Thoughts on Baby Names

Thanks for participating with us in the latest edition of “Name That Baby!“  We enjoyed your responses.  The night we posted the survey was the night we “decided” on a name.  I put that in quotation marks because nothing is final until the ink is dry on the birth certificate.  But we think we finally know.

This isn’t the first time we ‘ve needed the right name for a baby boy.  Luke was an easy name for us, as we had had it in mind for some years.  But the names after that were not as easy (excluding our first daughter, who also had a name from very early in our marriage).

Because our first son is named Luke and our second son is Mark, some people think we named our kids after two of the writers of Gospels.  We did not.  We like the name Luke, and we like the name Mark.  It’s true that we also like books by the same names, so we don’t deny the influence of good associations (and thus, we didn’t name any of our boys “Judas”).  People who know that the first movie I went to slept through in a theater was Star Wars may think our oldest got his name from one of the characters.  But that’s not the case either, though our son does sometimes call himself “Skywalker.”

It’s only natural that people who know the names of the Gospels will joke that our next kid will be Matthew (or John).  We understand their amusement, but can’t say that we share it.  Our reply, usually unspoken, is that our third son was named Timothy.

We do like the names Matthew and John (one more than the other), but we ‘ve eliminated them from consideration because those who knew all of our kids (which will be fewer as the days go by) would have the wrong idea.  It strikes me as well as a bit too “cutesy,” even if I know there was no such intention.

As for your suggestions/predictions, the one that was the most humorous was Eugene Jehu.  For those who don’t know, Eugene is the name of a OT scholar who wrote a very important book on the history of Israel.  Jehu is the subject of my (anticipated) dissertation.

We got lots of biblical suggestions/predictions, including most commonly Ezekiel(!) and Isaiah.  All three of the middle names we ‘ve given to our boys were suggested multiple times: Nathan, Josiah, and David.  Todd was suggested as a first name and a middle name.  So was Mahershalalhashbaz (by the same clown who proposed I’mgoin ‘).  Other biblical names suggested were Jericho, Judah, Noah, Shiloh, and Silas.  As for names of prophets, it’s easier to list the ones that weren’t suggested; no one seems to like Zephaniah or Malachi.

Some thought that we should go with a Texas-themed name, like “Dallas Austin.”  Another said she ‘d name her kid “Wilberforce Spurgeon.”  We decided that we ‘ll not steal her idea.  There were only two anonymous suggestions, with one suggesting “Todd” and the other offering up “Nehemiah Thunderheart.”  That does remind me of one of the names I’ve teased Kelli that I would insist upon: Thor.

As for the name we have chosen, one person suggested/predicted our first name and several suggested/predicted the middle.  Nobody put them together.  Lord willing, we will introduce you to our child here in about 10 days.