Saturday, February 4

What's in a name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet." 

In some ways naming my girlies felt like even more of a responsibility than having and looking after them. Seriously! The names we give our children can define who they are for the rest of their lives. During both my pregnancies, it felt like one of the biggest decisions my husband and I had to make.

As we didn't know if we were having a girl or a boy with either pregnancy we had the added responsibility of finding two names each time. We decided to make each decision a secret until we announced the birth's of our girls. Everyone has an opinion and association with certain names and as both my mum and Mark's sister are teachers, with an even bigger source of association, we thought it was better if we chose the names without any input from anyone but each other.


When we were at All Nations we made some really good Korean friends. All their names were really unusual, after all they were Korean, but the meanings were beautiful. It made me want to ensure that not only were my children's names beautiful but that the meanings were too. No pressure on myself then!


Looking through the baby name books some of the first names I checked out were mine and Mark's. Mark means warlike and Jennifer means white ghost or white wave. There were then a million others to choose from that we had to narrow down to our favourites for the future little Beckwith babies!


First time round we chose Abigail Eve, Abigail meaning father rejoices and Eve meaning life. Second time round we chose Naomi Grace, Naomi meaning delightful and Grace meaning blessing from God. We hope that as they grow up both girls will come to appreciate the names we have given them and their meanings, we spent a lot of time and consideration choosing them.


Since we lived in America we've noticed that choices of baby names can be very different. For example in the last 12 months friends who have had baby boys have chosen names like Easton, Cooper, Jackson, Colton which until now I would have associated with surnames ... the girls names have been more familiar. It is obviously a cultural thing, as with many other differences we have found since living in the States. Just another thing that enhances the experience of living here for a few years!

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