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OT: Where did your child's name come from?

Tagged: names of kids

This topic has 24 replies, 20 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 8 months ago by suzukimom.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 25 total)

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September 16, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Kate Mom of 1
Participant
As I writer, I am obsessed with names and how people decide and if their names “fit” their personality. I just find it all so interesting. So tell me…is it a literary character? A family name? A bibical name? Just a name you liked?
My only daughter’s name is Kelsey Aurora. My husband just liked the name Kelsey, but we chose Aurora because it means “Dawn”. we thought it was a beautiful name that symbolized a new chapter in our life of having a family, after 9 years of marriage, and 6 years of trying to get pregnant followed by a year of waiting for her adoption. It was a good choice!
September 16, 2012 at 10:12 pm
nerakr
Participant
We named ds8 after both of his grandfathers. Our daughter’s first name (Jennifer) was a name we both liked. Her middle name came about because dh wanted her initials to spell a word. It had to begin with A, but we couldn’t find one that sounded right with Jennifer. Then a friend suggested Ariel. If the last syllable is stressed it sounds better. (Ari-EL)
As a side note, what kinds of things do you write?
September 16, 2012 at 10:29 pm
Linabean
Participant
I love names, too! : ). It was very important for me to pick names for our kids that had meaning, because that is what would be spoken over them every time anyone called their name!
Both of my daughters names were first heard from books that I had read. And then a lot of name meanings were looked into before they were official. I prayed over my kids while I was pregnant with them and so the meaning of their names was what fit best with where we felt the Holy Spirit was leading us in prayer over them. My dd10’s names are Melina (soft and gentle) Grace (pretty self-explanatory, 😉 ). My dd6 names are Arianna (holy) Elizabeth (promise or vow to God. Also can mean vow of God).
My ds8’s name was searched for for a while, actually. My mother had a dream while I was pregnant that this baby would be used to be a Godly Joy to others live’s just as my late Grandfather’s life had been after he was saved. We looked for a while for a boy’s name that meant Joy or joyful that we both liked. His name is Ranen (we pronounce it like RAY-nen) Nathanael (Gift from God. It is also my husband’s middle name). So my son’s name altogether is “joyful gift from God”. : ).
Fun topic! Thanks!
-Miranda
September 16, 2012 at 10:32 pm
LindseyD
Participant
Our son’s name has a pretty cool story, we think. It all started with my husband’s best friend who was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 18; they had been friends since they were 6 and were inseparable. His name was Ryan. Consequently, my middle name is also Ryon–but pronounced like Ryan only spelled with an ‘o’. It was never a question that if we had a boy, Ryan would be his name. Then, in June of 2003, we bought our first home. We had our life group from church come to our new home to pray over it as we were moving in. They all gathered around us, with my husband and I sitting on our piano benches and people’s hands were placed on us in prayer and blessing for us and our home. Our pastor began prophesying over us that we were going to have a baby boy and that he was going to be a great prophet of God, proclaiming God’s Word, and preaching to crowds. (Yes, we believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still alive and active in the Church, and no, we are not Pentecostal…just in case you were wondering. ) Two weeks later, I found out I was pregnant. We didn’t even know I was pregnant when our pastor spoke these words over us and our child, so there’s no way he knew, except by a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit.
As soon as the pregnancy test showed two pink lines, there was no doubt in my mind that the child I carried was a boy. That day, I went out and bought baby boy clothes. We already knew his first name would be Ryan (meaning “little king”), and because of what was prophesied over him before we even knew he existed, we believed God would have us name him after the greatest prophet who ever lived: Elijah (meaning “my God is Yahweh” or “the Lord is my God”). So his name is Ryan Elijah.
Our daughter’s name doesn’t have such a special story. We simply chose a name that was original, unique, and that we both loved. Her name is Addilyn Belle–Depending on what source you use, Addilyn either means “noble” or “under God’s guidance”, Belle is “beautiful” in French. Most of the time, we call her Addie.
September 16, 2012 at 11:14 pm
curlywhirly
Participant
All 4 of my kids have Bible inspired names and I hope that the name would inspire their lives as well.
Oldest son is Joshua (means “God Is Salvation” and Joshua in the Bible was strong and couragous)
Second son is Andrew which means “Manly”, and Andrew in the Bible always was bringing others to God.
Daughter is Sarah meaning “Princess”, and Sarah in the Bible was part of God’s plan to bless many people. Her middle name is Grace and that is the meaning of my Grandma’s name. She was born on my Grandma’s birthday so we want to honor my Grandma who mostly raised me.
My youngest son’s name is Caleb meaning “Whole Hearted”. Caleb in the Bible was a mighty warrior who wasn’t afraid to trust God. Caleb is adopted and our prayer is that God will help him to heal and have a whole heart despite the troubles he has endured.
September 17, 2012 at 12:05 am
delaney
Participant
Oh well here we go!
DS 17 Casey-DH’s middle name and is short for Casimir(his grandfather from Poland) Oh and his initials are CPA…which DH happens to be 🙂
DS Jordan 13-DH’s favorite basketball player and I really liked it anyway
DD McKenzie 12- umm…….not really sure but she has my middle name
DD Delaney 8- someone said the name and I fell in love
DS Jeffrey 6- The Dr’s name!!! He delivered all of my kids and is a family friend. We honestly went in circles with names and it kind of hit us right before delivery to use the name.
DS Tristan 3- I have always loved this name but because it rhymes with my name (Kristen) I always thought it was corny to use. Well after 5 kids we were just like WHO CARES! and he has DH’s first name as his middle
September 17, 2012 at 12:16 am
Kate Mom of 1
Participant
Love it! what beautiful, unique, strong names! I love hearing all the stories behind them, especially yours Lindsey.
If Kelsey had been a boy her name probably would’ve been Caleb Marcus (middle name for my husband)
@nerakr I love to write everything! I’ve kept a private journal from the time I could write single words, and have written a few dozen short stories since I was about 11, and have experimented with poetry. I majored in communications with a journalism focus, and worked as a journalist for our local news for 12 years. I was not working for a few years when Kelsey was a baby, but after DH died, I took a job as a secratary for about 18 months. Then I was blessed to begin working as a newswriter for our local paper. I switched jobs this summer and I’m now homeschooling and working from home as a freelance copywriter and columnist. I also do some editing on the side. Writing and wordplay has been in my heart forever! That’s probably way more than you wanted to know LOL 🙂
September 17, 2012 at 1:53 am
dmccall3
Participant
My DS’s first name is Asher from the Bible. His middle name is Chad which was my DH’s brother’s name. His brother was killed in a car accident when he was young so it was a way to honor him.
My DD’s name is Eva Mae which was my great grandmother’s name.
My DH was named Jonathan, from the Bible, by his grandmother.
And I, Dana, was named after a barmaid on a TV show. Haha. 🙂
September 17, 2012 at 4:03 am
swineygirl
Participant
After 8 years of infertility and a miscarriage, we finally got pregnant with our firstborn. We named her Eliana, which means “God has answered my prayer.” And then I had a baby every 2 years for the next 6 years! God indeed answered our prayers!
September 17, 2012 at 4:22 am
crazy4boys
Participant
I’m going to mix up first and middle names here….Each kid has a religious or Biblical name as well as another name (of some sort). We also worked hard to make sure the names “flowed”, that they varied syllables and such.
Aleksandr…to honor his Russian heritage and it means “protector of mankind”.
Aidan….love the name and we have a strong Scotch/Irish family history. It means “little fire” or “fiery one” and boy did we nail that one!
Quinn…again with the Scotch/Irish. And I just love it. Aidan and Quinn were NOT given to the same child
Faust….named after a religious leader who helped my husband return to Christ. Our family would not exist without this man’s influence.
Joseph…so many amazing men named Joseph in the Bible. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) and there are many wonderful men named Joseph in our church history and in the Book of Mormon as well.
Jacob…this poor kid was named Tow Truck for 3 days before we decided on Jacob. He came early and we weren’t prepared. Like Joseph above, there are many faithful men in the Bible and Book of Mormon that we admire. There is a sibling pair in the Book of Mormon, Jacob and Joseph, who are powerful men in God and good friends. We can only hope the same is true for the sons that bear these names!
Ezekiel…a faithful prophet in the Bible. Means Strength of God.
Josiah…yet another Biblical figure. A king who sought righteousness. Means ‘God has saved’ and He really did.
I feel really lucky that they have the names they do. My husband wanted names like Mustafa, Khalil, Rocky, and Lefty. Cooler heads (or perhaps pregnancy hormones) prevailed.
September 17, 2012 at 5:00 am
Mum In Zion
Participant
Our kids have Hebrew names taken from the Bible…
Micah Jared means “who is like God, who came down”. Micah was born in Bethlehem, Israel… just like our God who came down 🙂
Atarah Naomi means “crown of my delight”.
Tirzah Ruth means “beautiful companion”.
Both girls were born in Jerusalem and their names are really reflected in their personalities. Not something we would have known when we named them of course 🙂

September 17, 2012 at 2:05 pm
pangit
Participant
I, too, love names and am fascinated with them. I did find when choosing names for our children that some names I liked had unmeangful meanings (like white sea dweller). I wanted their names to have meaning and purpose.
Hannah “Grace of God” – a name DH and I both loved and chose long before we were expecting.
Elisa “Promise of/to God” (comes from Elizabeth) – DH read it in a book and liked it.
Ava “Life” (comes from Eve) – she was a hard one to name!!! The only name that DH and I could agree on!! I read it on a baby name board somewhere and really hadn’t given it much thought when I asked DH if he liked it. I was just trying to find his naming style since we weren’t agreeing on anything!! Of course, there is the actor which DH knew the name from. But, I never remember actors names.
Damaris “Gentle” -(we pronouce it duh-mare-isss) Damaris is mentioned in Acts 17:31. The only thing said about her is “and Damaris believed.” What more do we want for our children than for them to believe in and accept our Savior?
We have not yet been blessed with a boy, but if we ever are his name will be:
Levi “Joined/Attached” (my brothers middle name) Joel “Jehovah is God” (DH name and an old testament prophet). Isn’t that what we want for all our children, to be “Attached to our Jehovah God”?
September 17, 2012 at 2:16 pm
4myboys
Participant
Our oldest, Keegan (means little firey one), definately has a personality that fits his name. We were looking for strong, Scottish-Gaelic names as dh and I both have Scottish roots. I just started reading names from a book one day while my dh was working in the kitchen and dh husband kept saying no or hmmm. Then when I read Keegan he said “say that one again” and there it was.
His middle names are his dad’s first name (Douglas) and my grandfather’s first name (Willard). Grampa passed away the year before Keegan was born, but we know he would have adored him. He’d longed for a grandson for years, but only got grand-daughters. When mom was expecting me (I was the oldest) he’d bought this little toy boat for his grandson, but I was a girl — and so were both my younger sisters. He held on to it through the years and when my son was born my granny gave it to him.
Our second son, Logan, also Scottish-Gaelic, means little hollow, though I have one book that translated it as peaceful meadow. We were looking for, again, a strong name, but with a calmer meaning. We considered Dylan, but decided against it as his middle name is Thomas, (my dh’s grandfather’s name).
My name is a pretty good fit in one sense. Tracey (bountiful harvest) and Noelle (Christmas). I was born exactly between Thanksgiving and Christmas. No, my mom didn’t plan it that way. She got my first name from a popular song of the time.
September 17, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Katrina in AK
Participant
Love this post!
DS6 – Ezekiel (God will Strengthen) Brennan (“man of sorrows” – chosen because his dad’s middle name is Brent): We call him Zeke.
DS4 – Aidan (little fiery one) Zane (my hubby likes Zane Grey, and I love Z names). He was going to Josiah, but we tried the name after he was born, and it just. didn’t. fit. So we went back through “the list” and picked this one.
Zeke has red hair. I thought for SURE Aidan would have it, too. But, he doesn’t. Just a fiery personality. 🙂
My name: Katrina – my sisters picked it from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – Ichabod Crane loved Katrina, and Nicole, because my sisters and I all have French sounding middle names – E’Lise, Renee, and Nicole.

September 17, 2012 at 8:36 pm
bethanna
Participant
Great post & close to my heart b/c researching names for new baby. It’s funny how meanings vary depending on the resource. So far we have a mixture of biblical and family names. Abigail (her father’s joy) Olivia (dh’s mom). Ethan (strong, steadfast) Deloy (my dad). Elijah (my god is Jehovah) Seth (appointed). Our little girl due in Jan. is Amelia Faith – not a Bible name, but means hardworking. Interesting story about my dad’s name – he was my grandmother’s third baby, born in the 1940s, and he was so large that she was sure she was carrying twins. She had heard the name Deloy on the radio and liked Delores for the girl “twin” that she was sure of. But only one big boy. 🙂 BTW , she also thought that b/c my grandfather was a twin. His namd was Buford Love and his twin sister, Beulah Dove.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 25 total)

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