Neighbors Chanting ‘Knicks in Five’ Outside Their Apartment Inspired a New York Couple to Name Their Son Knickson Fyve

Yvonne Gonzalez-Bradford heard neighbors chanting “Knicks in Five” outside her New York apartment, and the chant became her newborn son’s first name: Knickson. His middle name is Fyve, a nod to his father’s nickname. The baby is Knickson Fyve Bradford, and his parents, Gonzalez-Bradford and Vance Bradford, told People about the name in an exclusive published Nov. 10 and republished on Yahoo Sports.

From a Chant to a First Name

People reported that Gonzalez-Bradford heard the chant outside her apartment, where it had become a fan mantra, and the idea for the name followed. She asked her husband whether naming their son after the team would be “crazy,” or whether it was just the hormones talking. Vance agreed almost at once.

The chant was about a real title run. The Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in the 2026 NBA Finals four games to one, according to the league’s Finals page, winning Games 1, 2, 4 and 5. Game 5 ended 94-90, and Jalen Brunson, who scored 45 points in the clincher and averaged 32.6 points across the series, was named Finals MVP. The title was the Knicks’ first since 1973, ending a 53-year drought, and the franchise’s third overall.

The series was closer than the final tally suggests. The Knicks took Game 1 by 105-95 and Game 2 by 105-104, the Spurs won Game 3, 115-111, and New York won Game 4, 107-106, after rallying from 29 points down in the third quarter. Victor Wembanyama led San Antonio with 26.0 points and 11.2 rebounds a game, the NBA’s page shows. The title came in the five games the chant promised.

Where the Middle Name Fyve Came From

A few days after settling on Knickson, Gonzalez-Bradford suggested the middle name Fyve. Vance’s nickname is “V,” the Roman numeral for five. People reported that he did not want a junior but wanted a link between his own name and his son’s.

She also referred to the baby as a “Leo baby,” and the parents told the magazine the name stands for perseverance. They said they want to teach their son those values, drawing on the team’s path through the playoffs. “This means so much more,” Gonzalez-Bradford said. “This is such an impactful moment in history.” She also asked, in People’s telling, why she would not want to give a Leo baby a name tied to something so influential. The couple tied the choice to the team’s path to the finals, which they described as a lesson in perseverance.

Why the Name Went Viral

The couple shared the baby’s first photos on Instagram, and People linked both parents’ accounts in its story. After that, the name took off. People reported that the family received widespread support from fans across the country, and Vance said fans have taken to calling the baby “the City’s nephew.” The article did not give the baby’s birth date or the hospital.

Vance said the choice came down to the team. “It really is a team thing,” he said, adding that “Knicks in five has its own definition, a mantra for life.” He also said he was glad his son already gets to stand out because of his name.

What Parenting Guides Say About Unusual Names

A team-inspired first name is a bolder choice than most, and baby-naming guides tend to treat that as a trade-off. The editors of The Bump advise parents who pick an unconventional name or spelling to be ready to spell it repeatedly at the daycare or the doctor’s office, and to have an easy answer for why it was chosen, such as calling it a personal or family name.

The same guide suggests saying the first and middle names together out loud, picturing them called across a house or playground, and thinking about the nicknames a baby is likely to collect. It also points parents to the Social Security Administration’s rankings to see whether a name is trending or relatively rare, and says there is no right or wrong choice.

By those measures, Knickson Fyve already has a ready-made story, a nickname fans have supplied and a middle name with a clear origin in his father’s “V.”

What Official Baby-Name Records Show

Official records treat names by strict data rules. The Social Security Administration’s baby names site publishes popular names by birth year, with a Top 10 for 2025 led by Liam for boys and Olivia for girls. The agency says in its background notes that the figures come from Social Security card applications, that spelling variants are not combined and that names with fewer than five occurrences in any geographic area are left out of its published data.

The agency also says its data are a 100% sample of Social Security card records as of March 2026, that hyphens and spaces are removed from names, that it does not edit what applicants wrote, that ties are ranked alphabetically and that boys and girls are ranked separately. Its lists draw on the first-name field, so a first name as rare as Knickson would appear in published data only if at least five babies in a given state and year shared it. For the Bradfords, the official lists matter less than the reaction. The Knicks’ team page on NBA.com now carries a history link for the 2026 NBA Champions, and the Bradfords have a baby who carries the team’s name.

Get stories like this by email. Sign up for The Parent Diaries Letter.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Laslovarga – CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons