Philadelphia 76ers star and cable TV sports commentator Charles Barkley said in an interview that his daughter is named after Delaware’s destination mall.
Barkley said he liked the name, Christiana.
Charles Barkley says he named his daughter after a mall in Delaware pic.twitter.com/AdJpFgoWjq
— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) December 8, 2021
The interview was the topic of at least one conversation on sports radio in Philadelphia with one caller claiming he told Barkley he had named his daughter Christiana.
The mall’s developer took the name from a village near the sprawling regional shopping center.
Christiana dates back to the Swedes, who were the first European settlers in Delaware. The name was derived from a member of Swedish royalty at the time.
Barkley was not alone in warming up to the name.
When the Medical Center of Delaware decided to build a new hospital in the area, it adopted the Christiana name.
Later, the Medical Center was renamed Christiana, now ChristianaCare.
Interestingly enough, the Christiana name never caught on in describing the sprawling area around the mall and hospital.
At one point, the area around the hospital was listed by the Delaware Department of Transportation signage as Metroform. The name was widely disliked and never caught on.
Barkley was no stranger to the area. He was married in the Elkton wedding chapel that, over the years was the scene of a number of celebrity nuptials.
