The Meaning Behind My Kids' Names

When our children were born, we did not put any effort into the Biblical or Spiritual meanings behind our children's names. With Morgan, we struggled much to come to agreement on a name. When we finally found two names we both liked, they happened to be dual-gender, so she was going to be either "Morgan Alexandria" or "Alexander Morgan". "Morgan" means "of the ocean", and I liked that it brought a sense of calm. I'm not sure what "Alexandria" means, but I knew I liked it, especially with "Morgan."

The second time around, again, we were having some difficulty agreeing on names, so I used the internet to find a list of baby names, and we agreed on "Aidan Michael" (we knew he was going to be a boy, so we didn't even choose a girl name). "Aidan" means "fire", which matched the physical change my body went through while I was pregnant with him - from always being cold before I was pregnant to always being hot. I knew "Michael" as a name from the Bible, but did not know its meaning. But "Aidan Michael" rolls off the tongue, so that became his name.

After a couple of years, Bob and I began attending church regularly, and every once in a while, I would find myself thinking about the meanings of my children's names, and wondering why we hadn't gone with Biblical names for them. It was never much more than a fleeting thought, though.

Until yesterday. Aidan was asking me what I thought he would be when he grew up. I told him I didn't know, and we discussed several possibilities. Once again, I found myself thinking about the meanings of their names. Once again, it was just a fleeting thought. Or so I thought. This morning in church, someone came up to the media booth to make a request, and noticed Aidan sitting there with me. As I was working to complete the request, he asked Aidan if there was any story behind his name, and Aidan replied that there wasn't. I mentioned that there was no family story, we just found it on a baby name list, and that it means "fire". That's when he hit me. Not literally, but with his words. He said, "You know, that reminds me of the Methodist symbol - the cross and the fire. And the Holy Spirit is represented by fire as well." With that, he left the booth to sit down for the service. Aidan and I talked a little more about that symbolism, and about the time when he was just beginning to read, and was trying to look up the book of John in the Bible. He asked me "does it come before or after Plasma (Psalms)?" I have always cherished that memory, knowing that God has something special planned for my son.

Now I knew that Aidan was named exactly what God intended, but where did that leave Morgan? And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that her name matches exactly her goals. She wants to teach music to immigrant students in an inner-city, under-privileged setting. Students who come from another country - perhaps from "across the ocean". And at that moment, I realized her name was God-given, as well.

[Ed. 10.13.13] After posting this, I looked up the meaning of their middle names. "Alexandria" is the female form of "Alexander", which means "defender of the people". Of course. "Michael" means "who is like God". Wow.

[Ed. 03.14.17] Reread this again tonight in contemplation, and realized more about this topic. Since I originally wrote this, Morgan has travelled to Tijuana twice as well as Spain. She left Ohio State because she was feeling a particularly strong calling to Tijuana. She now lives in Southern California with several girls she met as missionaries on one of the Tijuana trips, and is working on completing her degree in Spanish. She is truly living up to her name, preparing to bring God's light and grace "across the ocean" to other nations, "defending the people."

Aidan, a sophomore in high school, is very interested being some type of policeman. He definitely has a "fire" for protecting God's people. He is also dating an absolutely wonderful girl whose family went to Brazil on a missions trip over Thanksgiving.

The Lord was truly present in the naming of our children, even though they are not names that are used in the Bible. Thank you Jesus!