What's In A Name?

Josh and I choose baby names based on meaning. We like to pray for our children using their names as a basis for those prayers. And we are happy to give our children strong names with meanings they can strive to live up to.

Our firstborn is David Elijah.

David was chosen because it was Josh's Dad's name. We had known since college what our first son would be named. However, the meaning of David and Elijah together is excellent. David means "Beloved" and Elijah means "The Lord is God".

When we pray for David, we pray that he would know that he is the Lord's Beloved and that as such he would teach others (the Church is called God's Beloved Bride) that the Lord is God. We pray that David would embrace that truth and know it for himself as well.

Our second son is Zachary Isaac.

Zachary means "Whom God remembers" and Isaac means "Laughter". This fits Zack so well since he takes such joy in life. We like to put this phrase together: "Whom God remembers in laughter".

But when we pray for Zack, we pray that God would use Zack's loving and fun nature to bring others to Christ. We pray that Zack would indeed know that God remembers him, loves him and saves him.

Our daughter is Abigail Natalia.

Abigail means "Father's Joy" and Natalia means "Child of Christmas". We do know that Abby is her earthly father's joy, but also her Heavenly Father's joy.

When we pray, we ask that she would always bring joy to her Father's heart through her purity and love of Him. We pray that she would remember the One who was born on Christmas and the reason why He came.

Our third son is Gabriel Joseph.

Gabriel means "Man of God" and Joseph means "God multiplies". This one is pretty awesome! A man of God whom God multiplies!

Our prayers for Gabe are pretty obvious. We pray that he would indeed be a man of God. And that God would multiply. Not just through Gabe's children, but also that those who come in contact with Gabe would be so struck by seeing God shine through Gabe that they would also be drawn to Christ. We pray for the church to be multiplied through Gabe.

And our newest arrival is Jesse Hosea.

Jesse means "Gift" and Hosea means "Salvation".

First of all, we do see Jesse as a gift. You can read about how God clearly ordained for him to be in our family by reading here. But beyond that, we pray that Jesse would personally know the gift of salvation. And that he would be willing and able to bring the good news of that gift to others.

A name is important. In the Bible, people were given names that had specific meaning and that correlated to who God had created those people to be. When we pray for our children using their names, we are trusting that God will raise them up to be living examples of the meaning of their names.

What do our kids think? They love knowing that we put careful thought into naming them and they love hearing us pray for them using their names. It's special to know that you were named with a purpose and have something valiant to strive for.