what's in a name?

One night soon after my husband and I were first engaged we were having a conversation about baby names. Immediately we agreed on a girl name… which will remain a secret for now. *grin*

Boy names, however, were another story! Pretty much every name I liked, Ryan hated… and every name Ryan liked, I hated. Thankfully we weren’t anywhere near having a baby at that point.

A couple years later when I got pregnant (yay!) we were both somewhat convinced it would be a girl. Probably our main reasons for this were that we had settled on a girl’s name from very early on and we had often talked about little “so and so” by name even before conception.

But of course, at that 20 week ultrasound we were directed on the screen to… a penis. (Hooray for little boys!)

As thrilled as we were, this did mean a predicament for us… coming up with a name.

We went round and round with names. Still, many of the names I liked, Ryan didn’t and visa-versa. Finally a few names made their way to the top of the list: Oliver (Ollie), Levi, Ezekiel, Miles… and we just kind of got stuck! For a long time we just didn’t speak much about the name and continued to “feel” it out, hoping that one would emerge as the winner over time.

We considered the nicknames (especially important in Australia where everything is shortened). Although I love the name Ezekiel, I don’t really like the nickname “Zeke”… because I immediately think Zeke the geek, Zeke the freak… Doesn’t work for me (though Ryan loves it).

We considered what the initials would spell. We considered how the name would be pronounced in each of our home country’s accents. We considered the “timeless” verses “trendy” factor. And finally we considered the meanings.

Through all of our deliberations the name Levi rose to the top… the others slowly faded in appeal and this one “stuck”.

We loved the name Levi because it was simple, but not all that common (we only knew/heard of one other Levi at the time). We also thought it sounded cute for a little boy, and strong for a teenager and man. It fit well with our last name, and most importantly we loved the meaning.

As parents we feel that the meaning behind the names of our kids are very important. (We love the meaning of our own names: Ryan means 'little king' and Adriel means 'strength of God' or 'follower of God'.) We believe that what we name them will mark them forever if we are intentional about it. Levi means “joined” which isn’t all that exciting… until you look at the context and the history of Levi. Levi was the head of one of the 12 tribes of Israel in the Bible. The “job” of that tribe was to be priests – to represent God to people and people to God. Levi means to connect (join) people to God. We love that meaning! (And on a side note I also loved that Levi was never allowed to go to war… I’m not gonna lie, I [selfishly?] hope my son will always be exempt from war too.)

So, Levi it was... Levi Scott (named for my dad) Booker. It has a good ring to it, doesn't it? *grin*

Now that he’s with us on the outside, we can’t imagine calling him anything else. He’s most definitely not an Ollie, not a Miles, not an Ezekiel… although those are names we still really like.

Our little Levi is... just Levi and we knew that his name suited him perfectly from the moment we saw him. (That photo of him above is when he's about three hours old - soooo sweet!)

Every parent has different (important and valid!) reasons for choosing the names that they do. How did you decide on your little one’s names dear mommy friends?

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