If he had stayed with Mike — the name he used publicly through high school and during his first two seasons with the Marlins — he would not even be the first Mike Stanton to play for the Yankees. But there has never been another Giancarlo to play in the major leagues.

“You’ve got something unique, you don’t run from it, you embrace it,” said Stanton, whose bats and gloves have always been stamped with “Giancarlo.” “I’ve met some cool fans that come up and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got the same name.’ But, personally, there’s no one in my phone that I say, ‘Oh, what up, Giancarlo?’ I like the uniqueness of it.”

That is not to say he minds what people call him. His mother calls him Cruz, his father calls him Mike, relatives call him Mikey and his new teammates mostly call him G. His parents gave him so many names, they said, in part so he could choose the one he liked.

Meet the Family

When Giancarlo was learning how to write, he made a drawing for his father. He spelled out his first name, all in lowercase, with brightly colored markers. His father took it to work at the post office and hung it in his locker.

If it was hard then to see his son growing up to be one of baseball’s best players, it was easier in that drawing to see an expression of what he might become — his attention to detail, his zest for rich experiences and an embrace of his name.

In that way, along with his uncommon size, 6 feet 6 inches and 245 pounds, Stanton seems to be neatly tailored for New York and all that it has to offer. Until now, his exposure to the city’s culture, clubs and cuisine has come in small bites: a night out here, a weekend there. Home runs, like the two he hit on opening day on Thursday in Toronto, will make it easier for the fans to embrace him. But they will also make it harder for him to blend into the background.