Happy Birthday, Zelda Williams! Here’s an Ode to Your Hairy Link-Loving Legend of a Father (VIDEO)

It takes a special kind of nerdly chutzpah to name your child after a video game character. Mini-you will be subjected to a lifetime of ass-kickings if they have to introduce themselves in kindergarten as Mega Man Smith or Sonic the Hedgehog Johnson. Or, y'know, a name that might actually be chosen, but is still reasonably dickish.

Celebrities, as we know, are the kind of renegade badasses that have no shits to give in this regard. The frontman of limp-scroted British soft-rockers Coldplay, for instance, named his daughter Apple (she was conceived in the grocery store, presumably. Other prospective names for the girl included Spam, Cracker Jack --if male, naturally-- Lentils and Donuts Fifty Cents Off All This Week. Except this isn't even slightly true). But for somewhat-eccentric-yet-just-about-acceptable monikers, Zelda will do nicely.

This was the name, as we also know, chosen by comedian extraordinaire and general mad bastard (your opinion of the man may differ) Robin Williams for his daughter. As he has claimed in several interviews, when he isn't dressing in old lady drag and setting his fake boobs aflame/teaching English class in unusual fashion in movies, Williams is gaming it right up. Possibly.

At least he refrained from naming her after The Legend of Zelda's ginger beardly villain, Ganondorf. Further, this choice gave Nintendo ample opportunity for commercials featuring the famous pair, usually of the insipid ballache variety. Take a look above, at their 2011 efforts to advertise the 3DS's remake of Ocarina of Time.

So Happy twenty-third birthday, Zelda! We salute your actual gaming credentials (which include hosting the London Zelda Symphony Concert and support of Operation Moonfall, which exhorts Nintendo for a similar 3D-ification of Majora's Mask), your father's ill-advised and enormous beard in the featured video, and your name.