sophia Jones and Homer Chèng-Yì Chu. Both names reflect the ideals and idols their parents tacitly worship. On Sappho’s side, the privilege of naming fell on the mind of her mother who was incessantly burrowing into the lives and landscapes of historical and fictitious characters. Convinced that she was the ancient Greek poetess Sappho ‘recloaked’, as she would explain, in another form, Sappho’s mother thought the honor of bestowing her first-born with this name was the highest honor she could pay to a ‘fresh’ being. Sappho’s father, a more earthy and erudite individual, desired his daughter to be wise. So, Sappho’s mother suggested Pallas as a middle name. Sophia, was the ideal choice of a linguist major who began his publishing career as a copy-editor for bilingual dictionaries.

On Homer’s side, his father, a proud and self-righteous man, deemed it of utmost importance that his first-born son must exhibit the integrity of his own character. Chèng, coarsely translated, is ‘straight or upright’ and Yì ‘righteous’ – Chèng Yì was a proper fit for such a man of propriety. Homer’s mother, however, a shrewd soul, saw the tragic and heroic elements of the human condition clearly. The great epic of the blind poet-sage was her favorite Western tale from her studies. She understood that her little boy was an American by birth and needed a name that suited the land. She insisted that her son should have a Western name of stature. Homer was the obvious crowning title.