Naming Baby

Ahhh, naming the baby.  Every family has their way of doing so.  And each way is "right".  Some choose family names, some Biblical names, or some just get creative by picking letters from a hat and arranging them into a name (yes, I've heard of people doing this).  I thought I would tell a little about the way we've done it, and where we are with a name for this baby.

There have been a couple of exceptions to our name picking, but one thing has remained a common thread, and a second comes in close.  The first part of the naming process has always been that the name must be uncommon.  Not weird, or strange, just not a common name.  Granted when we named Isabella it was not a popular name.  Then two years later it hit a boom, until a handful more years passed and it actually reached the number 1 spot for two years in a row!  But, at least at the time, it was an uncommon name.

The second consideration has been the meaning of the name.  We've had a couple of exceptions where we placed more emphasis on meaning with their middle name, as is the case with Flannery and Aubrey.  The odd thing is that their name meanings kind of come through in their personality even still!  Though it could be because I am just 'looking' for it.

For each child so far the name that really 'stuck' with me, the name that I just had to have, happened to be the gender of the baby!  So you can imagine, that by baby number 8, all eyes (or in this case ears) were on me....what name do I like?  And as God would have it, He is really leaving this one a surprise!  We have just over 2 weeks until the due date and we are not settled on a name as of yet.  We have a boy's name that is in the running, and though I really love the meaning of the name, and the middle name options, I'm just not 'crazy' with the actual name.  Nothing bad about it, just not sticking out to me.  And for a girls name?  Well, I really haven't even given much thought to it since we are 'supposed' to be having a boy!  For those who do  not know, we do NOT know the gender of the baby.  It's just ME that thinks it *has* to be a boy.  I mean, if it's not it would ruin our little pattern we have going and that just doesn't seem right :-)

So you can imagine my surprise, when the kids were watching a Disney movie (of ALL things!!!), and I heard this girl's name.  I was in the kitchen making dinner.  And I Could. Not. Get. That. Name. Out. Of. My. Head.  Every time the name was said in the movie I had to repeat it.  Then I said it out loud a few times.  I even asked Jeremiah to look up it's meaning!  But by golly we don't need a girls name I told myself, we need a boys name :-)  That name was tossed out.

Last night we sat around as a family talking about names and their meanings and such.  And one of the girls remembered that girl's name, and brought it back up.  And by golly I am trying to NOT think about that name.  I mean, if we are having a boy we need a boy's name.  Ha, ha!!!  So let's just say the name it still undecided, but I did spend way too many hours in the wee hours of the night thinking about the fact that this baby *could* be a girl....GASP!  What do we do then?  I mean my whole world will be turned upside down!  (I am just jesting to be sure, we would be thrilled either way with a boy or girl!!!!)

So here is the breakdown of the names of our children, and why they were chosen, and what we are looking for in the meaning of this current baby's name options:

Isabella Hope---Jeremiah insisted that our first born (a son preferably) would have the meaning of "Beloved of God".  The closest he could come with a name of that meaning was Elijah.  The female version was Elizabeth, and Isabella is a version of that.  We decided to go with a virtue for the middle name.  After her very hard delivery we thought Hope fit well.  Now that she is older her name has even more meaning as she is our first born and we've made many, many, MANY mistakes in our parenting.  And with that we are indeed holding onto the HOPE of the LORD that she will be His.

Moira Grace--- Moira is a form of Mary, and that means bitter.  However, I really look at Mary, the mother of Jesus, and think of the qualities she must have possessed.  For that reason alone we thought it was a good fit.  And Moira is a picture of responsibility and grace.

Flannery Faith--- Flannery means 'red haired one'.  That is funny because Moira is the red head!  But I just LOVED the sound of her name.  The funny thing is that Flannery kind of has that notorious red haired personality---the fire part of it!  But not overly much, it's just funny how that turned out.

Saoirse Promise--- Her name means 'freedom'.  Definitely given to me by the Lord.  It was very a difficult time for us, and freedom was a constant prayer of mine.  So her name was very fitting for the time we were in.  The Promise part was definitely due to holding onto the promises of God.

Jedidiah John---  I first saw this name on the cover of a parenting magazine!  This was just before we knew we were expecting him, and when I saw this name I HAD to HAVE it!!  But Jeremiah was still stuck on using Elijah.  I never mentioned it to him, but two weeks later, a couple of days before we found out we were expecting Jeremiah came into the room and told me he had done more research on the name he felt led to call our first born son.  He told me it was actually the name, 'Jedidiah'.  People, if I had not been sitting down I would have fallen over!!!  I told him that if we were indeed expecting that that baby was going to be a boy!!  And it was!  And during all of his medical difficulties we had heard many people tell us that he is loved by God, and in His hands.  Totally fitting.

Jonah Timothy---  His name means 'peace'.  Again, this baby was named with a meaning that really meant something to us at the time, the circumstances we were going through.  I had actually wanted his name to be Jonas, and every once in a while (still at the age of 5) I find myself thinking about having used that version instead.  But every time I think that, it doesn't last long.  Jonah, is just SOOOOO Jonah :-)   Jeremiah just brought up a few months ago, that with every person in our family Jonah is the happiest of all.  He's just happy to be alive each day.  He wakes with a smile on his face.  He is indeed a child of peace.  Don't get me wrong....he's still a boy :-)  He can be rough, and he's learning to handle that strength, but over all he totally fit's his name.

Aubrey Shepherd--- Well, for Aubrey, it was his middle name that I got stuck on first.  We were reading a scripture and the word 'shepherd' totally jumped from the page at me.  We had to have it for a middle name (we took a beak in the virtue middle names for our first two boys, and used family names).  Jeremiah was really stuck on the name Aubrey.  But for me it was a girls name, not a boys name!!!  But he was persistent, and believe it or not we came to know an adult *male* named Aubrey during that time! It wasn't that I didn't like the name, it was unusual enough for my tastes :-), but for a boy?  Well, Aubrey is indeed an Aubrey.  How could have I thought otherwise?  The meaning of the name though is 'elf king'.  Hmmmm.  Good thing for his middle name!  ha, ha.  And I can not tell you how many times I have called him my little imp!  Not even thinking of the meaning!!!!!  Yikes.  Thankfully even though he can be a handful at times, he is a very loving little boy.

That brings us to this baby, baby number 8, still to be named.  I have been praying, praying, praying that the Lord would clue us in on the name (like I have with most of our children).  Nothing was coming.  Then in church service a few Sunday's ago the pastor made mention of the scripture in Isaiah about the Word of the Lord going forth and not returning void.  Right then and there I just started crying!  My girls were all asking what was wrong, but there wasn't anything wrong, I just started crying out of the blue!  This scripture was very fitting for our family in our current state.  And I knew that this had to have a part in the name of this baby.  So that has been our mission.  There isn't any name in particular that means this, so we are going for the general meaning of things. So far we have a boys name, with two possible middle names.  We do not have a girl's name decided, but that one from the movie is sticking with me, which has a nice meaning overall, and a couple of middle name options that would work with the meaning above that I mentioned.  But still....no name decided!  Very frustrating.  I am praying that a name will become fitting once we have a baby in our arms :-)

And that has been our journey with naming babies.