What's in a Name

So, I guess I never really did this for Z, so I'll give a quick background to his name before I move on to newbie.

How we encountered it:

Spending hours combing through the baby name book from A-Z.*

Why we chose it:

Two reasons. We wanted something different but not too weird or crazy and this seemed to fit the bill. Secondly, and I've mentioned this before, we loved the meaning, "defender of mankind." It seemed to fit him.

The middle name:

Obviously, it's Joe's name. HOWEVER! It is also my dad's middle name, Joe's dad's middle name, Grandpa Pete's middle name, my grandmother's name (the girl version)... that name is everywhere. We liked that about it.

*It had nothing to do with Buffy. Didn't even cross our minds. Sorry.



Newbie's Name

How we encountered it:

I was reading Cat's Cradle (one of Joe's favorite books) and it's one of the character's names.

Why we chose it:

We liked the sound of it and felt like it went along with Z's name. Not common or typical, but not bizarre. And, again, we loved the meaning: "healer."* As a bonus there is also a little video that I love called " The Scared is Scared" narrated by a little boy with this name. Google it, it's worth a watch.

*The Hebrew meaning. There are other cultures where it means other things like "(born at, starting life at) dawn" or "beautiful." None of the meanings were bad.

The middle name:

Since Z's was so connected to family, we wanted to go that route again. Unfortunately, our family tree is full of terrible names! Or it was too much alliteration. My grandfather had three names and they ALL start with "A." I didn't want to have alliteration. Once we get further back things get very ethnic and I didn't want to make this poor kid learn to spell those names. We considered masculine versions of grandmother's names, but that wasn't really working out either (my maternal grandma had very feminine names!). Then we started exploring maiden names and that's when we hit the jackpot. So, his middle name is Grandma Sally's maiden name. She's one of two of our living grandparents so we thought it would be really nice to be able to tell her that we'd named our son for her.

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So, what's in a name? Who knows? My name means "princess" and I'm not really sure how that may or may not have impacted my life or if it made me more into the person I am today. Though it did make my dad try to buy me a crown of pearls when I got married because I'm a princess... or so he claimed. Oh, Dad. :) My brothers might claim that I was treated like a princess and youngest kids get everything. They are bitter.

My mom chose our names with the meanings partially in mind and I do sort of think we reflect them a bit. My oldest brother's name means "lofty, exalted, high mountain" and he's kinda like that. Strong-willed, firm, intense, and a go-getter. My other brother's name means "healer" (like newbie!) and he's kinda like that. Gentle, caring, a softie.

I want my boys to be influenced by their names because the world needs people to be defenders and healers of their fellow men. This has always been one of my favorite parts of the Bible, Isaiah 61, and I feel like this is what I'm trying to raise my kids to be; the people who are bringing healing and freedom.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners...

to comfort all who mourn,
3     and provide for those who grieve...
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.

This is what the world needs and I hope that by adding these two humans to it I'm doing one more (two more?) things to accomplish this: bind wounds, proclaim freedom, comfort and bring joy. I know my sons already bring me a great deal of joy.