What's In a Name

This is possibly the most discussed issue surrounding the baby. Most people ask, now that they know, if I've picked out any names. The answer is "yes" and "no." We've got the last name set, right. We've selected Elizabeth as the middle name. It was my maternal grandmother's first name and paternal grandmother's middle name. Then we're left with the first, which is totally up to my husband and myself.

Currently on the short list is; Trinity, Mackenzie and Naomi. Both of us have to sign off on these, but we've got a few more to look at. I've been advised it needs to be something the child can pronounce and spell. It needs to have a nice cadence and syllabic flow. It needs to read well. It needs to be a name that will stand out, but won't be confused with all the other girls in the class with the same name.

Most of the time the names given to children are directly connected to the meaning it has to the parents.

Trinity - Representation of the three forms of God in the Christian faith. Father, Son and The Holy Spirit. Is this child holy? Of course. She's certainly a blessing to me and my husband. The fact that she found her way safely without my knowledge is miraculous in my eyes and we anticiate that she'll be a blessing to our lives and through our tutelage, she'll be a blessing to the world.

Mackenzie - From the Gaelic surname Mac Coinnich, which means "son of COINNEACH". A famous bearer of the surname was William Lyon MacKenzie (1795-1861), a Canadian journalist and political rebel. As a feminine given name, it was popularized by the American actress Mackenzie Phillips (1959-). Now does this have any real connection to an African-American family? No, but the practice of giving formerly masculine names to girls started in the last 100 years. In fact, the names Tracy, Shelley and Marion were originally male names that started being given to girls. I think this name is on the list because the sound of the name is very different. It's a first name that's a last name and it sort of covers the spectrum of the alphabet too.

Naomi - (1) From the Hebrew name נָעֳמִי (Na'omiy) meaning "pleasantness". In the Old Testament this was the name of the mother-in-law of Ruth. After the death of her husband, Naomi took the name Mara (see Ruth 1:20). Though previously common as a Jewish name, Naomi was not typically used as an English Christian name until after the Protestant Reformation.

Naomi - (2) From Japanese 直 (nao) "honest, straight" and 美 (mi) "beautiful".

Both meanings in the Hebrew and Japanese tradition are attractive to me. I must admit they are all growing on me. But I'm open to other options. I'll admit, I lean more to the traditional, WASP-Y names, but if it sound beautiful to me, I'm a sucker. This is more than likely the first of several blogs on the subject.