Naming babies is a big deal at our house. We have two “rules” that help us decide on the perfect name for our little blessings:
1. Meaning
2. 5 letters
The first has always been a deciding factor, the second we sort of fell into. Our first 3 babies were accidentally named with 5 letter names. I discovered this fact while addressing Christmas cards one year. All the children’s names lined up perfectly! As I thought about it more, I realized my name has 3 letters and Ty’s name has 2 letters, so it seemed logical for our children–the combination of the two of us–to have 5 letter names!
I grew up knowing my name had been chosen with care – Amy, meaning “beloved” and a middle name in honor of my great-grandmother. I firmly believe naming children is not something to be taken lightly. Just as in the Bible, where names spoke volumes of who that child would become, we feel the names we have chosen for our children are just as important.
Do your children’s names have special meaning? Have you found those meanings to ring true as they have grown?
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Laura says
I love your childrens’ names.
We also took great care in naming our children. We only have 3 and it looks like God intends it to stay at three, but nonetheless their names have great meaning to us.
First names come from the Bible and have specific meaning, are not strange and “out there” (hubby’s request) and are easy to spell and pronounce.
Middle names are family names – oldest has the surname of a large family that married into my husband’s centuries ago. Middle has my maiden name and youngest has my m-i-l’s middle name. We had one other chosen and it was my great grandmother’s name, but it doesn’t look like we’ll get to use it 🙁
I also created a wall hanging for each one. It includes first and middle names with their meanings and scriptures. They hang on the wall above each child’s bed so that they can always know what their names mean and why they are so special.
Amy says
I love the wall hanging idea! I think it is so important to tell our children about their names…such an important piece of who they are.
Clara says
My children’s names have special meanings too – and meanings played a large part in the choice of name.
Holly (flower) Kaitlyn (pure) Jean (gracious gift of God) is my firstborn (Holly is a purely gracious gift from God!), and she does live up to her name, and she was such a precious gift – not only that, but Jean is my middle name and was my mother’s too, so it is a real heritage for her.
Daniel (God is my judge) John (gracious gift of God) is my “baby”, and he is learning to live up to his first name – and not only that, but I used Daniel because I made a promise to God at the time my child was conceived, and God is my judge regarding that. And of course, he is a precious gift from God too – possibly my last baby (or so it seems at this time, as we seem unable to conceive). Daniel is my husband’s name, and John is also my father’s middle name, so my son carries on a heritage there too!
Angela says
Thanks for sharing this. All of your children have beautiful and strong names. We, too, feel that meanings are important when naming a child. For us, a name has to have a good, strong meaning, be of Hebrew origin, and start with a vowel 🙂 to be considered. Abel means “breath”; Amariah means “pledged by God” or “eternally beautiful”; Ande means “strong, courageous”; Isabel means “God’s promise”; and Elliana means “my God has answered me.”
Samantha @ Mama Notes says
I love all these names. We are trying to figure out a name for our 2nd coming so this gave us some good ideas! 🙂 And I love all the meanings too so beautiful!
Anita says
I love meanings of names too… our children are:
Israel David- “God’s beloved warrior”
Samantha Joy- “She who listens to God” and “Joy” and
Caleb Micah- “Faithful adventurer” and “who is like the Lord?”
We have asked God to give us each child’s name and He has been faithful to do that, really making it clear to us. So because he gave us the name, we also pray the meaning over each of them, ie “Lord, be with Samantha! Help her to truly listen to you, even now, and to obey you with joy. Let her bring great joy to you and to others!” etc.
Your children’s names are gorgeous! Beautiful, with beautiful meanings 🙂
abba12 says
I love looking through meanings of names, I used to write a lot of fiction and would spend hours choosing names for my characters. Unfortunately the importance of the meaning ruled out a few of my husbands favourite names, including Rhiannon.
I’m not a stickler for having Hebrew or Biblical names though. Some of my favourites are biblical (mostly boy names for some reason), others aren’t, it’s not a nececity for me. I’m also aware of, and trying to avoid any patterns like 5 letters or same letter starts! We also aren’t big on family names, it just never meant much to either of us, so that gives us a lot of freedom to choose our names!
We are restricted in two ways though. Both our families accidentally picked popular names at popular times for their older children. Do you realise how many Rachels there are in their late 20s, Daniels and Emilys around the 20yo mark, and Sarahs in their late teens? My BIL Daniel has two Daniels as close friends. Always gets a laugh when people work down the line shaking hands and get three Daniels in a row. My best friend is also Emily, and my SIL Rachel’s best friend is also named Rachel. So, popular names are right out until they have passed a little (We adore the name Isabella, but I think we will wait 10 years or so, since I currently know TWO women with brand new baby Isabellas!). Unfortunately my husbands family happened to name their children some of my favourite names (I love Daniel as a name, but they already have one, same with Joshua and Ariel) so that’s my other restriction.
We think we will be going with Arwen Hope for this little one (Arwen was a welsh name BEFORE Lord of the Rings, meaning Fair and Fine. Hope obviously means Hope). A boy would probably have become Gabriel Andrew (that’s one tradition we will keep, the eldest son gets my husbands name for a middle name)
Some of my ‘want to use’ list are
Boy: Josiah, Caleb
Girl: Noelle, Isabella
Courtney says
I love this… and their names are beautiful!
We choose names by meaning as well and also give a family middle name. It is getting harder though…. with 9 kids we are running out of names!
Kelly says
All of our kids have family names.
Mary Madison- Mary was my beloved Grandmother’s name. Madison was my husband’s grandmother’s maiden name (her first & middle names were Lucinda Ware- can’t do much with those!)
Nathan Reeves- “Reeves” is my husband and his Dad’s middle name so it was special for Nathan to be the third generation to share the name.
Savannah Marie- Savannah was a name we loved. Marie is my Mother’s middle name but also it is French for “Mary” so another nod to my Grandmother.
Lyra Mae- We loved the name Lyra- it reminds us of the word “lyrical”. Mae- One of my husband’s favorite Aunt’s name & it is also a derivative of “Mary”.
We love that all of our girls have Mary or some version of it in their name. My grandmother was such a wonderful, Godly lady. Each of our kids gets a framed picture of their namesake to hang in their bedroom now and take with them when they are older.
Rebecca says
We love name meanings too. All our kids have a Biblical first name and a family middle names. Most were chosen for the meanings but some for a reference to something. We fell into the J, S, J, S pattern : ).
They are:
John David (beloved gift of God)
Samuel Kenneth (asked of God)
Jared Paul (servant rock)
Simon Gerard (hearer of the word)
Jesse Harris Robert (reference to being a good father as he was David’s father in the Bible and must have been a good father to raise someone like David)
Summer Analynn (reference to the Noah story-as she is our 6th, we got many negative reactions so her name is a reminder to follow God (in this case in giving our womb to him) no matter what others are saying)
Jude Victor (Praise to the Lord! Victory!)-this is our child that was diagnosed at 2 months with brain cancer and hydrocephaly. We’ve had many opportunities to praise the Lord and declare victory as we’ve walked thru the last 1 1/2 years with this child not the least of which is for His presence thru it all!
Love the names you chose too-such strong meanings!
Holly says
Normally I don’t look too much at the meaning of the name unless the meaning is something not very good. I usually go through babynames.com and create a list of names and then my hubby goes through the list and narrows it down. I go through the list again and narrow it some more and then me and my hubby decide together. That’s how all our girls were named but our newest joy was more thought out and has more meaning since she’s our rainbow baby.
Kyndra Renee – Kyndra means “greatest champion” and Renee is “reborn”
Carleigh McKenna – Carleigh means “free man” and McKenna means “ascend”
Lainey Iris – Lainey means “bright, shining light” and Iris means “rainbow”
JustCorey says
My sons first name my husband had come up with it is an irish name to go along with his heritage and it means dreamer or visionary. It was a unisex name that we chose for whether we ended up with a boy or a girl.
My sons middle name is meaningful to us and was chosen during a rough time in our life. I wrote about it here: http://hebeforeme.blogspot.com/2010/08/bumpy-road-and-little-rock.html
Our baby boy is our little Rock to always remind us of the Rock on which we stand.
Jaime Lynn Braden says
My daughter’s name is Kaitlyn Grace. Kaitlyn means “pure” in Irish. We thought that would be a wonderful thing for a girl or woman to be.
jerilyn says
Names are very important to us as well. Our boys are: Benjamin Noah, which means the son of my right hand (implying Christ) is my comfort; and Martyn Asher, which speaks about the fight for our joy in Christ. We also like to pick a verse. And since names and meanings are so important, we spend a lot of time pouring over them and they are well decided in advance of the birth– so we already have several boys’ names on our list and a couple of girl ones, for some reason those are harder for us to come up with. We want long standing names, probably from Hebrew, Latin, English/Welsh origins. Our boy names (given and the next 2 on our list) all end with ‘n’ so we’ll might continue that theme for continuity. However, I will slightly change the meaning of a name if I love it so much… like Calvin, it means bald, but I love it- so maybe Calvin can mean God is sovereign in salvation (alluding to some of Calvin’s doctrines).
Sheila @Momfessions says
I loved this so much I blogged about my babies’ names too!
http://momfessions.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/baby-bug-names/
Thanks for sharing!
'Becca says
We wanted our baby’s middle name to be a name from my family. If we had a girl, her middle name would be Louise after my beloved grandmother, definitely. We have a boy, and I liked Luke as a form of Louise, but it’s a parsing problem with the last name which begins with a vowel.
While I was pregnant, one uncle had a horrible fight with my parents and stopped speaking to them, and this made us question the wisdom of naming the baby after a living relative: What if that person “turns on” us?
Meanwhile, in a book of names we found that Adric is a “real” name, not just the name of one of our favorite “Doctor Who” characters! We gradually came to realize that Adric is the masculine form of Audrey and sounds like a blend of Adam and Frederick; I have relatives named Audrey, Adam, and Frederick. So he is named after several relatives without having the exact name of any of them!
Anita Chamblee says
Here is a link to a similar post on our children’s names that I posted almost two years ago.
http://busyhandsbusyminds.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-caedmon-got-his-name.html
Christy says
I’ve always loved traditional names that have withstood the test of time and have meaning. And my dh and I have chosen some middle names based on important people in our lives, like my father and dh’s twin brother. I wanted our sons to have names that would serve them well as children and men.
Amy says
This is such a wonderful post! I LOVE that you take such great care in naming your children because of the meaning you want to bless them with. We have always done this as well! All throughout the Bible, God makes a big deal about names and their meaning, even changing them many times to show great change in someones life. I believe this is powerful and wonderful!
Kate says
We chose our children’s names carefully too!
Our daughter is Rebekah Christine. My husband and I had both always liked Rebekah and had really no other names we agreed upon, so she had to be that. The name as a whole means “Beautiful follower of Christ,” which we hope she will be (and think she already is!).
Our son is Daniel Benjamin. It is the tradition in my husband’s family for the son to take the father’s first name as his middle name. His name means “God is my judge; son of my right hand.” His our first son and we hope that God will lead him and guide him!
When I am pregnant I sit down and feel my baby move and think, who is this child? The name that comes to me may not be a name I’ve ever particularly liked or thought I would choose, but it is perfect. God is telling me who is coming. 🙂
mamajil says
We accidently fell into the pattern of changing the letter if the gender changes first we had a boy and named him Josh, then we had 4 girls all with M names, then 2 boys both with S names, then 3 girls all with R names…..and yes I have found that the meaning of their names has rang true with their nature and personalities…its kinda cool
Village of Moms says
We have agreed to name our sons Biblical names (so far we have 1) and all of our children have familial middle names. Our daughter’s name was “formed” by linking two names together, both of whose meaning we liked. The first part of her name is actually the same meaning as her brother’s name, so we really liked that (his is an Old Testament name and her first part of her name is an Irish version of the New Testament version of his name)!
Stephanie says
I’m a name-aholic. I’ll be thinking of names for the next one when I’m 92!
We have Elijah Wolffe. Elijah is after my brother and Wolffe is sort of for him, too. He died when he was 23 and he’d had no children yet, but his hope was to name a son Wolfgang. We’d always joked about it and after a few years, he really liked it. So Wolffe is in memory of that.
Next is Gillen Jude. I have a friend with the last name Gillen and I love it. I also love the nickname Gil, but hate the name Gilbert. I have read many versions of spelling and meaning for this name, including Circle (completeness) and Worship. Jude means Praise. I love the idea of a child set apart to worship and praise.
Kylie Grace was our first girl her name means Attractive Grace and I pray that she will be so filled with the grace of God that people are attracted to Him. My husband named her from a list of names we took to the hospital, because I was too full of happy hormones to contribute.
Augustin Daniel came next. We wanted a Gus and that is what we call him. But my husband wanted him to hame a longer name- just not Fergus or Angus. I really liked August and often wish I had used that, but the syllable emphasis is on the “Au” part, so I thought it made Gus a kind of awkward nickname. Daniel is my husband’s name. Augustin means majestic and Daniel means the Lord is my judge.
Jesse Sackett was our fifth. Jesse means wealthy and was just about the only serious contribution my husband ever made to naming a kid. He nixes names and chooses from my original list, but he never comes up with his own names. So when he suggested this, I knew it would be it. Sackett comes from a special family vacation spot, Sacket’s Harbor, New York. But everyone liked it spelled with 2 t’s.
Then we had twin girls. Now, I had always regretted not saying what I really wanted when we named Kylie, and I had gone through several years of friends using or planning to use the girl names that I had loved for years and years (I bought my first name book when I was 11!). My husband, who is usually picky and opiniated when we are choosing names, basically gave me the gift of naming the girls and it was sooo much fun. They are Daisy Susannah and Lucy Arwen. Daisy is my favorite flower and a name I love. Susannah means lily is after two special aunts who never had children, but have been more than generous to me and to my children. To me, daisies and lillies are both flowers that symbolize purity and innocence, so that name really holds that meaning for me. Lucy means light, and is a name I love because of the character in the Chronicles of Narnia. Her openness to Aslan (Jesus), her childlike faith, her ability to see Him even when others can’t, are all sweet to me. Arwen is from The Lord of the Rings. It was the girl name we chose at the beginning of our marriage. We didn’t use it with our first daughter because she was born the month before the movies came out and we thought Arwen’s might be everywhere. Arwen mean Fair or White. So Daisy has a flower name of purity and Lucy has a literary name of light. Both are kind of pure names.
People usually either love or hate my kids’ names and that doesn’t bother me a bit. I like unusual names and my husband tempers that, so we find a happy medium that works for us. I really don’t like using extremely common names and, other than Kylie, I think we’ve managed that.
I’ve already picked out potential names for the next baby (who isn’t even under construction!) and they are Georgie Dove and Ezra something (Leo, Atticus, True, Declan). I love names!!
Amy says
What wonderful stories behind your children’s names! Thanks so much for sharing!
heather says
Having a name that means “eternal bitterness”, I was extremely careful in choosing my children’s names! We have four so far, and it’s been a progression.
Hadley is my oldest, which means “girl in heather” (my name), with a middle name that’s a tribute to a man who mentored husband and I.
John Gideon (Jack) is my boy, and his name means “mighty, beloved warrior”.
Amelia Jubilee is number three, meaning “joy at the work of the Lord”.
Just yesterday we were blessed with Caroline Eyre, “to radiate beautiful song”. We’d chosen her name and kept it to ourselves, but one night at a prayer meaning someone gave me a word that this baby would worship the Lord in new ways, so it was confirmed for us then!
Mrs. White says
The picture is lovely!
Blessings
Mrs. White
Amanda says
I too chose names based on meaning. My daughter is Katarina Nicole – pure/victorious. We thot to be victoriously pure was a wonderful blessing for a girl. My first son is Seth Michael – Chosen/Man of God. My second son Nicholas Ryan – Victorious/Little King (fits him perfectly for he is very strong willed) My third son Noah Riley -Peaceful/Valiant (also perfect for him for he is a little gentleman always giving compliments. And last but not least Ethan Tyler – Strong, Enduring/Honorable.
Robin says
I love names!
I was wondering where you found this meaning:
Megan Courtney – “great & mighty servantâ€
I have not found meanings like that for these names, but I love those meanings. Thanks!
Cheryl@SomewhatCrunchy says
I love reason #2! Ww do that, it happened by accident too. If you add the number of letters from our first, middle and last name you get 14 🙂 Our last name has 4 letters, I’m Cheryl Lynn, hubs is Shane Allen and our sons are William Fox and Bram Caesar 🙂
Amanda Sikes says
http://alturl.com/n9eui
I finally got my post up. I loved this idea and wanted to share the stories behind our children’s names. Thanks for a great idea!!
Taryn says
I find the Duggars choice of names interesting-19 children-names all begin with J. We have name books in our bookcase. Remember- there are negative names in the Bible-like Diana in the book of Acts(KJV). My daughters are Jessica and Angela Victoria. Granddaughters are Shealeigh, Hannah Rose, Reagan Faith, and Aliyah. Sons are firstborn after my husband, Charles Michael, Jonathan Paul,and Michael Joseph.
Jennifer says
We only have one child so far, but we are hoping to have another soon. Our naming rules are that the first name has to start with “J” and if possible either the first or middle name (or even better, both names) should be a family name. We also prefer traditional spellings of names over the newer trend of making a name spelling unique. My husband just prefers it that way, I read a study once that found that people whose names are “misspelled” are often perceived as not being as smart as people with traditional spellings. So I don’t want to hinder my child, even if it is just a misconception on someone else’s part.