His Name!

So our out-of-left field name was Gideon.  But we were just talking about cool people from Scripture and Gideon was pretty cool.  But it was just too much of a mouthful.  We'd probably do it to a brand-spanking newborn, but it was too much to wrap around this almost 5 year old boy.  So with that said, and they shall call him Caleb.  Caleb, friends!  So you can start calling him Caleb if you'd like to.  We have been for a few weeks now.  :)

Yes, of course, he already has a name.  His national name.  Which will always be a part of him.  I feel like there are mixed feelings on the name topic and I totally agree (with all of the mixed feelings--they're valid).  Your name and what it means and what it signifies and how it factors into your identity are very important.  And there is also something to be said for being named by your parents and sharing in that identity with your family.  As well as your heritage identity and where you started.  It's all very precious and not something I take lightly.

We decided to give him a name.  And we can tell him all about it.  His story will be unique just like Titus and Kali and Ella have a unique story to their names.  And it will in no way diminish his cultural identity--if he'd rather use his birth name someday, that is fine as well.

And I maybe didn't clarify before, but a lot of thought went into his name.  And I did look at every option and angle I could think of to incorporate his birth name (same first letter, rhyming, meaning, etc).  But at the same time, as his parents, we wanted to honor him with naming just as we would any of our children.  Ironically, not until after we decided did I realize that the name we chose corresponds with his birth name pretty well.

As far as middle names go, we'll determine that when this is all said and done.  Currently all of our children's middle names are two-fold:  named after a relative and also someone awesome from Scripture.  I'm not sure whether or not we'll continue the trend with Caleb.  He's already named after someone awesome from Scripture (but then again, so is Titus--love my boys with their strong names!), so we'll maybe go with part of his bio name for his middle name--we shall see...

"Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore
to give your forefathers, except Caleb son of Jephunneh.  He will see it,
and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on,
because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly."
-Deuteronomy 1:35-36