I love names. I love the meaning of names. I love learning about someone's name. I love the history of names. Dan and I believe that your namesake has a huge impact on who you are as a person. So, we're taking the naming of Baby Brother very seriously. Like, I'm rolling my eyes serious. Because I just want to think about his life and pray for his future and his name will be a big part of that. It's his identity.
I feel like we got an unfair advantage with naming Liam. Liam's name was easy. His birth parents gave him a name that they fabricated all on their own; we have no idea where it came from. Strangers would ask his name and after our reply would ask "What does that mean?" or "How did you come up with that" so we'd then have to explain that he was foster child and it was TMI. We shortened it to "Liam" early on and as we got closer to adopting him everyone was calling him Liam. My maiden name is Williamson and before we even had kids we'd talked about using "William" as a middle name someday. Then along came Liam and we had our strong-willed warrior, paying homage to my family and to his birth family. 'Twas meant to be. With such an intense first name, I wanted his middle name to mean something a bit softer than strong-willed warrior. Something like "Felix", which means happy, or "Axel", which means peace. Then Dan found "Moses", which means born of God. Pretty perfect for an adopted child. Liam Moses. Done.
Liam had a personality. He had a few years of life and a huge story. Baby Brother is just a dream. God has plans for him, a life, a future, a destiny. All I know is that he likes spicy food and does not like it when I raise my voice.
So, his name - whatever we decide on - will be our hope for him.
How did you decide on your kids' names?
I feel like we got an unfair advantage with naming Liam. Liam's name was easy. His birth parents gave him a name that they fabricated all on their own; we have no idea where it came from. Strangers would ask his name and after our reply would ask "What does that mean?" or "How did you come up with that" so we'd then have to explain that he was foster child and it was TMI. We shortened it to "Liam" early on and as we got closer to adopting him everyone was calling him Liam. My maiden name is Williamson and before we even had kids we'd talked about using "William" as a middle name someday. Then along came Liam and we had our strong-willed warrior, paying homage to my family and to his birth family. 'Twas meant to be. With such an intense first name, I wanted his middle name to mean something a bit softer than strong-willed warrior. Something like "Felix", which means happy, or "Axel", which means peace. Then Dan found "Moses", which means born of God. Pretty perfect for an adopted child. Liam Moses. Done.Liam had a personality. He had a few years of life and a huge story. Baby Brother is just a dream. God has plans for him, a life, a future, a destiny. All I know is that he likes spicy food and does not like it when I raise my voice.
So, his name - whatever we decide on - will be our hope for him.
How did you decide on your kids' names?
I love this! Naming someone is such a huge undertaking but it seems that names usually just fall into place. I picked Noah from the bible (and The notebook may have had something to do with it that year). Isaac we picked because of the meaning: laughter. I am still not totally in love with the name but it fits him to a T. I recommend spelling either the middle or first name a little different. We chose Mathew for Noah which I love and I wish I would have spelled Isaac differently. Don't worry about the name...it will fall into place and you'll just know it is right!
ReplyDeleteLove the meaning of your boys names & thank you for sharing! I've got a name, by the way, but Dan's not ready to settle... haha
DeleteI loved reading this, and learning the story of how you chose Liam's name. It's beautiful. I also think you have a super cool last name, which is a bonus! We have Reid on our short list of boy names if one joins us in the future!
ReplyDeleteNaming our boys, I really went with inspiration from anywhere I found it. Logan is named after Logan in The Baby Sitter Club. I thought he was such a great guy, and it was a sweet boy name. And I wanted sweet boys. His middle name Henry is a family name.
Jack is named after Josh, whose initials are JAC. But we didn't want a junior (and Josh made me swear we wouldn't do matchy-matchy twin names) so we went with Jack. Sawyer is his middle name, which I just adore, plus I appreciate the tie to Tom Sawyer & boyhood. Also, S is my father-in-law's middle name. Just "S", so it's for him as well.
Gosh, by the time Wyatt came around, I felt like I was all out of good boy names, but Wyatt came to us on a drive to the beach, and we chose Nathanial after Josh's favorite cousin.
I agree with you so much that your name shapes who you become. And it is an awesome responsibility to be the one who bestows it!
I love all those names, Shelly! & omg.... Logan from BSB!!? I looooooved BABY SITTERS CLUB!
DeletePicking a name is truly so difficult. I know what you mean by it being and identity for the child. Choosing Lyric's name was one that took me a while. I never was the women that longed for a child and to be pregnant. I didn't feel this need to carry a child. I loved kids and wanted them but also was okay if that never happened for me. As I got older and I was not married and started to truly be okay with maybe never having a biological child. I was very involved with the youth at my church and even had a teenager move in with me to be her "mom". Then my world changed and I got married and quickly became pregnant...which was a surprise.
ReplyDeleteMusic has always played such a huge part of my life...it speaks to my soul deep down. So while listening to Johnny Cash on the way home from work I was holding my belly and it clicked. Songs stay with us and change us even after the singer/songwriter has passed away. That is what I wanted for my son. To be healing, love, comfort to people. To change them in a way they never thought possible. To bring them out of darkness and know they matter. He will be my legacy, the best song I could write for this world. He is my lyrics to this world. So the name Lyric was born. In his 4 short years on this earth so far he has already changed so many lives and brought joy to so many. Even with is extra challenges of being Autistic he has never stopped being perfectly himself!
Love you guys and so excited for the family and your new addition. He is one lucky boy!
So beautifully said. You're right. I love sweet Lyric and I've never even met him.
Delete