What’s in a Name?
I had so many of you ask me how we decided on baby names after I revealed our sweet boys name and Gender on InstaGram. The truth is, the husband and I have had this little guys’ name picked out since his brother was born. We’ve always had two boy names and one girl name picked out (a sign, maybe?), so when I found out I was pregnant, the name picking headache was the furthest thing from our mind.
We initially had another name picked out for Noah (another post for another day) and changed our minds last minute. I’m certain that that won’t happen this time. This little boy already fits his name and I am already certain that he is a Jonah.
But, how did we come up with the name?
We picked Joshua Noah for our oldest for two different reasons. “Joshua” is the husband’s name and we loved the idea of naming our first born after his daddy. But, just as important as his namesake was the meaning behind the name Joshua (God is Salvation–source). We wanted to give our son a strong foundation and felt that his name was the place to start. We knew we didn’t want to call him Josh, since that’s what his daddy’s name is. After a series of coincidental events, we chose the name Noah for his middle name. Noah meaning peaceful combined with the name Joshua made for a good, strong biblical name that had some family attachment.
With Jonah, we went back and forth between his name and the name Jacob. The husband liked the name Jacob as much, but in my mind, the only thing I could think of was Twilight. If the series hadn’t been so popular right now, we might have considered it a bit more, but I didn’t want our son born in a Vampire Infatuated era and grow up thinking that he was named after a teenage werwolf.
I loved the idea of both boys names ending in “-ah” and thought it was fun and unique. Jonah also has a strong biblical correlation and meaning. Everyone knows the story of Jonah and the whale and the incredible faith he had during his time inside the belly of the whale. The name Michael was another family name. My daddy has always wanted a namesake and we were excited to give him that if our second baby was discovered to have been a boy. Again, Michael is a biblical name (the name of God’s archangel), and we wanted to ensure that both of our children grew up with a strong faith and a strong spiritual base.
So, what would you have named your daughter?
We’ve only ever had one little girl name in mind. The middle name was decided before I ever got married…Elizabeth. My grandmother’s middle name was Elizabeth as is mine. It’s been a family name for years and years and years. But, the first name gave us a tiny bit of trouble. We talked about a handful of different names, but nothing seemed to suit our family. Finally, not too long after Noah was born, we settled on the name Rebekah (not Rebecca). We liked that it had the same “-ah” ending as the name Noah (and now Jonah) and we loved that again it was scriptural.
I’m not sure what we’ll do if we ever decide to have baby number three and it turns out to be a boy. We don’t have any other boy names picked out, so we’d actually have to sit down and discuss that this time. Somewhere in my heart I wonder if there’s a reason that we have these three names chosen and only these three names. I guess only time will tell.
For now, we’ll just keep preparing and planning to welcome Jonah into our family. I know he’s going to fit right in…
What a beautiful and wonderfully creative way to reveal your little ones name! PS. I love it!
Thank you so much! 🙂 It was fun to reveal it to everyone at one time.
For the first two boys we went with family names but with boy #3 we had used them up. I liked Joseph and Joshua and even thought about Jacob but that is also my #2s middle name. In the end I told my husband to make the final decision so he went with Joshua Michael.
We ALMOST used Joshua Michael with Noah, but we didn’t want to use the name Michael as his name (or Mike) and Joshua is my husband’s first name. But, obviously we love both of those names!
If you have a 3rd boy, you could name him Halleluj-ah!!! 🙂 Just kidding…I love the names you chose. We also use biblical names for our sons. We are Smith’s, so we did want to be a little more unique with the first names (but not crazy). Hubby’s name is Jacob (Jake) and our first son is Tanner Jacob. So it has a double meaning for us. 2nd boy, we did the same. My dad is named David, so we went with Breckin David. So they are both biblical and mean something to our family. xoxo
We like the name Jacob, too. That was our other name for Jonah and would probably be a front runner if we ever had a third little boy. 🙂 Love the name Breckin! What a unique name.
The name game is a hard one! My oldest is Hope Elizabeth, if that helps you out with a first name. 😉 So hard not to associate names with others you’ve known with the same. Girls names are always the toughest for us.
We love the traditional, family, and biblical names!
Love the name Hope! 🙂 I used to say that I’d name girls Faith, Hope and Grace. 🙂
I LOVE those names! I actually had Rebekah picked out for years (but also Hannah, which we ultimately decided on), and we might use it if we ever have another girl. And Noah was one of our favorites as well, but we ended up going with Abram. We didn’t intentionally choose all biblical names – we just happen to love them. But, like you said, we want to give our children a spiritual foundation, so we might as well start with the names, right?
So excited for you and your growing family – Noah and Jonah will be two blessed little boys!
We talked about the name Hannah, too. I actually have a cousin named Hannah, so it would be a last resort type name. Love the name Abram though. What a strong name!
Love this post! The names you’ve chosen are beautiful, and sound so well together. I definitely prefer that spelling of Rebekah also.
We had quite a time picking Beau’s name. We couldn’t decide on a name fit for a baby, a boy, and a man, and of course every name we went through had to pass the “how can a guy make fun of this name?” test my husband Shane and brother-in-law had. Everyone in my family is named after a relative, and it was important to me to carry on this tradition. (Seriously… my family is full of Elizabeths and Davids!) Shane is really Rodney Shane, named after his dad Rodney – so we knew we wanted Rodney in his name. After much back and forth my sister-in-law joked that when Shane was little, and quite the Dukes of Hazzard fan, he said he was going to name his boy Bo, so why didn’t we? We all laughed about it, but the name got in our heads and stuck. It didn’t take long before we had settled on Beau Rodney (not Bo!) Now I can’t imagine having named him anything else.
Honestly, I’ve never been a fan of the name Rodney, but I love how it sounds with Beau and I quite often call him by his full name.
I love reading how other people come up with names for their children. 🙂 I love the way that you guys chose to spell Beau!
So, I obviously love your choice of name because I chose it for my own son. We talked about baby names over the years leading up to actually having a child ourselves..mostly when a family member or friend would have a baby. I remember having a discussion with my husband about 3ish years ago and the name Jonah or Jonas came up. We obviously nixed the Jonas because of “the brothers”, but Jonah never left my brain. I wanted Jonah Wyatt (but then Wyatt became VERY popular). We wanted JW because my husband is a JW and so is my grandfather, uncle and a cousin. We came up with Wilder (not sure where) and I only assume the meaning is well…”wild one”. With Jonah meaning “peaceful or passive” I like the idea of throwing a little spunk in there. . . and it SO FITS his personality to a T! He’s so laid back and happy but full of life and personality!! Aw.. I just love him. hehe =)
Don’t you love how our children grow into their names? 🙂 I can’t even picture our Noah as anyone else.
I love these stories! So is Joshua your firstborn’s first name? I know many people who go by their middle names. Just curious!
I feel as if fate picked out my kids’ names more than I did. On the same day I found out that I was expecting my firstborn, we found out that my father-in-law was dying of cancer. It felt as if one life was being transitioned to another. Naming our son George after my father-in-law seemed the most natural thing. His middle name (Paul) is my brother’s name.
My second son was born a year after my dad died, and from the moment he was born he reminded me of my dad (which is odd, since there is no blood relation – I am an adoptee). We called him James after my dad. His middle name, Julian, was chosen in honour of his great-grandmother Julia.
Yep! He is Joshua Noah. We went back and forth on whether to name him Noah Joshua, but the other way just seemed to flow better. Same with Jonah’s name. We were going to try to make him a middle name kid, too, but Michael Jonah didn’t have the same ring to it. 🙂
I love reading stories of how other people came up with names for their kids. I’m sure that if we ever have another little boy we will incorporate the name James. That was my grandfather’s name and he was the only male great-grandparent that Noah had that had anything to do with him (sad, but true).
Love both names! Any name that is old and has true meaning behind it is perfect for me. I always say, if there isn’t some little old man or lady out there with the same name then that baby name isn’t for me. I also think Rebekah is priceless and love the traditional spelling.
Agreed! I can’t get into this whole new age name fad. Names like Apple and Cocoa? Sheesh. Really? Give me something that our ancestors would have named their children and I’m all ears. PS-Saw that you felt the baby kick today! Exciting!!
Jonah was actually on our list of names when we were pregnant with Bennett! It’s a great name! And Michael, is Easton’s middle name… so that’s also a great name 🙂 Nice job, mama!
We don’t ever choose our babies names before they are born. We always wait until we see their sweet faces to choose a name. In fact, we don’t even talk about baby names until we know the gender…. so we don’t have any amazing stories or anything – other than that the middle names are always family names. Michael (as easton’s middle name) was chosen to honor my nephew that passed away. And Roy (bennett’s middle name) is after my husband’s dad.
If we ever have a 3rd… I have no idea what we’ll name him/her. NO idea. lol
Yep. If we ever have a third baby who happens to be a boy, I haven’t the SLIGHTEST clue what we will name him. At all. When Noah was born, we still had the name Sawyer in the back of our head, and then Jonah as a third option. But choosing him name beforehand and growing accustomed to calling him that seemed to help it “fit.” Now that he’s here, I can’t imagine him being anyone else. 🙂