What's in a name?

I love names. I love hearing what people name their children and the meaning behind the name, whether it be family, or biblical, or some particular meaning or any other of a thousand different reasons a name is chosen. Our first two children have names that are full of meaning. We had difficulty getting pregnant before we had Samuel. And while there are a good many names of babies in the bible whose parents were in the same boat, we related well to sense of loss and devastation turned to joy and wonder as Hannah and Elkanah did when they were finally able to have Samuel in the Old Testament book of Samuel. Not only that, but Samuel was a strong leader in Israel, being a prophet and the last of the Judges. It's a strong name and one that we both loved. So, Samuel it was. His middle name is Milo-- the first name of my only deceased grandparent. He died 18 years ago on July29th, two days before my 13th birthday. I am the youngest grandchild on that side of my family and I always felt that somehow, I really lost out. I never got to know my grandpa in a grown up way, so I wanted to honor him in a grown up way and I knew that using his name would also honor his wife, my still living 92 year old grandmother (Samuel's due date was on her birthday-- New Year's Eve--though he was born 7 days later).

Timothy's name is a whole different story! For about the 5 or 6 months that we knew he was also a boy, his name was Andrew. Steve and I had come to like the idea of having one of the child's names be a biblical name or concept and the other be a family name. Andrew happens to be Steve's middle name and we were still undecided about "Andrew's" middle name-to-be. Andrew is also one of the 12 that Jesus chose to be his closest of friends and followers. We couldn't ask for more than that! Then, probably about a week before the little guy made his grand appearance, I was reading one of the letters to Timothy in the New Testament and I had a prompting. I went to Steve and asked what he thought of the name Timothy. He liked it immediately, but I wanted him to pray about it a bit and give it some thought before we changed his name-- not an easy thing to do when you have been thinking of him and calling him something comletely different for months! Well, Steve read some of Timothy too and found a verse that solidified it for him (I'll be darned if I can remember what it was... sorry!). And soon, my prayer for this little guy was "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12. Andrew became his middle name.

And now we come to our little miss waiting for us, our ZhiPing. If ever I had a girl, you can believe that I had several favorite names picked out already!! However, one has followed me for most of my existence because it happens to come from my name. I've always loved it and I wanted it personally for a nickname. That name is Lily. My first name, which is actually Susan, means Lily in Israeli and Hebrew. I never felt any strong desire to be named after, but the fact that LilyJoy's name comes from mine is a very special connection that I have never gotten to have with any other person before. It is almost like a part of her came from a part of me that I didn't get to share with her during pregnancy. I truly hope she sees it that way one day. We had this name all picked out before we even saw our daughter. Then we met ZhiPing. Now, one thing I love about the Chinese is that when they are naming their children, they are very intentional. They often wish for their child whatever trait or quality that they name them or there may be a particular trait or quality that they are reminded of in looking at the child. It is hard to say 100% of the time what exactly the meaning of a Chinese name is (unless you talk to the namer) because there can be so many variations and some cannot be taken literally or they don't make sense. However, when we look at ZhiPing's name, we can make a guess. ZhiPing is actually two names, but the Chinese believe that you cannot break up the two names because it takes something away from the person. Zhi has a common meaning of "wisdom." The name Ping was explained to us a little more thoroughly by the boys' Chinese native barber, Suzy. She drew out the character for us and explained that the first part means "pretty girl" another part "river" or "water" and the third part "beautiful flower." We've also looked up the name for something a little more compact in its meaning. What we came up with that goes with what Suzy said is the word, "duckweed." That made me laugh when I saw it, but then I read about duckweed and found out that it is the smallest flower in the world and is a water-dwelling flower that ducks often feed off of. Well, at this point, I was so thrilled because when I imagine a water flower, the first thing I personally think of is a water lily-- we were already thinking along the same lines as her nannies! My little lily duckweed! The second part of her name is probably pretty self-explanatory, but nothing is ever as it seems on the surface for us!! Yes, we are joyful to finally have a little pink around here, but even more joyful about the Love that dwells within us. I have often thought of the concept of Joy and how joy doesn't necessarily equate to happiness. Joy is deeper. Joy comes from the very core of our beings, from the place where true worship happens, no matter what is going on around us. Joy is more than an amazing thing. It is where Christ lives.

But since we had picked the name Lily Joy out before we even met her, we didn't know how it would work with her Chinese name and we definitely wanted to keep that for her. We worked and re-worked the order of her names and finally decided on something that mirrors her Chinese name and honors the one thing that she will come to us with, that belongs to her. Hence, we put LilyJoy together in one word with the "J" capitalized and ZhiPing together with the "P" capitalized. We love this name. We hope she does too.