When I was expecting Jackson, Curtis and I had a long list of baby girl names and a very, very short list of baby boy names. So short, in fact, that there was only one name on it. “Jackson” was literally the only name we agreed on. The name game is hard when you’ve worked with students because you have associations with just about every name you can come up with. And with one of the most common last names in America, we seemed to already know of someone named “Every-single-name-we-liked Jones.”
I didn’t expect naming our son to be that hard. After all, ever since college I’d planned that if I had a son, he’d be named Levi. (One of my BFF’s in college babysat a little Levi and he was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.) This was my plan right up until we actually had the chance to name a little boy. That was when Curtis enlightened me that Levi Jones sounded a lot like Levi Jeans. Noooooooo! It had never once occurred to me! I should have thought twice before marrying a Jones! So Levi was out. Jackson, the one and only name we could agree on, was it. Knowing and loving Travis and Angela Cottrell’s son Jackson (he goes by Jack now) made me love the name.
Fast forward three years. To our great surprise, we now had a chance to bring out that long list of baby girl names. Somehow we eliminated every single one to the point that we needed a brand new list. It’s crazy how that happens.
I so wanted to honor my mother with our baby girl’s name. I’m sure I don’t even need to tell you why. Honestly, I cannot adequately convey in words what it means to me. My mom is an incredible wife, mother, confidante, encourager, prayer warrior, servant, teacher, writer, and lover of God. I would have been thrilled for our daughter to be connected to her grandmother in that way and for her to carry on the legacy of loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Naming her after my mom would not be hard, as “Elizabeth” sounds beautiful as a middle name with almost anything you can come up with. But I don’t think of my mom as Elizabeth. I think of her as “Beth.” So I started brainstorming names that incorporated Beth. Bethany…Beth Ann…Annabeth! We fell in love with that name. It was not a common name, but still sounded classic in a southern sort of way. We felt it was perfect for our little girl.
Annabeth’s middle name is “Ellen,” which is from Curt’s side of the family. His great-grandmother was the first Ellen. I never had the privilege of meeting her, but I do know and dearly love Curt’s sister, who is named Lindsay Ellen. He also has a precious college-age cousin named Erin Ellen. Both of these young women live lives of wholehearted devotion to Christ. I have been so moved by their purity and also their desire and willingness to serve others. I would be thrilled for my daughter to enjoy a close relationship with and emulate the godly traits of both of these delightful women.
It’s truly a gift that our children can draw from a godly heritage on both sides of our family. I’m very thankful for that. At the same time, I realize that there may be a Siesta reading this blog who is the only one in her family who follows Christ. Sister, if that is you, please be blessed in the knowledge that a godly legacy is beginning with you! I pray that one day you will get to see your physical and spiritual offspring worshipping before the Throne. What great joy! I love the verse in 1 Thessalonians that says, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20).
If anyone would like to share, I’d love to know the story behind your name!
Me-Stephanie Lynn after my dad, Steven, and my aunt, Janet Lynn.
Oldest daughter, Marissa Michelle, after a soap character and my cousin.
Second child, Chanel Paige, just liked the name.
Third, Nathaniel Stephen, Nathaniel is gift of God and after my dad.
Fourth child, Ethan Stewart, Ethan means strong and couragous and Stewart for my father in law.
Fifth child, Elizabeth Anne, after my great grandmother and my aunt who died as a baby,and my mother in law.
So our last three biblical and family names.
Hey Amanda!
My name is Erica Mackenzie and (being a child of the 80’s) everyone always asks if it’s after Erika Kane and Mackenzie Phillips! No, neither is true. My parents just liked both of them.
My sweet baby girl is Abigail Mackenzie which means “source of the father’s joy” and “child of the handsome young ruler.” My husband absolutely LOVES that!
Our family is full of interesting names. My brother is named Kramer (after a family friend) and his son will be named Kanen (as in Canaan land) when he arrives in mid-July! He will join his sister Lillian Grace (Lilly) named after 2 of her great grandmothers.
Children are such a blessing from the Lord. Thanks so much for sharing your life with us. I adore hearing about Mister Jackson and sweet Miss Annabeth.
I tell everybody we’re all best friends…we just haven’t met yet 🙂
Love to you and all my Siestas!!!
Well I don’t have any wonderful name stories to share. I actually am one of the Siesta’s who don’t have a godly heritage to draw from. I admit i have moments of sadness with it but God spoke Isaiah 43:18-19 into my heart and I know with everything in me that just as He called my husband and me out of darkness, he has called my children, and their children,etc!!!Praise Him for humble beginnings!
Names alone stand as a testament. Several people have asked how I adopted the name “annie” for the blog. I don’t capitalize it because it is not my given name. I do know I am an Annie at heart, though. My real name is Annette, a derivative of Ann, meaning “Grace”. If any recurring theme in my life has meaning to me, it is Grace. Though my life has had ups and downs, it has often been and once, magnificently, redeemed by Grace. My mother’s name was Annie, and her mother’s name was Annie, and, if it had not been for my sister having the first girl in the family and naming her daughter Leigh Anne, my daughter, Lauren, would have followed the tradition. There’s something about a name that connects and defines, that brings joy and memories, and that reminds me of a rich heritage of family values and lives that changed and shaped my own.
A name is important to God. We have a white stone with a new name that God knows that is ours alone. A name is also sacred. We who are in Christ will have that Name engraved on us in Eternity. Can you imagine that Day when you hear your new name spoken over you, as you are redeemed as Christ’s own, and you bow down low in the ultimate presence and fullness of His glory?
Hi Ladies!
Well after reading all of these wonderful (and Godly) stories of names I am a little embarrassed to share mine! But here goes…I’m in siesta territory!
My name in uneventful…my mom and dad (who are not christians) named me Donna Lynne because they liked the name!
When it was my turn to name my twin boys…my husband and I just couldn’t agree on names…we even had the baby name book open in my lap on the way to the hospital! Prior to my delivery my husband wanted to name them…now get ready…Maximus and Apollo! He said they would never get picked on with those names…I think he was kidding!
So during the surgery (I had a c-section because they were both sideways and wouldn’t turn) when they took my first son out and he started crying I just started crying and told my husband that’s my Brendan Daniel…Brendan after Brendan Shanahan the hockey player and Daniel after my mother’s grandfather! (Did I mention we’re big hockey fans!)
Now when my second son came out I told my husband to pick his name…so he chose Logan…like Logan a.k.a. Wolverine from the comic book…my husband is a big comic fan! But he couldn’t come up with a middle name and we tried them all…finally on the day they made us fill out the birth certificate paperwork he decided on Alexander for his middle name!
Yep…those are my stories! All true!
Love you all!
Donna (the mom of twin boys)
P.S. I just love Annabeth!
I was born in 1981. Name: Carrie Elizabeth, completely 100% taken from Little House on the Prairie. 🙂
I’m named after Corrie Ten Boom and so proud of it! 🙂 What a Godly woman she was! If any of you on here are not familiar with her, you can find most of her story in her book, The Hiding Place (amazing and well worth the read!) Anyways, when I was in my mom’s tummy she came to our little home town and stayed with my grandparents so my mom got to meet her. My mom was not a believer at the time, but was so drawn to her that she wanted me to be like her so she named me Corrie. I had the priveledge of getting to visit Corrie’s old home years ago in the Netherlands and I was so blessed. I hope to leave a legacy as my namesake did and as Beth does! 🙂 I love your kids names!
I left a comment yesterday about my name. I’ve been wondering how the name “Bibby” came about.
That is such a great story, thanks for sharing it with us.
My husband and I both could agree on the fact that we wanted Biblical names for our two sons. Although when it came down to the actual names it was tough to agree. Our oldest is Matthew, I wanted Malachi, our youngest is Zachary and I wanted Zacharia. It’s funny to hear them both now ages 19 and 15 thanking their Dad for winning the name game. So everything does work out for the best.
Amanda, what a delightful post, and so happy to learn the origins of your darling children's names. Love "Annabeth" and what a legacy she has to live up to.
I am one who consistently goes back to the Hebrew to learn the root meaning of names in the Bible, because it gives the biblical text so much more meaning to me, and sometimes can actually "unlock" spiritual truths that were hidden from view. It's like seeking for hidden treasures!
My own name is of Greek Origin – Pamela meaning "Sweet spirit" and Louise is my middle name of Germanic origin, meaning "Fame and war". Pamela Louise do not "go together" so I was raised with my Mother calling me "Pamalou"!
Our one and only son we named "Eugene Lee" after I had spoken with 3 Eugenes to insure they liked their names, we also prayed and asked the LORD! We shortened our son's name to Gene, but as soon as he was able to express himself about such things he told us he hated his name and wanted us to name him Michael instead! "No Way! we said. Eugene means 'wellborn and kingly' and God wanted you to have that name! End of story…" Guess what? He is the proud Papa of a "girls nation" and instead of "King" he calls himself the "Court Jester" in his Girls Nation! His wife is "queen" and our 3 darling "greatgirls" are our beloved Princesses! God's ways are not our ways and His way is always best. There is alot to be said in a name, and also the LORD gives us a new name! Do you know what your "new name" is? I do! The LORD whispered my new name in my ear one day, "He said, I've given you a new name and it is spiritual and I looked it up and it meant "loveable and worthy of love!" (smile…) What a delight and treasure we find in names…each one special, and each one with meaning. I've loved reading each post about our names, our children's names and the why's and wherefores.
Love to all my Siestas today,
Pamela Louise Houston><>
Buena Park, CA.
I’m one of those, who in my “alcoholic” family is the only one with a Christian legacy (my father who I barely knew growing up was one, has since passed away). I married into a Christian family. Then my daughter married into one also. In just 2 short generations, the legacy has drastically changed. My grandchildren have an awesome heritage with Grandparents and Greatgrandparents on both sides who know God. While I am not close with my family, I can say I feel like I have a Godly heritage, not a broken one. I have a Name in Christ, I am a “Christian”. I can live in the legacy of His name, The name above all names.
Thanks, Amanda
WOW —I was sitting in class and needed a little pick me up do to the fact that I have not yet had my intentional time alone with Jesus today … so i decided to read your blog ! what an encouraging story !!! i even told my mom to come here and read it to! thanks for letting me share in your life! i will be praying for your daughter’s spirtual growth into the godly woman that the Lord has planned for her to be!
Sista in Christ,
Elizabeth Ellen : )
(… you gotta love God for that )
my name is Justine… I don’t know why my mom named me that… you see back when i was a kid no one had that name or I had never heard it… I always was on the boys list, in fact, when at church camp the first time away, I was put in the boys cabin… great way to meet boys!!!
I wanted my kids to have cool names… my daughters names are Frankye and Tommye… I have a son named Noah… almost named him Jonah but did not want him to obey God out of having to but wanted him to have an example of obeying the first time…
Thanks for the fun post!!!
Love you sweet annabeth.
Thank you for sharing. I don’t have a story behind my name, but we were careful in choosing our first child’s.
My husband has always wanted to name a little boy after Jim Elliot – the missionary. So that’s been decided for a while (we would do James Elliott and call him James). For a girl, however we, too had a long list of names.
Initially I wanted to name a girl Sarah Grace and call her by her full name. Well, my husband is the youngest of 7, so our pickings are getting slim. The 2 kids in the family just before our daughter were Grace Ann and Sydney Grace. So, I decided to do something different.
But keeping Sarah was very important to me. My grandmother, who is the godly influence that God used to bring me to Christ, always talked about her mom, Sarah, with very high esteem. So, I had told her that my first daughter would carry on that name.
We could not agree at all. Eventually I came up with a list of my top 5 names and he had 2 weeks to pick one. It was Christmas-time and we were at a store in strip mall and he said he would be right back. He went down to the craft store and bought name ornaments with Emma and Lynn. He had agreed to name her Emmalyn (we scratched off the other n and bought a holder to put them together).
Its a fun story and we eventually found out that his dad’s mom was named Emma, so she carries namesake for both sides of the family.
I don’t know the story behind my name, but I would love to share the story about my 9 year old daughter Natalie Faith….
I didn’t marry until I was 30 years old and my husband and I enjoyed the monotony of our daily routine. But that changed after the birth of my younger sister’s firstborn. This beautiful little girl captured my husband’s heart and he said to me, “we need a couple of these!” “Couple” being the operative word–my first pregnancy was identical twin boys.
Unfortunately, my precious boys died shortly after birth, and, as you can imagine, this event changed our lives (the presence of God was so palpable at their funeral, I wouldn’t trade anything for that experience!)
We were in our mid-thirties by this time, so 9 months after our boys died, I became pregnant with a little girl. I have always liked the name Natalie so I was thrilled when I read in a baby book that her name meant ‘Christmas Child’ (since Christmas is my favorite time of year). I wanted to give her a name with Biblical significance, but for months, nothing seemed to sound right with Natalie. One day toward the end of the pregnancy, sitting next to her brother’s grave, worrying about the outcome of this present pregnancy, I kept hearing over and over “have faith.” That was it – Natalie Faith!!! My prayer has been and will continue to be that she will be a woman of faith. So far she’s living up to her name – a few years ago, her 1st grade teacher said, “You have a little evangelist on your hands-I think Natalie is going to convert one of her Muslim classmates.”
Have faith!!!
Lisa J.
Virginia
My name Buffie Marie, comes from an indian folk-singer named Buffie Saint Marie. I’ve heard all the vampire jokes I can stand! I am too old to have been named after Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
My parents were flower children..not love sick teenagers!
I have so enjoyed reading all the stories about names. I’ve noticed that many of us are named after our grandmothers and that we are so influenced by these special women in our lives. It is an encouragement to me and I’m sure to other grandmas among the siestas to see the impact we can have on our grandchildren. Such an honor to share my faith with my grandkids. Faith is the legacy I want to leave to the generations following me.
Lynn in Alberta, Canada
When I was born, I was named Diana, my sister being only 3 at the time, could not pronounce the name, it came out DeDe. So it stuck. When I went away to college in great attempts to ‘seem’ grown up, I tried to go by Diana, thinking it sounded more mature. But this VW Bug driving gal is indeed a DeDe.
I feel so special to share my middle name with that sweet little princess.
What fun it is to read the stories behind names. I love the name Annabeth (we have a Annabeth in our church)
I remember as a kid I didn't really like my name. Not because it wasn't pretty, but because the name "Kristen" wasn't very popular back in the 60's & early 70's. I could never find that cute little license plate for the back of my turquoise Schwinn bicycle w/ the confetti colored banana seat that told the world my name! All my friends had them! I also could never find the name plate for my bedroom door that read "Kristen's Room". I mean how could anyone really know who's room they were entering if I didn't have that special name plate on my bedroom door! It was very traumatic for a 6 year old! I can remember looking through all the names on the display… no matter how hard I wished… Kristen just wasn't there! (fortunately I can now buy a name plate that states my name – and it's spelled correctly! ha ha)
The story behind my name…
Up until it was time to fill out the birth certificate I was to be named Christine Lynn. My grandmother said to my mother "now you really don't want to name your daughter the same name as John's (my dad) old girlfriend do you?" (her name was Lynn) So it was changed right then and there to Kristen Ann. I was named after Ricky Nelson's first wife (Kristin Harmon Nelson) I believe she went by Kris. I have never been called Kris – it had to be Kristen. Believe me, if someone shortened my name… my mom let them know it wasn't acceptable! ha ha One of Ricky's songs was my mom and dad's "song"!
So there you have it! I do love my name!
The Journey Continues ~
#1 comment at 12:48 March 24
#2 comment today
Oh Melissa, I laughed out loud when reading your post about your name “change” until graduation announcements!
I added a youtube of my old graduation ceremony and several friends contacted me to remind me of this same situation. They said it was so embarrassing to hear their true names announced over the loud speaker. And now I have it on youtube.com
search KLSAFINA
I wish I would have kept my maiden name and erased my middle name when I married my husband.
I love my last name. SAFINA Italian!!!
One of our friends names was
Ima Stone!!! you can imagine what was said ~ Dorcus Dung was another!!
I will always remember your name
Melissa GAY Moore Fitzpatrick!! LOL
With “Heaven Bound” Blessings,
Kim Safina
Amanda, i love the name Annabeth. You can tell she will be just darling with a name like that. 🙂 I was named after two of my great grandmothers, one was ‘Martha,’ the other was ‘Helen.’ I think my parents just liked both of those names and when I was born and they saw that they had a girl, they felt like those names were meant for me. As a kid I always hated my name.. I only shared it with old ladies, it seemed. 🙂 But as I’ve gotten older, I have grown to love it and the fact that it’s somewhat uncommon and yet traditional. I’m not sure if they prayed over my name or not, but it has great significance to me! Martha means “lady” and Helen means “light”.. I can’t tell you how many times I have felt discouraged, worthless, defeated, or unremarkable that God has whispered over me “You are my lady of light”.. He has taught me that this is how He sees me, this is who I am in His sight, even if I don’t feel I can understand/grasp that most days. So whether or not my parents realized it, God was sovereign over my naming, planning for it to be defining for me in Christ, just what this fearful girl needed to know she was held in Him, planned for Him before even being born.
As for my own kids.. none yet, though my husband and I are excited about that adventure one day (soon maybe?!). But I definitely think about names often.. it will be fun to have that privaledge one day, if the Lord blesses us in that way. May it honor Him!
Love the Levi Jones story – hilarious.
I have the blessing of being named after both of my grandmothers…and I am so blessed to carry their names…Concetta Ruth…Concetta is Italian for Connie and Ruth is German…both names mean about the same thing…constant, loyal, faithful…I really think that is cool, too, cause that really is part of who I am and how I live my life.
I am proud to be named after my grandmothers!!!
My name is Nellibrooke. When I tell people my name they always think I am giving them my first and middle name but my first name is Nellibrooke and my middle name is Ann. I’ve never met anyone else who has the same first name as me which is pretty neat. My mom loved the name Nelli (after her great grandmother)and my dad was set on Brooke. So they put two and two together and got Nellibrooke. I go by Nelli; however, my mom refuses to call me anything but Nellibrooke and when she’s real serious it’s “Nellibrooke Ann” (usually said through gritted teeth). =)Anyways I love the name Annabeth. Definitely one I will have to add to my growing list of possible girl names.
Nelli
Kingsport, TN
This is about my son’s name. He is 3 months old–Noah Burch.
Burch is my husband’s middle name (and a long standing family name) As for Noah–when we found out we were expecting a boy, I began asking the Lord to show us what his name should be. My husband and I have pretty differing taste in names so we had not decided yet. I had been thinking about Noah and so had my husband. It seems silly-but names are important to me, and I wanted the Lord to be involved in naming our son. I had asked Him that morning to please confirm to me if Noah was the heritage and name God had for him. I sat down to do my Believing God study for the day. The lesson for that day was titiled “BY FAITH-NOAH”
If that isn’t confirmation I don’t know what is. 🙂
When my parents were trying to decide on a name for me. They both like the name Carey. My dad had a Great-Aunt Keri and my mom had a Great-Aunt Carrie. So they thought that was appropriate. Lee my middle name was also my great-grandmother’s middle name. She had the sweetest gentle spirit. I hope she passed it on to me. One of my aunt carrie’s lived to be 106–man I hope I have those genes too!
It’s fun to remember your namesakes and challenging too!
Funny you should mention that bc I recently watched the Life Today in which your mom said the nice in Eunice means victory. So victory is in my name I suppose. 🙂 Eu means good, so good victory. I don’t know what Ja means. Oh, and I just looked up my last name in the book of American Surnames. I am a senior so I figured maybe I should walk around and see what is in our 7 story library before I graduate… not really any good stuff. But hey, I like books. Unfortunately, I am not named after anyone. I asked my mom and she said she just liked the name. I like it too bc I don’t have to share it with hardly anyone my age. I recommend naming a kid Janice.
My 22 yr old daughter was named Tabitha (quite purposefully!)for the disciple from Joppa “who was always doing good and helping the poor.”
If we only had a penny for each time she’s been asked:
“can you twitch your nose?”!!!
My given name is Sylvia Dianne Abbott, after my dad. His name was Sylvester, and my mom wanted to name me Sylvia Esther. He had taken alot of ridicule about his name over the years, such as being called Sylvester the Cat, that he put his foot down about Sylvia Esther. They called me Dianne, so when I married and changed my name, the Sylvia was dropped. And that’s the rest of the story.
Amanda, Annabeth is a lovely name with a lovely story behind it. Thanks for sharing with us.
Love you,
Dianne
My grandmother’s name was Ruth.
My mother’s middle name is Ruth
My middle name is Ruth
and my 4 year old daughter’s middle name is Ruth. What a legacy both of family and as an obedience to God.
My mom swears she didn’t know any other Jennifer’s when she decided on that name for me. But, I grew up with at least one, if not two or three other Jennifer’s in my school classes.
My son, Morgan, is named after Morgan Cryer–a Christian Rock singer from the early 80’s. He is the inspiration for my husband deciding to create and perform christian music. It’s cool because our Morgan LOVES music–esp. his Daddy’s.
Son #2 (to be born in April)will be named Grayson. We liked Gray, but I love the fact that the word “Grace” is spoken in his name–such a reminder of what has been given to me.
Oddly enough, I was named after my uncle. I never knew him, as he was killed in a car accident the yr. I was born. He was a minister and when he died, my mom, his sister, decided she would honor him by naming me Veronica. His name was Ronnie and if you look in the middle of my name, it is roni. I know there have been times I didn’t live up his legacy as a minister, but God has given me chances to be a minister to just one or two people. Thanks for the chance to tell my story.
My parents basically had it down to two names when I was born: Alexandria and Channing.
When my mom went into labor, they still hadn’t decided. She had me, and soon after my dad was on the phone calling all of his 10 brothers and sisters. He kept asking my mom, “what’s her name? i have to have a name to tell everyone!” my mom, in pain, replied, “i don’t care – YOU pick!”
Alexandria is was. I go by Lexee now. My middle name is a combination of both my parents names: D’Ann. D for Dwayne, my dad’s name, and Ann for my mom’s middle name.
Annabeth Ellen… how sweet a name can be. And the meanings behind them are endless. Unfortunately, my name, Holly Danielle (maiden name Wing) has no significance other than the fact that my parents liked the two names and threw them together. However, my grandmother, sweet little southern belle that she is, likes to overthink everything. My birthday is October 26 and before my parents could get a word in edge-wise, she had already ripped the name apart by saying, “Holly Wing? That sounds too much like Halloween!!” So that’s my story 🙂
Amanda-I was the one in Curt’s LIT class that was pregnant with you this past fall. Our little guy arrived on 1/21 and we named him Caleb Jesse. We started out happily agreed upon ‘Caleb Daniel’. However, I went looking for the meanings of each and while I adore Caleb’s faithfulness in reporting to and assuring Moses that God can do what He says He’s GONNA do…I didn’t really feel like Caleb (Hebrew for ‘rage like a dog’) blended smoothly with Daniel (God is our Judge). So, we went with Caleb Jesse. Jesse was my grandfather’s first name and of course, that of King David’s father.
I am named Colleen…after my grandmother’s favorite dog. Not as profound, but evidently she must have been an incredible dog!
Just a note to Siesta Mama,
We are doing the Esther bible study right now and just finished lesson 6.
I wanted to say how truly blessed I have been in this study! I also wanted to say I LOVED the big Texas belt buckle your wore for lesson 6. :o)
My name is Charlotte. I am the fifth Charlotte in my mother’s side of the family. It means Noble, Womanly and I feel like ti has guided me throughout my life.
While pregnant with our 2nd, I was sitting in church and felt I “heard”, ‘This baby’s name is Emily Nicole’. I asked my husband if it was okay to name the baby that, if it was a girl. We didn’t plan on finding out what we were having but you’d think that if God spoke, He wouldn’t have given me a girl’s name for a boy, so why did I say IF it’s a girl? The boy name we picked (just in case) was Cameron. God is patient AND has a sense of humor. When our precious Emily was born, her nose was smooshed completely flat and to the right side. It straightened out within a week or so but later when I looked in a book of baby names, I laughed because Cameron means “Crooked nose”!
We have a sweet little girl named Kallie (which we chose just because we both liked the name, and spelled with a “K” because that’s what we do in our family!), and just had a little boy that we named Jackson. I promise we’re not stalking you! It’s actually the only name hubby and I ever agreed on for a boy, and it was one we chose when we were pregnant the first time. My Grandpa’s name was Curtis, but everyone called him Jack (figure that one out!), so we thought it was a nice tribute to him as well! I have the same name as my mom (Karen), but use “Kari”, a nickname given by my parents after my great-great-aunt who, by all accounts, was quite the feisty old lady 🙂
Thank you for sharing about how you chose Annabeth’s name. Lovely!My daughter’s name is Anna Elizabeth—named after my grandmother Anna and my Mom Elizabeth. I love the Bible story of Anna seeing baby Jesus in Luke 2:36.
I’m the baby of the family by quite a bit with 12 and 14 years separating me from my siblings, so there were lots of comments and suggestions about what I should be named. After I was born, instead of using any of the names that were discussed, mother suddenly decided on Elizabeth Anne and when she told the rest of the family, they were all like, “When did we discuss ‘Elizabeth Anne.'” Apparently, it was an executive decision from the person who actually gave birth.
Now, she’ll tell me about Aunt So-and-So and the queens of England, but really I think she just needed a name and she didn’t like the ones they’d already come up with so she picked what has got to be the most common name combination in the English-speaking world. I’m glad Beth told us her name was Wanda Elizabeth. I had just assumed she was Elizabeth Anne like fifty million of the rest of us!
My daddy picked my name. I was the first grandchild to be born on his side in approimately 9 years, so anticipation was great. The joke is my room was decorated in all blues!!!! How that man wanted a son. The lord has such a sense of humor. The story goes in the day you had an intercom into the waiting room to announce the delivery of the baby. My mom who labored the hardest with me was shocked to find out I was missing the crucial parts necessary to be their boy. As she and her doctored argued about who would tell my dad. Needless to say my dad has embraced being the father to three girls (baby sister actually bears his initial’s) So I would have to say a great big thank you daddy for my name Celeste Ann.
I love your baby girls name. I have thre girls and it was so much fun picking there names.
Chelsea Elizabeth now 18, jut because we liked it.
Hannah Marie 13 after my grand mother,
Emily Ruth , 10 after my husband grandmother.
Even our female dogs hadand have wonderful names, Maggie Mae, and Lilly May
Stephanie from Ky
I wasn’t named after anyone. I was supposed to be a little boy the entire time of my mothers pregnancy and she had named me John Todd after my dad and her sisters little boy who had passed away at 9 months old.
BUT God had other plans and I was a girl…Susan Marie
She said I just looked like a Susan.
I love Annabeth’s name.
A humble suggestion: Could we have a post that relates to our Bible memorization? Twice a month we are privileged to share the scripture we are currently memorizing, but we don’t have the opportunity to relate how the scripture is impacting our lives. I have been amazed at the impact meditating on my chosen scripture has had on my life. God’s word is alive and active in ME! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE MEMORIZING SCRIPTURE!!
Paula, Muskegon, Michigan
Amanda,
Annabeth is such a beautiful name….classic, yet unique!!
I was named after my mom…her name is Linda, but she goes by Lynn, so they named me Stacie Lynn.
I’m really big on name meanings and have all my future kid’s names picked out solely based on their meanings! It’s just sooo much fun!
Both my first and middle names are from my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Eva. Elizabeth means God is an[my] oath and Eva means life. My parents said that if I was a boy I would have been Nathanial Paul. Nathanial was a name they liked and Paul was my grandpa. But as a not-so-serious name my dad said the first name would be Abednego!
I laughed when I read another post saying they named their daughter Abigail after getting that far in the baby name book. My sister’s name is Abigail and my dad chose the name. He says that the reason he didn’t go farther in the name book was he just knew that would be her name!
My daughter was named after me, and both of her grandmothers, so we named her Melva Elizabeth Rosalia. Our last name is a good long German name, and the poor child could not spell her whole name until grade 3. She chose Mel-Beth as her adult nickname. Oh the burdens we put on our children.
I want to encourage anonymous Lisa Marie. I too am a first generation Christian and am SO grateful that a godly heritage has begun for my children and their children! Praise Him! I’ve been the only believer in my family for over twenty-one years…but my sister just came to know the Lord a few months ago…through a Living Beyond Yourself bible study. I am forever grateful that I finally have a sister who is my sister-in-Christ. Keep praying for your family, Lisa Marie! Our God is one of miracles!