Our Children's Names

For as long as I can remember, I dreamt of the names I would give my future children. Surprisingly (perhaps luckily!) most - if not all - the names I chose as a teenager never reached my actual sons and daughters. Still I have spent countless hours doodling the names I loved, perhaps even more so once they represented real-life people I cherished. So tonight I thought I would leave a register of our children's names and what they mean.

EVA means "Life-Giver." Twenty-one years later, I find her name so appropriate because just as the biblical Eva was the first woman to give life to humanity and help Adam name and tame the animals, so our Eva loves to nurture both human life (ex: her baby brother and Starkweather cousins) and animal life (her betta fish, hamsters and rabbits!) Eva's middle name is GRACE, chosen to represent the undeserved gift of God that she was to us when we adopted her.

ISABEL means "Consecrated to God." Little did we realize when we chose a name which both we and her birthmother liked, how meaningful it would become in her early days of life when the question of whether she would survive and thrive hung in the balance. During that time, we trusted that God Who had brought this daughter to us "out of the blue" would take care of her. Isabel's permanent middle name is HOPE, which is also my middle name. But her original middle name was REGALA, meaning "Gift," and was a special message from her birth mother to us (knowing it was temporary, yet meaningful.)

OWEN means "Young Warrior; Well-Born." His name, too, was surprisingly appropriate as a 35-week preemie who (like his sister Isabel) spent the first few weeks of life battling for health and strength in the NICU. Owen's middle name is SANTIAGO, the biblical translation to Spanish of the names James, and is in honor of his maternal grandfather.

IAN means "God Is Gracious." We chose Ian's name two years before we confirmed his existence and a year before he was even born! He was a dream before he was a reality. We thought "Ian" sounded good with "Owen" and we began to pray for "baby Ian" in 2006. Ian's middle name is DAVID, which is the first name given to him by his birth mother in Haiti. This was a special confirmation to us. It was the desire of our hearts that our Haitian sons have middle names from the Bible as our older three did, but we wanted to honor their birth culture by keeping their first names. Out of all the babies at the orphanage, our two sons had traditional biblical names!

ALEC means "Defender of Mankind." Feisty with a strong sense of justice, this name fits him aptly (especially when he dons his boxing gloves!) Alec's middle name is STEPHEN, given to him as his first name by his birth mother in Haiti. It is meaningful to us for that reason and it also happens to be the male version of my name, which I find special.

SILAS means "of the Forest" (although some sites say it also means "the youngest," which would be appropriate!) For us, the greater meaning is found in the Biblical character of Silas who was the Apostle Paul's missionary companion. Silas' middle name is EBEN, which means "stone" or "rock" and is in recognition of his paternal grandfather whose name also means the same.