When you have a new baby, the most common question asked is, "What's your baby's name?" And we chose to not reveal our children's names prior to their birth - to avoid that whole scrunched-nose response with the, "Oooo. Really?"
We're also really big on name meanings ... it seems to me that people live up to their name. I was told by a friend to avoid a few different boys names - as in her experience with daycare, the boys with those names were often high energy, high maintenance.
Mattias Antonio: We were at a local hockey game when one of our city's team players came on the big screen. My hubby and I looked at each other, "Mattias it is." The middle name of Antonio is my father-in-law's middle name. And one of my hubby's and my favourite Italian names (my hubby's family is Italian ...). Mattias is a form of Matthew and means "Gift of God." But we actually saw the definition of "God's gift to women" when we named him. We figured that would mean loyal, considerate, a good leader ... a good name to live up to.
Josiah William: Mattias would have been "Josiah", except for a little conversation we had with my in-laws when my hubby and I were engaged. See, in the Italian culture, first borns are named after the parents ... but both my in-laws have VERY Italian names. My hubby said, "If we have a boy, it won't be Guiseppe (my f-i-l's name)." So it was asked, "What would you name him ?" We replied, "Josiah." To which my mother in law smiled, "Joe (which is Giusesppe), and Rosaria (my mother in law's name) is "JO-SIAH".
Um. No.
ANYway, by the time Josiah came, my hubby and I were over it - and his name became Josiah William (my dad's middle name). Josiah means "Fire of God", but we've also seen "The Lord Saves". Both great meanings. And let's say he is named well ... he's got a lot of fire in him *grin*.
Katia Rose: We were in Russia on a missions trip when one of the music pastors there introduced us to their lovely little girl. Her name was Katya (Katja?) - and instantly my hubby and I looked at each other. If we ever had a daughter, that would be her name. Rose is in both my mother and mother-in-law's names ... that was efficient *grin*!! Katia means "purity" - a truly beautiful meaning.
Did you care about meanings of names? Did you name your children after family members? Did you keep the same names for the next child (ie you had a boy first, but still used the same girls name for your second) ...
Have a great one!
7 comments:
I think it's important, too. One nice thing about Japanese is that the same name can have different meanings depending on which Chinese characters are used. We named our third daughter Sakura which usually means cherry blossom but my husband found different characters to make Sakura mean "blossoming of good". That meaning sold me on the name. We didn't plan on having Natsuki (we thought we were done) so we didn't have any leftover names so it was back to square one! We decided to go cute with her name so it means "summer princess" which totally fits her personality, too!!
If we had a boy we really wanted to name him Josiah but that never happened.
Names are hugely important to me. It's the story of who we are, maybe where we've come from, the start of something unique.
Our boys have middle names linked to their great-grandfathers (great-grandpa's first name for Kyle, my Dad's surname and my m-i-l's surname for Braden and Connor's middle names).
For Miranda, her name is a story about the miracle of her: We were told we would not have another child, that our firstborn Kyle was a 'fluke". Tthen we found out we were due at Christmas (never our intention), and as our hearts were overwhelmed with joy upon seeing her beating heart at the ultrasound we chose to name her Miranda JOY NOEL for our joy, for Christmas, and because we knew that we would feel "Merry Christmas" blessings every time we looked at her. And she will beam with pride and recite the story of her name to anyone who asks.
I think names are very important for their meaning and for how and why the mommy and daddy chose them.
We chose to name our daughter Shyra Autumn Iona..."Shyra" my husband made up and I happened to love it. "Autumn" we also loved and though it went well with Shyra, but "Iona" is now a fifth generation name on my side. I did a search on the word "Shyra" and found that "Shirah" is a Hebrew word, meaning "tune". We both loved it, as both our families are music lovers and sing quite a bit. We are hoping that our love of music passes down to our little gem.
Btw, I know this is my first comment on your page (I've been one of your silent readers until now, I guess), but I very much enjoy reading everything you post. Keep up the great work!
Love the meaning of names!
Kyra Lynn we named before meanings became something that I thought about, but the meaning is true to her anyway, I say that her Heaveny Father whom knew her before I did, placed the name in my head! Kyra means, tender hearted and lady-like (I was also told that b/c of the pronounciation it also means Christ-like) Lynn (which happens to be the middle name of my mom, me, my MiL ans Sil) means Holy.
Caleb... there was a whole story behind his name. I believed that I was having a girl and had a name for her picked out until about a week before he was born. I was exhausted one afternoon and laid down to have a nap with Ky when I had a dream and knew that he wasn't going to be a girl and that I should name him Caleb which means faithful (Pastor Harvey actually had a better meaning when he spoke about Caleb and Joshua and refered to Caleb as a junk yard dog!)Elisha is his middle name which means "God will save me". Yet another name that I don't take credit for!
Thanks for this post Tawn... this was a lot of fun!
I also love love love names and their meanings. In fact I have a good portion of a book manuscript done for a book I'd like to write called Namesake(filed along the various other half written books I have and have yet to finish). Exploring how different cultures come name their children.
Aria means Little Song, Part of a Masterpiece, which I think is so beautiful and her middle name Day, we chose because she was so fresh and new. I love the idea that God's mercies are new every day.
Poet Rose got her name because I read a biography of DaVinci, who was described as having the eye of a painter but the soul of a Poet. I thought that was so beautiful. Rose is a family name, but also one I loved.
I always think it's amazing how people seem to become their name.
I don't necessarily believe in the "meaning" of the names as much as the sentimental value of it. ie/how you came up with it, are they named after a family member, etc. The meaning of it does NOT dictate how a child will be. I definitely don't agree with that !!
Your child will suit THE name that you choose for her/him and beyond that, it may just be pure coincidence!
Yes, we cared about meanings of our children's names. We also didn't share names prior to the birth of each child for the same reason as you! Nice to see others out there that think the same as us! (Our families were practically beggggging for us to share even thoughts of names.)
Our son's middle name is named after my husband's middle name, but that's about it. We wanted to be different and there are too many people to please with naming after family members! Not only that, some of the family members middle names are weird (like my father in law's middle name is "Elmer")
We kept our "girl" name for our second, but used it as a middle name instead of first name. We changed our minds at the last minute :0)
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