John has blogged about Jonadab's (Joe for short) somewhat unusual name. See Why the Name "Jonadab"? at johnscorner.blogspot.com.
When Amy shared the Biblical story behind Jonadab's name, Jonelle wondered if she should have chosen a biblical name for her daughter.
While a Biblical name can provide an opportunity to share the character you would like your children to have, I believe we can add a God-glorifying meaning to any name we give our children. And, I recommend you do so.
I heard a speaker once give the name "Cynthia" as an example. Cynthia means moon, and when a young girl heard that, she asked her mother why she had named her after such a strange object. The mother, thinking fast, replied, "Cynthia means reflector of the Lord's glory (as the moon reflects the sun's light)."
When we looked up Jonelle's new daughter's name, Natalia, it means "Christmas Day." We'd like to expand that definition to "Celebrating the Lord's coming."
What do your children's names mean, and how can you re-direct their names to reflect an eternal significance?
8 comments:
We have Biblical names for all of our children. Their first names are their own, but their middle names are after someone special in our family.
#1 daughter - Jordan Beth (after the river Jordan)
#2 son - Samuel David (Samuel means "asked of God" David means "beloved"
#3 son - Elijah Ruben (Elijah means "Jehovah is God" I like the fact that non-Christians are saying "Jehovah is God" without even knowing it! Ruben means "behold, a son"
#4 son - Luke Harlen (Luke is named after the doctor and writer in the N.T. Harlen was given to honor my husband's step-father who raised him)
We don't have Biblical names, but we did concern ourselves with the meanings and our cultural heritages. Dh is Hispanic/French, while I am German/English (eh, mostly).
Our oldest, Jacob Miguel - many people think the name Jacob means Usurper, but it really means "the one who holds on" Jacob was named this because he held on to his brother's heel. Miguel - "Who is like God?" and is his father's name.
Raina Marie = Princess of the sea (of Bitterness, ugh) there is some disagreement on the bitterness part, and she is truly our most pleasant child.
Emma Rose = Universal flower or Universal Giver of Love (Rose has been associated with the meaning 'giver of love') We have high hopes for this one, ;)
Our sons have biblicval names, a few of them the Dutch version of the name. But I find that their names tend to be indicative of qualities that the really need to round out their characters. Nicolaas (overcomer) Caleb (bold)tends to be a more timid child, while Paiter - Dutch for Peter (rock)Ernst- for Earnest, tends to not have his proverbial feet on the ground.
We also have an Isaac Jonathan and an Ezra David, both lovely and helpful boys.
Our daughter's name is not Biblical, but I do believe that God has given her the name. Her name is Ellieson, which was our adaptation of the Greek Eleison- having had mercy- and her middle name is her Chinese name Le Li(she is adopted). One of the meanings of Le Li is "joyful day break" so we take her name to mean... having had mercy a joyful daybreak. We really like that especially because we received her referral two years to the hour of my granmothers passing and my grandmothers name was Cynthia and as another poster pointed out that name has reference to the moon. So our Ellie (as we call her) is the joyful daybreak after the moon has set.
There is a lot to a name, I truly believe that.
Morley
My oldest daughter is Lydianna -- a variation on Lydia (beautiful) and my younger is Adalee variation of "Blessing."
I thought it was interesting...you have the same blogging background that I have on my blog.
Sorry I just realized I commented using my husband's login (Kevin).
Well congratultions again!!!
We're not very deep. LOL We didn't chose our children's names based on meanings, we just chose what we liked.
I figure that they'll be who'll they'll be regardless of what their names mean.
Congratulations, and to the parents! Our boys are Caleb Joel and Aaron James, all biblical names. I guess we partly wanted biblical names as a talking point, or a kick-off to evangelism. Sarita, thanks for 'humanising' Sonlight. It's interesting getting to know you all as more than an organisation.
Charlotte Christine = little womanly, Christlike...
Levi Michael = Joined, whois like God?
For the upcoming boy, debut in Dec... I am hoping for a name meaning gift of God, or something similar, but hubby likes Mark, "warlike"
Maybe we can meld the two into warrior, and something that means belonging to God.... :-)
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