June 6, 2009 12:00 AM
Do you like your name?
As a woman who became a mom during the 60's and 70's counterculture years, I am all too aware of how I chose my children's names to reflect and project my self-image. I am blessed that my first two daughters seem to have somehow embraced their offbeat names:
Samantha Sunshine (influence: Donovan) circa 1969
Jasmine Moondance (influence: Van Morrison) circa 1975
As for me, it took quite a while to accept my own. My parents were married in St. Barbara's Church somewhere in Missouri, and since Barbara was riding a wave of popularity in the 40s, I was named Barbara.
They divorced six years later.
In a Catholic high school in the 60s - with Barbara one of the 3 most popular names (along with Mary and Elizabeth) - as an individual driven to stand out, I was quick to ditch my parents' choice. From the age of 15 to 32 I was known as Kitt'n.
In 1980, when I left my first husband I ditched Kitt'n and my maiden and married names (Grubb and Zaun) to become Barbara St. Germaine. That was my name when I met and married Tripp Curtis.
Confused? For me at the time, names were just something to be assumed and discarded as they were useful in defining my identity.
I ditched my middle name early on and never took it back as it was the feminized version of my father's - Lynne/Lynn. For the long story of why I would never associate myself with my father's name, see Family skeletons - breaking free.
When Tripp and I married, I had a hard time giving up my cool identity as Barbara St. Germaine and so for a couple years I was Barbara St. Germaine-Curtis.
Today I am simply Barbara Curtis.
As a mom, I have absolutely loved picking out the names of my kids - following Samantha and Jasmine:
Joshua Gabriel (1983)
Matthew Raphael (1985)
Benjamin Michael (1986)
Zachary Andrew (1988)
Sophia Rose (1989)
Jonathan Martin (1992)
Madeleine Marie (1993)
Jesse Mateo (1995) (half Iranian, half Hispanic)
Daniel Lee (1996)
Justin Li (2000) (Taiwanese)
But as a mom who's named 11 kids (my 12th, Justin was named by his birth parents, but I used their last name as his middle name). I was wondering: how do you feel about your given name? And what about the privilege of choosing names for your children?
Comments
I don't like my middle name at all.
My mother chose it because she wanted to honor her college friend whom she also picked to be my godmother.
They had a falling out (over religion - my godmother became really kooky) when I was about 4 or 5 and they never spoke again.
About 16 years later we found out she committed suicide.
So every time I have to fill out my name on a form, I am reminded of this horrible story.
Ick.
Posted by: Anonymous on this one | June 6, 2009 1:37 AM
i never liked my name. it wasn't "cool" to have a name like mine when i was growing up. i wanted so badly to be a jennifer, carrie or laura. but now that i am older it has grown on me and i like who i have become. i was, however, very careful when choosing names for my children because of it. i have a sophia too. and she was almost a sophia rose, but my grandma had a dog named rose at the time and she insisted that i not use it, so my girl is sophia elena. isn't it funny how names mean so much.....when really it should be the person behind the name! :)
Posted by: regan | June 6, 2009 1:47 AM
I've been thinking about this very thing recently. I was born in 1961, and my name, Kim, was the embodiment of my Mom's dreams for a daughter: a popular, pretty, cheerleader/sorority girl. And Kim was very, very common - from 2 to 5 of us in every class in school. I have recently been considering using my middle name, as it feels so much more comfortable (I never was that "Kim" she'd hoped for), but I don't want to disrespect her choice. I try to imagine if one of my children changed their name as an adult . . . I don't think I'd mind.
I loved our choosing our eight children's names, but as a result of having a common name, did try to avoid anything commonly used.
Posted by: kim | June 6, 2009 1:57 AM
Names are very much on my mind right now as I am pregnant with my 6th.
I love my first name-Rain given to me in 1971 by California hippie parents(too young tho' at 17).
I have so far a:
Chloe Marianne
Angus James
Jacob John
Elisha Spafford (my husbands great great grandfather was Horatio Spafford'It is Well With My Soul'
Anna Valentine
so thankful for your blog Barbara.
Posted by: Rain | June 6, 2009 7:02 AM
I was just thinking, as I read the names of your children, that even though you didn't come back to the Church for many years, every one of your children, except the oldest girls, has been named for a saint! The older girls can claim St Francis because he called the Sun and Moon his "brother and Sister". I love St Barbara. What a story!
I was OK with my name, growing up, although I became "Jenny" and that never felt right. I had to "grow into" Jennifer.
When I started naming my kids, I wasn't thinking patrons. I was a young mom, really young, and it was more about how it sounded. When I "grew up", as I had the boys, I was much more interested in strong Patron saints, and my guys being able to identify with real men of God. Holy heroes.
Great people that we can look up to in the Communion of Saints.
I love names. I wish I had had more kids, I have some great names left over!
Posted by: Jennifer | June 6, 2009 7:22 AM
My parents insisted on my full name, Mary Kathryn, for daily use. I hated it. I got called Mary Frances, Mary Elizabeth, etc. Nobody spells "Kathryn" correctly. My maiden last name was long, and my married name is longer. In college I tried going by just "Kathryn" (Mary seemed boring), but it didn't work, b/c I didn't recognize it as "me."
So in naming kids, I wanted names that were short, but could not easily be shortened, could not be mispronounced or misspelled, were familiar but not overused. I chose Philip, Anna, Peter and Julia. I wanted Biblical names also. Their middle names are family names b/c we like carrying on family traditions through the generations.
Posted by: mary kathryn | June 6, 2009 8:07 AM
I like my given name because it is unusual but not so far out there that people go "Huh?" I love names and pouring through name books but have always felt like the names of my children were whispered to me, I just had to quiet enough to hear it.
Posted by: Charlotte (Matilda) | June 6, 2009 8:13 AM
I have ALWAYS disliked my name! It is not pretty or classy, can be very harsh and when people write it down they have a tendency to write a lot of extra letters in it. (I once got something with "Meaghean" written on it, while I have the spelling "Megan") I always wanted to go by my middle name (Maria) but I attended Catholic school until 8th grade, and when you are with the same 60 kids for 9 grades, you can't change your name with them :-) It also never took off in high school, so I'm stuck with it now.
I have LOVED picking out my kids names! My husband and I spend hours picking them out! Our three kids are:
Ethan Xavier - he can be a professional (Ethan) or a DJ (Xavier, X, EX, etc :-)
Alexander Rhett - we call him Lex, and we have the whole world doing it. He's 2 years old and it's all he's ever known - and Rhett is an awesome name as well.
Lucy Isabelle - two pretty, flowing, classic names. Although, of course, Lucy is now growing in popularity, she can always claim that she was name by her oldest brother since he was reading the Narnia series when I was expecting her.
Posted by: Megan | June 6, 2009 8:57 AM
We are thinking about this a lot these days with our fourth little boy on the way to name. I have loved thinking about baby names since I was a little girl naming baby dolls! Our children are all named, at least in part, after people in our family. Our oldest son is named after my husband and his father, but is called Levi after my husband's grandfather. Then our daughter is named Brenna after my mother Brenda, and her middle name is my mother-in-law's (and also my granny's) maiden name - Janes. Both of the next boys have my grandfather's last names for middle names - Warnock and Bethel. We chose the name Jack after a very favorite uncle and my hubby chose Christian just because he especially loved the name.
Now the new baby boy will have my grandmother's maiden name for a middle name...but a first name is still up in the air:) I like stong masculine names with a meaning or a history that especially speaks to us. But we do have to be careful not to try to define ourselves by giving our child a particlar name. In my neck of the woods, I notice a ton of little girls running around with little boy names (we know a James, a Brock, a Shane and a Brody) - their moms are all very "cool" and "independant-minded" to use their words. I wonder how their daughters will feel growing up - James is only four and already ants everyone to call her Sissy:)
Sorry to have hijacked your blog! I guess this just on my mind a lot!
Posted by: Shannon Miller | June 6, 2009 8:57 AM
My first name is actually Rebecca. I was teased constantly (my maiden name was Brooks, so I got "Rebecca of SunnyBROOKS farm" Not so bad in retrospect, but at the time I was horrified.)
So, when I was 13 I decided to go by my middle name, Lauren. I never legally changed it, so my legal name is still Rebecca Lauren. That's actually created some confusion because all my official business comes to "Rebecca." Since I rarely hear my name spoken as a SAHM, it almost seems odd when a friend calls me "Lauren."
If I had it to do over, I would have just stuck with Rebecca, but my husband knows me as Lauren and I think it would just be too strange to change back.
As for my kids, I loved picking out their names. My son was going to be either Jonathan or Holden. When my pregnancy turned south we began calling him Holden, and it stuck. His middle name is Avery which is a family name on my husband's side.
My daughter's name wasn't picked out until the last possible second. I literally had to make a snap decision out of our possibilities when the social security papers came to the hospital room. We knew we wanted Anna, but were having trouble deciding between Elizabeth or Pennington (my husband's late grandmother's maiden name). We ended up using both, much to the chagrin of my brother in law who has always resented his middle name and is convinced that our poor children will just be crushed forever because of their names.
Of course, I love the names my mother in law choose for her sons. My husband's full name is Winston Oliver Christian ________. He goes by Oliver, which I think suits him very well.
Wow that was a novel, sorry!
Posted by: Lauren | June 6, 2009 9:58 AM
As a kid, I did not like my name very much. Now I do, and I really feel like it suits me. Amanda, not too girly or cutesy or trendy. I was the only Amanda I knew my age, but about five or so years later it became more popular. My middle name -- Joyce is BOTH of my grandmothers'first names and my momś middle name. Hated it growing up -- what an old lady name. Now I love it and passed it on to my daughter. My girls both have family=inspired names -- Caroline Joyce and Mary Elizabeth.
Posted by: Amanda | June 6, 2009 10:21 AM
I didn't used to like that I had an "unusual" name. Nobody could ever spell it right. But now that I"m older, I love the southern heritage spelled out in my name. I love the uniqueness. And I think it's kind of pretty, too.
Posted by: Lora Lynn @ Vitafamiliae | June 6, 2009 10:32 AM
Hi Barbara:
Kitt'n??!! Loved the post - - but thought you might weigh in on the Obama pick of Sotomayor for SCt Justice? I love the way you edit news articles for us so we don't have to weed our way through them! Thanks and have a great day!
Posted by: Kim Moore | June 6, 2009 11:07 AM
I like my name okay. Debra Jean. Debra was unique in my age range (born in 1980) so the only people I know with my name are 10+ years older than me.
I love picking out baby names. My little one is Gretchen Jane. Gretchen means "little pearl" which turned out to be quite prophetic. I was the one with the placental abruption at 28 weeks, but it was just partial so we were able to keep her in until June 2008. She was little for a full term baby (5lbs 5 oz), and June's birthstone is the pearl!
Jane is a mix up of three people, my grandmother Jana, my mom Janel, and my middle name Jean.
I'm looking forward to naming the next baby and we have started picking out names already.
Posted by: Debra | June 6, 2009 11:10 AM
I like my given name: Kristy Michelle. (1980) There was a brief period where I wanted to be called "Stephanie" (when i was 7 and lasted all of a week)...otherwise I have always liked it pretty well. Even with the other "Christie/Crissie/Kristina/Krista/Crystal" variations in my highschool, and always (even this day) having to spell it out for everyone...I like it.
I have LOVED naming my children, despite the fact my husband and I seem to always argue up to at least the 8th month of pregnancy, if not lasting well after the birth. Well, with the exception of our son who is named after papa. They are:
Julia Madison (May 2002)
Megan Noelle (July 2003)
Isaiah Israel (born into Heaven Jan '06)
Joseph James IV (Nov 2006)
Charlotte Rose (Nov 2008)
Julia was a name hubby and I loved since highschool. (yes, we were highschool sweeties) Madison we chose at the 8th month of pregnancy.
Megan got her name minutes after birth. We took both "Megan Elisabeth" and "Jamie Noelle" to the hospital. She looked more like a Megan, but i couldn't part with Noelle. ;)
The baby we lost, his name is very special because the first name was handpicked by God. Before I even knew I was pregnant, During a quiet moment of prayer, very sincerely, yet SO FULL OF LOVE and comfort, the Lord whispered, "Your Baby's name is Isaiah." It was one of the hand full of moments in my life where I heard the Lord's voice almost audibly. It struck me very odd as we weren't trying for a baby at all. We lost that baby 9 days later. I didn't know until later, but "Isaiah" is Hebrew for "the Lord Saves." How awesome is that? His middle name, Israel, was chosen by me for two reasons: 1) it honors my brother who carries it, and 2) it is Hebrew for "wrestles with God." The loss of that baby turned into a faith crisis for me. The more I wrestled with God, the more He held onto me. The name speaks volumes to me of the intensity of God's love for us and for His children...even the unborn are given names by Him, the ones aborted, the ones miscarried, the ones thrown into dumpsters...each and every one are named personally by Him when we don't get the opportunity to do so ourselves. How grand is He? How loving a Father is He? :)
Joseph James IV...named for daddy. For 10+ years we agreed to name the first (live) born son after my husband. We thought it was our idea anyway, God sometimes proves different. ;) "Joseph" means "And God will add another son." "James" means "Supplanter/substitute." Joey was born 11 months after losing Isaiah. I can't ever look on Joey's name and not see God's fingerprints, His faihtfulness, His grace, His love. He just amazes me.
Charlotte is french and means "Pretty little one" and "Rose" was to honor my grandmother whose favorite flower was/is the Rose. I wanted to name her directly after my grandmother, "Helen", but was afraid it would seem to clunky a name for a little girl. My grandmother passed 3 months after she was born and was never able to meet her. I kicked myself I didn't just follow my heart and name her Helen Rose. It is funny you wrote this blog today though...husband and I just agreed to start looking into changing her name to "Charlotte Helen Rose"!! *smiles*
Kristy in Germany
Posted by: Kristy in Germany | June 6, 2009 11:51 AM
My parents named me after both my grandmothers - Virginia Elizabeth....but they called me, Beth, a nickname of my middle name throughout my life. (go figure?) It really has been a hassle as everything "legal" has Virginia on it (although it is good for distinguishing unwanted phone calls). Of course growing up the first day of school being called "Virginia" is not a fond memory (not because I don't like the name - it just wasn't me and none of my friends knew me by that name so there was always laughter) -- of course it continued -- from being announced as "Virginia" at high school & college graduations to not going up on stage to get a sales award because I did not recognize my "legal" name being announced. Too funny!
As a result I have named my kids EXACTLY what I call them -- not even a nick name or shortened version of their first name. My hubby & I have worked in ministry with teenagers at church and Christian schools our entire life - so our main obstacle in naming our kids was to find a name that had not been "tainted" by some unruly student...lol!
All of our children's middle names are "family names" - with the goal to connect them to their godly heritage. The neatest thing just happened as we adopted our little girl last month - her birth Mom had given her a middle name that just "happened" to be our eldest daughters (age 20) first name! It couldn't have been more perfect. God's providence always amazes me!
Of course now as any proud Mama I have to share my kids names:
Michelle Jennae
Amy Virginia
Kristen Elizabeth
Rebekah Marie
Grace Caroline
Joy Danielle
Daniel Guy Lambdin Jr.
Christiana Michelle
Posted by: Beth Lambdin | June 6, 2009 12:54 PM
I like my first name just fine. It's the combo of my first name and maiden name that was horrible to grow up with.
Seriously.
Want to know?
I'm not kidding
My name growing up was:
Sandy Boxx
Yes. Really. You can imagine the teasing that ensued.
I love my first name! It's rather rare to come across, though as we move and travel more (we're military) I come across more Sandys. Usually the ones I meet are a little older than me, I think Sandra was more popular in the 60's and 70's and I was born in the 80's.
Posted by: Sandy | June 6, 2009 6:08 PM
I hate my name - Lisa. Growing up in the 80s everyone was named Lisa, Michelle, or Jennifer. I was "Lisa C." for years and years. It did not help that my last name sounded similar to a birth control device! LOL!
I love naming my children. They have saint names but unusual ones (more or less). My girls have very feminine, old fashioned names.
I purposely chose names that could be shortened to nicknames, but didn't have to be, so when the kids are older they have more flexibility about what they are called. We call Patrick "Patch" or "Ricky" for example.
We are in a quandary, though. We've got a girl coming this week sometime, and NO NAME!
I really want Octavia... she's our 8th, but I think my husband would actually have to die first.
Our children's names:
Robert Michael (after both grandfathers - believe it or not, I've never met another KID named Robert!)
Patrick Macmillan (McMillan is a family name)
Emilia Ruth
Sebastian Thomas
Valeria Elizabeth
Clara Grace
Xavier Quinn (poor thing - he's stuck with the initials XQ for life!)
Posted by: Milehimama | June 6, 2009 6:37 PM
I always loved my name. My mom told me that the first time she heard the Beatles' song Michelle, she knew she'd have a daughter named Michelle one day. And she did! The only thing I didn't like was that my brothers (Robert and Kenneth) both got to go by nicknames (Bobby and Kenny) and I didn't. But I didn't like any of the nicknames for Michelle (Shelly is for cheerleaders and Mickey is for tomboys!)
My middle name, Elizabeth, is also interesting. You see, my mom used to tell different people that I was named after them. She told my grandmother that I was named Elizabeth for great-grandma, and even told my Aunt Betsy (who we didn't even meet until I was five) that I was named after her! (I think that was obviously meant as a joke!) But she told me the real truth: that I wasn't named after anyone and she just thought Michelle Elizabeth sounded nice. ;)
I didn't really name any of my kids. I always thought I'd name my girls after flowers (I really liked Daisy) and my sons after authors (Henry David and Edgar Allan -- who I would call Allan and teach to write his name E. Allan in school). But I inherited a naming pattern with my two step-children, and it was really important to my husband. (The kids all have Gaelic first names, and "normal" middle names just in case they hate us when they grow up!)
Aryanna Elizabeth -- my husband and his first wife tried writing out the Welsh name Ariene in different ways until it looked pretty and ended up with Aryanna.
Aoghdan Alan -- very old fashioned spelling of Aiden
Seamus Riley Leroy -- My husband really wanted to name our first child together Seamus. I thought he couldn't possibly be serious. After a very emotional (and loud) argument sometime in my third trimester, he finally explained to me that he'd loved the name his whole life, but his mom and first wife had made fun of him. When I saw how important it was to him, that was it. I chose the middle name Riley to honor the Irish side of my family (it's my grandmother's maiden name). Then, at the last minute, Mark decided to add on Leroy, which is the middle name passed down to first sons in his family. His first wife wouldn't let him give the name to Aoghdan, and he was afraid Aoghdan would feel jilted, but ultimately we decided he'd understand.
Hamish Patrick -- another name my husband really loved and I thought he couldn't be serious. (I'd like to point out that I did manage to keep him from naming any of our sons Fergus!) We both agreed on Patrick after Mark's mom (Patricia).
Sinead Eve -- By now I knew Mark really was serious, but I wanted to name her Aiobh (which is pronounced Eve in Gaelic), after a childhood friend's older sister, with the middle name Marie, which is my mom's middle name. Sinead had a very traumatic birth, though, and in the ambulance on the way to the hospital Mark was cradling her and calling her Sinead. So I insisted Eve be her middle name.
Aisling Renee -- I just let Mark pick the name this time. Aisling is the name of a genre of poetry that personifies Ireland as a woman in distress and foretells the re-emergence of Ireland as a sovereign state. Renee is the middle name of Mark's estranged sister. We hope they won't always be estranged.
Diarmuid Sanford -- I wanted to name him Dubhlainn (not like the city), which is pronounced Dove+lin, but both Mark and a friend of ours, who was born in Ireland and speaks Gaelic, convinced me that Americans would see this as a girl's name. Diarmuid was Mark's choice and he and said Gaelic-speaking friend ganged up on me, LOL. His middle name, Sanford, is after my beloved grandfather who died just days before I found out I was pregnant. My family wanted to call him Sandy, and I have encouraged them to do so, but for some reason they won't just because that's not what we call him at home. (I don't like to call my kids exclusively by a name other than their given first name, but many of my kids also go by several nicknames without confusion, so I never saw a problem with him being called Sandy just by the extended family.)
Posted by: Michelle Potter | June 7, 2009 12:03 AM
When our third son was born we could not decide on a name for him. He was about 24 hours old and still called "Baby Boy." We finally narrowed the list down to either Luke or Dominic. We loved both names so decided to let our four and two year-old boys decide on his name. We presented the choices to them and they both immediately said "Luke! Luke! He has to be Luke!"
It wasn't until after all the paperwork was filled out that they shared their reason for choosing Luke over Dominic.
Star Wars. They chose the name Luke because of Luke Skywalker!
My kids are:
Joseph
James
Luke
Catherine
Each kid has my last name as their middle name. It's an updated tradition from my husband's family. He has his mother's maiden name as his middle name. I kept my last name when we married but didn't want to hyphenate it for the kids. So they have my last name as their middle name and share my husband's last name.
We tried to choose names that are Biblical or saints but will also work well with my husband's Italian last name while still reflecting our kids' Irish-Italian blend. I think we've done well so far. :) I have a long list of girl names that I love but haven't had the chance to use yet.
Posted by: Molly | June 7, 2009 8:39 AM
Sophia Rose! Right now, that's my first pick for a girl's name (provided my husband and I have a girl and he would agree to it as well!) My reasoning for it is that Sophia would be in honour of Sophie Scholl, and Rose - for the "White Rose" group of which she was part. (I've got a site at http://www.katjasdacha.com/whiterose which talks about this group - unfortunately, I haven't finished a biography of Sophie to put up yet though!)
Posted by: Katja | June 7, 2009 2:01 PM
Oh Mrs.C, I wish I would have seen this when it first ran. I love names! I enjoyed reading the comments too. Lauren (above) - what a great name for your husband! Sounds so classy and traditional.
My mom named me after a lady she went to Lamaze class with. Ouida - wish means "famous warrior". I hated it as a kid. No one could pronounce and to this day when someone says it right I am surprised! I almost didn't have a middle name. My mom couldn't find something she liked but then one day she was watching Welcome Back Kotter and saw the name Gabriel Kaplan and well, Gabriel is my middle name even though I am a girl! I love it though. I don't know any females with the name Gabriel. It means "strong man of God". I have grown to love, love, love my first and middle names. My maiden last name was Poulain and I still don't know what it means. My married name Garcia means something like "mighty with a spear" or something to do with war. I have never found anything concrete on it.
My children names are:
Nicole Mae - named Nicole by a friend and Mae after my Grandmother and my aunts baby who died in womb. Nicole means "victory of the people" and Mae is "bitter" or "pearl". I was barely 15 when I named her. I would have never went with Mae had I known the meaning. She could have been a Elizabeth!
Abigail Tita - My husbands Grandfather's name was Daniel Abigail. My husband told me even before we married that our first child in from our marriage would be named Abigail. Abigail means "my father rejoiceth" and Tita means Honored. Tita is my mother in laws name.
Jubilee Faith - I had seen the name Jubilee around and thought it was neat but to unusual for my husband. Doug Phillips sent out a postcard with his family on it and when I showed it to my husband he said agreed with me that Jubilee was a pretty name. He wanted to go with Jubilant Faith but at the time I hated nicknames and would not go with it. (Name her Jubilant but call her Jubilee) Guess which baby has the several nicknames? Jubilee can be see as meaning literally "jubilant" or taken from Jubal in the Bible. She is the very image of a happy, LOUD, child ;)
Joseph Matthew Freedom - I had a dream to name my son Joseph Matthew. I saw a boy playing on the floor and I heard a voice say "this is your son". There was more to this dream but I won't share all of it here. Let me just say that it is amazing to say the least. We added Freedom because he was born on the Fourth of July (which was in my dream) and in connection to what my dream meant. Joseph means "to add another" Matthew is "gift". Let me say that I dreamed this dream a whole year before my son was born. I was not even pregnant at the time.
Isabella Grace - I really wanted to name our daughter Jubilee Faith with this name. My husband said no. When we were pregnant with Isabella I asked if I could name her that and my husband said yes. He and I agree that Jubilee Faith is definitely a Jubilee and Isabella Grace is a Isabella! All prim and proper she is. Isabella means "consecrated to God" and Grace, well, you know.
Serenity Elise - Serenity means "serene" and Elise is "consecrated to God" as it (and Isabella) are forms of Elizabeth. I just loved the way it sounded. My husband chose this name and it fits our baby perfectly!
When we chose names we really liked traditional names and names from the Bible. Every name we choose seems to be God given. Nicole was 4 when we married and then we lost several babies before Abigail. We were "rejoicing" when we had her. We also had it where two of our children had 6 letters, then 7, then 8. If we would have had any more sons we would have named the middle name "Matthew" after my husband. We wanted it to be kind of like in the Bible where it is "son of..." God didn't see fit to give us another son though. For awhile I regretted naming Abigail's middle name Tita because of a fall out with my mother in law. I seriously was looking into changing that name to Honor but realized that this was the name that God wanted her to have. I think as a Christian, names are to be given with respect and honor for the child. It is clear in the Bible that names are important. I could never name my child a name that had horrible meaning in the Bible, like Delilah (sorry to anyone with that name). While I hated my name as a child, I have grown to love it and feel God gave me this name because there is a special purpose in my life. How can there not be when you add up that I was the product of rape, raised the way I was and but yet have this wonderful, strong name? God is awesome indeed.
You are right Mrs. C. God takes something out of the mire and makes it all for His glory. Oh, and imagine if my mom had aborted me because she was raped? Imagine the world without these 6 amazing children! That would have been a travesty.
Ouida Gabriel
Posted by: Mrs. Damian (Ouida) Garcia | June 28, 2009 11:25 AM
