"We'll call him Nate... if it's a boy"

But Why Nate?

And What if its a girl?

Maybe we all misunderstood this lyric for the past 19 years as he obviously said:
"we'll call him NATO if it's a boy"
and of course OTAN if it's a girl.

mrbobgeorge said:

Kate would be nice for a girl.

rhymes with "late"




sign of the times mess with youre mind
burry before it's too bad
let's fall in love get married have a baby
we'll call him Brad...

bublebath said:

Once i've read that 'Nate' stands 4 the short form of 'nativity', it should be a Christian message.considering the topic of the song and what P is in2 it wouldn't surprise if that is true.

Nate, cause it's short for Nativity, as in The Second Coming

IstenSzek said:

Thats a moving explanation!

but Nate is such a gay name...like Bruce, Lance and Richard.

We used to have a crazy old wino in our neighborhood named Nate. You could always tell he'd been around by the trail of his alcohol laced vomit in the street. Every time I hear that line in "S.O.T.T" I always think of him.

why not Nate?

SPYZFAN1 said:

How sweet!

Nate is short for Nathaniel

Nathaniel Definition = a male given name: from a Hebrew word meaning “gift of God.”

nothing more, nothing less!

Because Nate is the name of his favorite gay porn star.

Ah, the days when Prince had a sense of humor.

y every prince lyric got to be a conspiracy?

he had a stalker named nathan is what I heard back in the day

mrbobgeorge said:

Funny thing is, when I used to wonder about this back in '87, the idea of NATO did keep popping up for some reason. And I also used to try spelling it b-wards to see if it meant anything: ETAN, Ethan maybe?
Ah, bored Prince-obsessed teenagers!!! Where would we b w/o the 80s?!

You're all wrong. It's about me.

jstar69 said:

I thought IMANUEL was "Gift of God/ from God"?

Nate is short for Nathan maybe ?

Maybe Prince was predicting Six feet Under?

No, it's just about people "hurrying before it's too late" making plans to grow up, have 2 children, plan their furniture, do too much, get old, instead of just enjoying things as they come. People feel the need to construct their lives in a way they think will bring them happiness (or at least the appearance of happiness).

The name is random, except (as was mentioned earlier) it rhymes with "late."

NDRU said:

So, as someone suggested already, it could be Kate.
If its a girl

but Kate doesnt sound a kind of symbolic... as Nate...

luv4all7 said:

Emanuel means "God is with us" in Hebrew

Found Here
[Edited 5/10/06 16:11pm]