What's In a Name?

"I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I was never able to believe it.  A rose just couldn't smell as sweet if it was a thistle or a skunk-cabbage."

Such a memorable line from Anne of Green Gables and I agree!  Despite what Shakespeare wrote, I do believe that there's a lot in a name.  At least Gregg and I put a lot of thought into the names we pick for our children.  We care about what it means, how the name sounds, and the story we will tell each of our children of how we came to pick their name.

With our first baby, when we found out it was a girl, Gregg said he liked the name "Heart."  Eh... not for a first name.  But it made for a beautiful middle name once we found a first name we both liked.  I remembered a baby name website I had stumbled upon on the Internet that had the option of searching names by meaning.  I thought it was pretty cool how in the Bible, when parents named their children, it either described them after they were born, or foretold who they would become when they grew up; the names had meaning.  So I thought picking a character trait to name our girl after was a great idea.  I thought, "What does this world need more of?"  The word, "faithfulness" came to mind.  I thought about how contracts and commitments are constantly being broken these days, even though signing a name on a legal document is supposed to put weight on the agreement being made.  So my hope was to raise a daughter who would one day fulfill the meaning of her name; to be an example of the beauty and endurance of faithfulness to a world that has been disappointed and injured by disloyalty, whether of a legal or relational nature.  So I went to the website, typed in "faithful," and 5 girl names came up.  "Leala" was the winner!  Not only did it sound beautiful, but it was of Old French origin which goes well with the French Canadian heritage I have on my mom's side.  Gregg and I love telling people that Leala's name means "loyal, faithful heart" and I hope when Leala is old enough to hear the story for herself, the thought, care and meaning that was put into her name will make her feel special and valued.

Now with our second baby, once we found out it was another girl, agreeing upon a name wasn't as easy.  First of all, I was in shock that I wasn't having a boy!  My pregnancy differed so much from my first, I was convinced it meant that I was having a boy.  Gregg and I talked a lot about what we wanted our boy to be named and there was no argument about it.  But when Gregg set his heart on a girl name that had come from a joke I made when we thought I might be pregnant again, I wasn't too happy.  My memory of the name's origin was as follows:  Gregg was playfully poking me in the stomach and I jokingly said, "Don't!  You might poke Ruthie Anne!"  Where that name came from, I have no idea!  It turned out I wasn't pregnant at that time, but Gregg remembers us feeling fond about the possibility and there being a look of joy and peace on my face about having another baby.  I really was moved when he recounted this story to me last week, his eyes all moist by the end.  I thought it could win him a featured spot on Extreme Makover: Home Edition.  But seriously, I did care that our daughter's name meant a lot to him... but it meant a lot to me too and I just could not imagine writing "Ruthie Anne" or "Ruth Anne" on our baby's birth certificate.  Yes, it bothered me that "Ruthie/Ruth Anne" was so common.  Yes, it bothered me that the sound of that name didn't seem to go with "Leala" at all.  And most of all, it bothered me that her name really came from a joke.  How could I get around telling that part of the story?  "Go ask your dad?"  But what started eating away at me the most recently was that picking a name for our child should be bringing us closer together, not putting us at stubborn odds against each other.  What we needed was a compromise and thank God (literally), He gave us one!  Gregg wanted "Ruthie Anne," I wanted "Adelina," and Gregg was willing to go with a variation he had found, "Adella".  He felt "Adelina" had too many syllables and I could see what he was saying.  "Leala" and "Adella" are a perfect-sounding match and ummm... after who knows how many hours of labor and how many painful pushes, I am most definitely willing to write "Adella Hope Fields" on her birth certificate than "Ruth Anne!"  Gregg came up with the middle name which we both loved and the other night we realized that we unintentionally were carrying on his mom's tradition of picking middle names for our kids starting with the same letter.  Kinda cool since I got influenced by the Duggars this summer (Gregg and I totally got hooked on 17, 18 and 19 Kids and Counting) with the idea of picking matching names for our kids so no one feels left out.  So now us girls have matching sounding names (Yolanda, Leala, Adella) and Leala and Adella both have middle names that start with "H."  Joy and peace at last and I have to say it is so sweet when Gregg puts his mouth up to my tummy to talk to the baby and addresses her as "Adella."


P.S. A story I think is really cute about picking baby names is Chrysanthemum (hence the picture of the flower in the beginning of this post).  My aunt let us borrow her Scholastic Video Collection and that has been my favorite story so far.

P.P.S. The truewoman.com website has a cool article on 31 Biblical Virtues to Pray for Your Children which I think also makes for a good list of ideas of character traits to name your kids after.