What's in a Name?

{This was written months ago and I never posted it. Don't know why but here is is now.}

It is important. It matters. It should get careful consideration because the person is stuck with it for a long time. The Bible says God knows the very number of the hairs on our head and that he knew us before we were born. That's another reason to be cautious in picking a name.

When I was naming my son's we talked about a lot of them and my oldest son's name was a compromise. I was very foolish in picking his middle name but I still love the name. It was a character in a book I had read and I was still young enough to be influenced by such things. He hates it. A good sign it was the wrong choice. I don't think he actually likes the name Michael but we did. Maybe he doesn't like himself much and that's sad because he's a great person.

Both of David's names were considered as first names but I tossed it out as a pair and Jerry liked it. I promptly went to sleep and forgot it. We didn't decide on a name that night and I was seven months pregnant! Not until the nurse handed the baby to Jerry did I know what David's name would be. Jerry had liked it so much and had kept it to himself for three months. And we still took another day to decide. But in the end, Jerry named him.

In one of my last posts I had a several comments in regards to Sarah's name. We've had people comment on it many times in the last four years. People always say "Oh, that's a beautiful name" or something similar. We always enjoy watching people's faces when they hear it because for some reason it strikes a chord with them.

There is some interesting information about her name. Before Sarah ever got here her parents began thinking about who she would be, what she would be called. Jerry and I tried to keep our thoughts to ourselves unless we were asked. We remembered how people had bombarded us with family names that we "ought " to use.

But of course, everyone got asked about names. Jerry and I said our children would have their own names, not a relative's and not something so weird they'd be embarrassed. I still have the name book I used to find names.

Michael means "Who is like the Lord?" He was a messenger of God in the Bible. Mike won't give his middle name and for that I'm sorry. But it means a dweller at the court. He's an honest man, serving royalty. David means "Beloved" and was a man after God's own heart in the Bible. His middle name means "helper of mankind". I've always thought they were strong and good names.

Personally, their names reflect our feelings of how we viewed God and the kind of men we hoped they would become. That's why a name is important. We've always told them this, so they would know how important their names are to us and to them.

I told my daughter-in-law this as well, in hopes she'd approached the name search with care. Parents can be a bit silly in name choosing, as I may have been with Mike. And I must say she took a lot of time, looking up and trying out a lot of names. Some I liked and some I didn't but ultimately, it was their choice.

We spent a lot of time looking up all her choices in several sources. Becca and I are close and she likes talking to me so she included me in the process.

Most of the sources we used said that Sarah meant "Princess" and we knew her position in the Bible. Becca was trying to use a Biblical first name, perhaps to keep a family tradition. Her family has few of those and she's trying to make her own traditions for her family.

The importance of a name was brought home to me when Sarah's full name, Sarah Cheyenne was found. It has a unique story behind it that I hope will someday tell her how special names are for all of us. And how special her's became to everyone of her relatives. I learned later that Jerry secretly told Becca he really liked the name Sarah.

Becca was looking for names. We knew we needed a girl's name. She gathered lists of names from everywhere. I think she was about halfway into her pregnancy when she asked me if I had any names I had liked. I told her the ones we had picked out if the boys had been girls. Then, I told her when I was a teenager there was a name I had just loved and said it was Cheyenne. She said her mom had said the same thing, that when she was a teenager there had been a name she loved but that she not been able to remember it.

So, right then she got on the phone and called her mom to see if she had remembered the name she had liked. She said, "Mom, have you remembered the name you liked when you were a teenager.I was watching her and her face went all funny and she said, "You're kidding! That's the same name David's mom just gave me!" Becca and I sort of just stared at one another and she laughed and said, "Well, I guess it is Cheyenne." I was pretty stunned and said, "Oh my God!"

Needless to say, "out of the the mouths of two or three witnesses every word shall be established!" You can't get more Biblical than that. Cheyenne was ordained.

Sarah was a bit more difficult. I don't know if Becca really took to it at first but for some reason, it seemed to fit and flow and that was the name that she was given. Becca told me latter that Jerry had taken her aside and told her he liked the name Sarah. That's another memory for her. Once the two were brought together, they just seemed right. Once heard, everyone loved Sarah and we liked the fact that it was a Biblical name, a family tradition carried on.

We were curious to know about Cheyenne, aside from the fact it was a well known Indian tribe and a favorite name of both grandmothers. Knowing what a name means is so important. Remember, they're stuck with it. And pretty or not we wanted to give her something with meaning. If the meanings didn't feel right, Becca would have to start over. And we'd already listened to dozens of names.

Four years ago, there was very little on the name that we could find. We had a hard time finding anything. Lineage is obscure at best. However, after more research and we discovered another very interesting translation in one source. "People of an unknown tongue." Anyone who knows my religious background will know the impact this had on us. For us at least, Sarah Cheyenne could not have been named anything else.

As I wrote this today, I looked again for sources and Cheyenne is all over the place now. Once source says this, "One of the most common etymologies for Cheyenne is "a bit like the [people of an] alien speech" So, not much different in one regard.

Another site by a Native American did not advocate giving Indian names to white children. They say that the meanings are virtually never what white's think and are usually not flattering. As I said, research is necessary in picking a name!

OUR story of Cheyenne in our family has made it much more than the name of a native American tribe and a language that has only about 1200 speakers today. That's not why we picked it. It is more than a city in Wyoming. And it is more than what it means. It was a connection made before she was born. Her name was known before she ever arrived. There is no way to improve on that.

What's in a name? History, tradition, faith, and identity. Family.