May 07, 2010

Show Us Your Life: Your Kid's (or future kid's) Names



Joycelen Rebecca

Joycelen’s first name is a creation born from my habit of doodling while on the telephone. One afternoon, about a month before I discovered we were expecting, I was on a training call. As I listened to the speaker, I started doodling mine and Micheal’s full names. It was then that our middle names caught my attention and I thought…if we take Joyce (my middle name obviously) and combine it with the Len (M’s middle name is Lenwood) it creates a lovely name for a future daughter. Four weeks later, when I found out we were pregnant, M and I already had our girl name.

The name Rebecca has a double meaning for M and I. First, it was the name of my father’s niece, who was killed in a car accident when I was just 11. She was the baby of her family, and I was the oldest in mine – so she and I were immediately drawn to each other – and she became my big sister. Her death left a huge void in my life and I told my parents after her funeral that if I ever had a daughter, I would honor Becky’s memory by giving her name to my little girl. And as destiny would have it, I met and married a man who loves the name Rebecca…..since it is the middle name of his own amazing Mama.

Micheal Lenwood, III

Almost immediately after delivering our daughter, people began to inquire about when we would try for another child. They often follow up that question with “Have you thought about names?” M and I have not devoted a lot of time to thinking of names for our next child, but we do know that if our 2nd child is a boy he will be named after his father. M’s middle name was his grandfather’s middle name – so it seems only fitting to carry on the family traditional.

If we have another daughter, her name selection will be much more difficult. M and I want her to have a name that has family ties (since her sister’s name does) but we have not settled on any definitive choices. I think it would be awesome to create her name from some combination of our names but I am drawing a blank with ideas (feel free to offer suggestions).

I would love to hear how you chose your child’s name….or what you will name your future children.

2 comments:

Kathie Brinkman said...

Matt and I actually chose two of our children's names before we were even engaged. Like many couples in "our day" (the late 1980's) we wanted just two kids--a boy first, then a girl. I loved the name Joshua (and this was BEFORE that name was really popular) and we also wanted a family name. When Matt was 11 he shared his bedroom with his newborn brother Seth and they developed a special relationship at an early age. So Joshua Seth was our boy name. As for the girl name, I used to love the soap "As the World Turns" and especially the star-crossed lovers of Steve and Betsy (played by Meg Ryan). They had a love child named Danielle who was such a cute baby. I wanted to name my daughter Danielle. Matt loved my name, Kathryn, and we couldn't find a good middle name that went with Danielle. So we improvised and came up with Katherine Danielle for our girl's name but we knew we would call her Katie. Interestingly enough by the time we were ready to have children we were both born again Christians and so we were happy that the names "we" had chosen had biblical roots. (We now know that God really chose these names for us--even before we knew Him as our Lord). Anyway, Josh's full name means--God rescues and appointed. Both the biblical characters of Joshua and Seth were in the faithful line of Hebrews.
Katie's full name means--Pure one and God will judge me. The absolute perfect description and annointing for our special girl with Down syndrome.
As for Caleb Matthew, he was a complete miracle baby. I never should have been able to get pregnant with him, nor carry him to full term. But I did! When we learned I was pregnant I had a strong intuition that this baby was a boy so we didn't even choose a girl name (and we didn't find out the sex ahead of time). We chose Caleb Matthew because I wanted this child to have a strong bond to both Josh and Matt. I also loved the idea of having a Josh and Caleb in my family--the two leaders who stood alone and believed God's promises instead of giving in to fear. Anyway, Caleb Matthew means--faithful, loyal and gift of God. Yep, he's all those things. That's our story and we're sticking to it!!

Kim @ Kim and Mikey said...

Kathie - I love the story behind the names of your children. I firmly believe that God gave you the names for Joshua and Katie. I tend to think that He did the same with Joycelen. Joycelen's first name means joy and Rebecca means to bind. She is our joy and has further binded M and I together....a very fitting name for sure.