What Does Your Name Mean

Mackenzie. Hailey. Madeleine. Baby names. It is a daunting task to name a baby, but my girlfriends would find out the gender of their babies and have them named in no time flat. As soon as a name was determined, my girlfriend would start calling the baby by his or her name, so when the baby arrived, the baby was that name. There was no doubt in the identity of that baby coming out of the shoot because he or she had been called that name for about four months. This is not true about people who adopt. My husband and I had boys names picked out for years because we were restricted to using the initials “W.P.M.” However, when we found out our first baby was going to be a girl, we had just a matter of a few weeks to negotiate. I had never known an “Erin” before, but I liked the name because it was common but not used. When I was in the fifth or sixth grade I had at least five Christy/Kristy/Christies in my class. Within the first year of her life, I told my mom I didn’t think I had named her the right name because it didn’t seem to stick…at all. I cried. But at 18 months, she started speaking in full sentences and hasn’t stopped. About that same time Pastor Rick was preaching on Moses and how Aaron was his mouth piece, and I thought, “Thank you, GOD! I did name her the right thing.” I tell her that her name means “gift of gab.” In all truth it’s an Irish name meaning “island” or “peace.” The male biblical name “Aaron” means teacher; mountain of strength according to http://christianity.about.com/od/christainbabyboynames/a/boynamesab.htm.


Names matter to a person. It distinguishes who they are in your life – “Momma, Daddy, Honey, Poppar, Sweet Pea, Boo.” Did you know that God has different names? He has titles. He has descriptions as to what He does. His names are important, and He wants you to know them. He wants you to know Him in that intimate, personal way in which you call on Him by His name. After all do you walk up to President Barak Obama and say, “Hey, Barak! What’s going on?” Trust me, if you got that close you’re about to be pounced on by the Secret Service, and they don’t play. But the point is you don’t know President Obama on such an intimate level that you would call him by his first name. But God, the Creator of the Universe, wants you to have the option of calling Him one of those sweet names.

I’m going through the book by Ann Spangler called The Names of God, and I’ll be pulling out several names over the next several weeks to teach to my small group. That means, this is what I’ll be posting on Sundays…after Sunday school, Deanna. (She likes to read it on the way to church, so when I would open up the discussion she was prepared to give my answers instead of what God was putting on her heart. Hahaha!)

I hope this peaks your interest like it has mine, and I can’t wait to get into it and dig.