NAMING REMORSE ANYONE??

As our struggles with infertility intensified, I began thinking that if we were ever given the privilege of having children, it would be appropriate to give them names with meanings signifying triumph over our long struggle with infertility. We began thinking of names with meaning such as triumph, gift of God etc., and was also very drawn to biblical characters who we read, had struggles with infertility.

Without knowing the meaning of Theodore, I became drawn to it because a couple on a popular daytime soap, who had struggles with infertility, named their son Theodore. I was drawn to this part of the storyline because at the time, with not many persons knowing of our struggles with infertility, and not many such stories out there to identify with, I quickly embrace this, as fiction as it was.

When we first became pregnant and learnt that we were having a girl, we decided to name our little girl SaraMarie. In the bible, Sarah, Abraham’s wife had struggles conceiving and eventually bore a son  Isaac. (Genesis 21 NIV).  I remember someone asked me what name I would give our baby and when I told them the name, they said to me, why would you give a child a name synonymous with such hardship? I said to her, yes it signifies hardship but the greater meaning in this story was the fact that out of that hardship came triumph, the birth of Isaac, now is there a better story? Sadly we lost that baby, but she still remain fondly in our hearts, our precious SaraMarie, our first miracle.

When we became pregnant with our son, we knew very soon that we wanted his name to mean divine gift or gift of God because after such intense infertility struggles the birth of a child for us, would be nothing short of Gods graciousness. It was then we found out that Theodore meant gift of God and found also that Matthew meant that as well. We chose Theodore because it was not a common name being given to boys and it is also a very strong name which we also wanted for him, and Theodore it was, amidst disapproval from a few family members.

Sometime after this, we were out when some children began asking us what our son’s name was. When we told them they looked at us and chuckled. Is he named after the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks? they asked (That movie was recently released at the time). My heart sank, and I felt awkward and even some remorse, thinking that this might be the beginning of hard times from his peers because of his name. I was quickly cheered up though when I remember the reason we chose that name for our son.

We are still trying to find the meaning of our daughter’s name LeeAnna, and have not been successful so far. What we do know already is that Lee means meadow or clearing and so we might have to just separate the names and use their separate meanings. However that turns out we love this name dearly. It is my name in part (Annetta Lee), and so I do not think we will have any naming remorse as a result.

So this is our naming story. How about yours, are you still happy with the names you have chosen for your children. According to a recent report, some parents are having naming remorse, how about you? 

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