What’s in a name?

If you remember my little poll that I had on the side of my blog, you could see that Elijah was not an option. But Eli was. And it didn’t win… but it was close.

But besides using all of you kind reader’s input on deciding our child’s name, there was a little more that went into it. And I love how we decided his name. And so I want to share it with you.

I loved the name Eli from the beginning. Adam said no. He said it reminded him of someone he knew named Eli who was annoying. So that seemed to end the argument. But I just felt like Eli was a good name for our baby.

Later on, me and Adam were talking about names {again} and he said, “I only like Eli if it’s short for Elijah.” I about gagged. I did not want to be a Bible named family. I mean I liked the names in the Bible and of course Eli is a name in there. But I felt that was more subtle than Elijah. I mean everyone knows Elijah!

Then Adam surprised me and said, “I want him to have someone to emulate. I don’t want to make up a name with no meaning and he doesn’t have anyone to look towards as a namesake.”

So we pulled out the Bible Dictionary and looked up Elijah. And it honestly took my breath away.

[Elijah means: Jehovah is my God]

His recorded words are few but forceful, and his deeds are explicit evidences of his strength of will, force of character, and personal courage. He was an example of solid faith in the Lord. His life closed dramatically; “there appeared a chariot of fire, . . . and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven,” (2 Kgs. 2: 11-12) and thus was he translated.

At that time, I felt like Adam was right. Elijah was a wonderful person to name our baby after. But it still wasn’t set in stone… yet.

Then when our Elijah was born, we had such a hard time nailing down a name. I like Eli, Adam wasn’t sure, and the book of 100,000+ baby names was only making things more complicated.

The last night in the hospital, I was up most of the night holding my baby and looking at his little face. I kept saying the names we had narrowed down over and over again. And the only one that felt at all natural was Elijah.

Adam woke up the next morning and I told him how I felt. I told him how strong my feelings were toward the name Elijah and I wanted him to feel the same. I handed our little one over to him and he held him and rocked him for a few minutes while looking down at his face. Adam then looked up at me and said, “Yeah. That’s his name.”

So Elijah it was!

It was kind of hard getting used to it at first because I was calling him “baby” for three days. I second guessed myself every time I said his name aloud and doubted all the birth certificate paperwork.

But now when I look at him and see him smiling up at me, I know it was the right name to choose. He is my baby Eli and there is no doubt in my mind anymore. And all I can hope for is that he will someday emulate the prophet he was named after and know of his great worth. He is a miraculous blessing in our lives. And through him and my experiences these 3 short months, I have found my own personal courage and solid faith in the Lord.