What's In a Name?

The Holman Bible Dictionary says, "The biblical concept of naming was rooted in the ancient world's understanding that a name expressed essence. To know the name of a person was to know that person's total character and nature. Revealing character and destiny, personal names might express hopes for the child's future." 

And today, people are judged based on their first name. Christianity Today even wrote this about names, "A series of psychological studies have found that names do matter: we subconsciously stereotype and form expectations of our peers and co-workers based on their first names. 'I wouldn't overestimate the impact of names, but [they] are an important part of first impressions,' Ohio University's James Bruning said about one of his many reports." 

So, I'm not crazy for being incredibly selective on the names I chose for my children. It was and is extremely important that their names have meanings and that I could confidently answer the question, "why did you name me ---."

I distinctly remember a conversation between Aaron and I while pregnant for the first time in regards to the name Cassidy. He liked the name but I quickly dismissed it because it means daughter of Kenneth and well, that's not Aaron's name.

With both Caden, which means strong warrior, and Brynna, which means strong and virtuous, we set down with our lists and talked over their names and spellings. We had both gender names picked prior to our sonogram. It was just a matter of who God had inside.

This time things were different. Life is crazy busy and with two littles already home that sit-down-serious-conversation just never happened. We had a series of what I affectionately call "popcorn conversations." You know, the ones where you are doing other things and just bring up a topic randomly. Yes, that how it happened. 

Our boy name was easy. We stuck with the name we chose 3 1/2 years ago but the girl name was hard. It came down to two great names with different meanings.


Walking into our sonogram early last week, the girl name wasn't decided. (An issue I didn't push because, well, I was convinced it was a boy.)

When the sonogram tech confirmed for the third time it was a girl, I was shocked. What where we going to call her? And in true third child fashion, Aaron left before we could talk and I headed to the grocery store with the littles. On my way, I called Aaron and he said, very convinced, that her name is Sophie Grace, my personal pick.

Now, most women would be thrilled that their hubby just chose their name, that it was "easy", and there was no arm twisted to be had. And at the time, so was I, but later insecurity arose inside me. A terrible wave of anxiety and fear took hold of me on Tuesday all wrapped up in our little girls name. I was a basket case to put it mildly. I cried all day feeling like somehow I had made a mistake or that her name was not good. Terribly distract over this, I called everyone and talk to Aaron about it no less than a hundred times that day. He patiently and sweetly walked me through the maze of emotions I was feeling and I believe it broke down to two simple things...1) I needed to let go of my boy fantasy and 2) I needed to let go of this idea that her name had to be a BIG conversation.

Later that night I was prepping for my Bible study and Colossians 2:2-3 was in my commentary.




The word for wisdom here is sophia, which I discovered years ago in an inductive study in James. This is where I first thought of the name Sophie for a little girl. I loved it's meaning.
I believe it was God's whisper to my overly anxious heart that this is her name. One which I fell in love with while falling in love with Him. 

So my prayer in naming our baby girl Sophie Grace is that she will discover all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ and that she would know His love and grace and extend it to others.