Comedian and late-night host Seth Meyers announced that he and his wife, Alexi Ashe, just welcomed their second son, Axel Strahl Meyers. On his show Monday night, he revealed how the baby was born quickly on Sunday — so quickly, in fact, that he was delivered on the floor of their Manhattan apartment building lobby. Intense stuff.
But perhaps the most poignant detail of Meyers’ story is how their newborn is named in honor Ashe’s grandparents, who survived the Holocaust:
We named him Axel because it’s just a name we like – but I’m going to tell him it’s because firemen were there when he was born.
His middle name is Strahl, which is my mother-in-law, Joanne – that’s her parents’ name, that’s her maiden name. I never met my wife’s grandparents, but I’ve heard so much about them, and they were Holocaust survivors who met the day after they were liberated. They met in the hospital in Austria and [on] days like this… when someone was born, you just have such an appreciation for everyone in your lineage who lived so that you could have this moment.
Meyers himself isn’t Jewish — though he’s often mistaken for being so — and the family is raising their kids (including big brother Ashe Olson) with Judaism.
You can watch an endearing clip of Meyers opening up about his newborn below:
