Friday, February 7, 2014

What's in a Name?!

      I love hearing about names, and the stories about how they were chosen. Before we lost our baby, we had already begun to talk about names. We had a girl name, but the boy name was causing us trouble like they always do. Earlier today I was thinking about our boys' names and how we decided on them. I thought I would share the stories behind our own names.

Joshua Paul~His parents chose his names from the Bible. He was named after the Old Testament Israelite leader who led the Jews into the Promised Land. He was also named after the apostle Paul in the New Testament who once persecuted Christians before becoming one of, if not, the greatest missionary for Christ the world has ever known.


Kaydi Marie~My parents named me after my great Uncle Caddy. Caddy was the nickname he was given because he loved Caro syrup. Not sure how they got Caddy from Caro syrup. My parents were afraid I would be called Caddy (short a sound) if they spelled it like my Uncle's spelling, so they came up with the more phonetically correct spelling of my name. My mom really liked the name Marie and thought it went well with Kaydi.


Logan Elijah~Joshua and I had a hard time agreeing on a name for Logan. I had wanted to name Logan Jaxon, but Joshua didn't want to do that because they had had a dog named Jackson. Joshua wanted to name Logan and Lucas Malachi after the prophet in the Bible, but all I can think about is the boy from the movie Children of the Corn that Joshua made me watch with him one time we were dating. We actually decided on Logan's middle name first. Our pastor at the time, Shawn Barnard, preached a sermon on I Kings 18 about Elijah standing up to Ahab and false prophets of Baal. After hearing that sermon, we both wanted to Logan to have that legacy of boldness for God in his name. We pray that Logan has the boldness of the Old Testament prophet Elijah to stand up for God even when no one around seems to being the same. A few weeks later we choose Logan. He's actually named after the X-Men character Wolverine. Logan is his human name. The first time I had heard the name Logan was when reading The Babysitter's Club by Ann M. Martin as a preteen. The only other time I had heard it before we named Logan that was when watching the X-Men movies with Joshua. We wanted to have a name that wasn't too common but wasn't so different that people would have a hard time with it. When I suggested it, Joshua almost immediately agreed because it was Wolverine's human name. One of Logan's last days in the hospital, the tech who pricked his heel had a new son who was also named Logan after Wolverine. Logan loves the fact that he's named after a mutant superhero.


Lucas Elisha~Joshua and I had a hard time agreeing on a name for Lucas as well. We actually knew from the beginning that if we had another boy Elisha would be the middle name because the Old Testament prophet Elisha ministered with Elijah and took over his ministry once Elijah was carried to heaven in the fiery chariot. We went back and forth about the first name. And if we wanted to give him an L name or not. We love the teen drama One Tree Hill. The main character played by Chad Micheal Murray is named Lucas. So we named our Lucas after the One Tree Hill character. We had actually liked the name Lucas (because of the character) for Logan, but there was a boy in the nursery at church with that name, so we went with Logan. By the time I was pregnant with Lucas that family no longer attended our church, so we went with Lucas. Joshua and I have recently started watching One Tree Hill from the beginning. I pointed out to Lucas one night when he had gotten out of bed that the Lucas on the TV was where we got the idea for his name. Not my best idea because now he keeps bringing me the DVDs telling me he wants to watch them. I love OTH, but it is definitely not Lucas or Logan appropriate at this point in their life.


     Biblical legacies coupled with a mutant super hero and a teen drama character for name inspiration. I hope Lucas isn't too disappointed when they get older, and he realizes while his brother was name for a mutant super hero, he was named after a teen soap character. 

     I would love to hear the story behind your name or a family member's name. Feel free to leave me a comment.

8 comments:

  1. I love the stories of the boys' names.

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  2. Love to hear name stories too. My boys, and myself are all named after family members.

    I, Eva Marie, am named after my G'ma (Viola Eva) and my Mom (Evelyn Marie).

    Douglas Laurence is named after his Dad (Douglas Edward) and his G'pa/Great G'pa, my dad (they are Jr/Sr.... Laurence Riley)

    Robert Edward is named after his Dad (Douglas Edward) and his G'pa, Doug's Dad. Doug's Dad's legal name is Bobby and he always felt that was immature for a business professional so had said if we wanted to name a child after him to name him Robert, which we did (Bobby Glenn)

    By the time the little boys came around I had noticed how some names seem to have a specific personality trait attached to them so when picking names, I still wanted family names, but I didn't want them to have a negative personality trait attached too, so it sort of got a bit trickier, plus we'd already used up the immediate g'parents.

    Riley Daniel is named for his G'pa/Great G'pa (the Jr/Sr thing Laurence Riley). His Middle name is in honor of Doug's Mom's husband. Since he is for all practical purposes their G'pa, we felt it fitting to include him in the naming of the kids. His name is Dan Coleman, but we wanted to use Daniel instead of the shortened form.

    When Andrew James arrived on the scene well, I realized that I had used my Dad's side of the family extensively but not my Mom's side. That is where the James came from (Harry James) but I have some negative personality traits associated with the name James, so I didn't want that to be his first name. After consulting the family trees we saw there were several Andrews sprinkled throughout and thought that it would fit nicely.

    We also joked that his name as Andrew fit well...... ANd we DREW it to an end. (we knew he was going to be the last one)

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  3. My sweet babies were named after my Grandparents on both sides and my mother. Clara Jewell and Paul Bryson, Clara Faye was my grandmothers name on my Dads side I liked Clara because you don't hear of that name anymore at least not in the US. Jewell is my mothers name Jewell LaNell. Paul was named after both of my Grandpa's Stidley Brice and Paul Perry.I thought that Stidley may be too different and when I told Paul what his name could have been. I said I should have named him Stidley. his nick name could have been Studly Stidley LOL. I went with Bryson because we already had a Brice in the family. I think both names fit them to a tee! Clara truly has an old soul and she is my Jewell! Her name means clear(Clara) precious gem(Jewell) and Paul is such a distinguished name, his name means humble (Paul) grandson of a nobleman( Bryson).

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    1. Wow Shellie! I love that. I would totally call Paul by that nickname. If I would've been a boy, they would have named me Aaron because that was my uncle's real name. :)

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  4. Josie after a Clint Eastwood movie The Outlaw Josey Wells...Hollyce Craig met someone with that name and cane home and told me he had it picked...Her middle is Ann after both of our mom's....Cassidy...we did the list thing and just kept going back to that choice....Sean Thomas...Heehee I just liked the way they went together

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    1. I think of Josey Wells when I think of your Josie. That's my dad's favorite movie! :)

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