What's in a Name?

When you pick a unique name for your child, you get a lot of questions from friends, family, and even strangers. What does it mean? How did you come up with it? Just like the story behind the name Keziah Rain, the story behind the name Reuel Rock requires a lengthy blog post.

I'll start with the middle name because we came up with it first. Just a few weeks into pregnancy we decided Rock was the perfect middle name if we were to have a boy. Just like Keziah's middle name Rain, it pointed to nature, which is something we both always wanted reflected in the names of our children. There are a lot of nature-themed names we like. But we decided on Rock for the same reason we decided on Rain for Keziah. It reflected what was happening in our lives.

When we moved to North Carolina we were so thrilled to finally be living in the mountains. It is something Michael Paul and I had both always wanted and had talked about since we met. More than that, we had talked specifically about wanting to raise our kids here. So when Keziah was born, we stopped talking about it and started taking steps to make it happen. God just made everything fall into place and blessed us with a wonderful house with a wonderful mountain view. And just around the corner, we found a creek full of rocks for our daughter (and future children) to play in. A few months after we moved here, we were completely surprised to find out we were expecting another child. Still riding the high of finally living in our favorite part of the country surrounded by mountains and rocks, the name Rock was an obvious choice.

The rock theme of our lives continued throughout pregnancy as Michael Paul suddenly became obsessed with collecting large rocks to landscape our yard. He would go out at three in the morning with his trailer hooked to his truck and load it up with large rocks he found in creeks and on the side of the road. When he started lusting after large boulders that couldn't be lifted, he bought a winch for his truck. He even stopped to ask neighbors if he could have the rocks from their yards. By the end of the summer, we had an awesome fire pit to enjoy, a large stone bench, and a nice flat rock for the end of our driveway that we put our street number on, not to mention a nice pile of rocks for later projects. I have my heart set on a koi pond with a fountain!

This is the fire pit Michael Paul built where we spent a lot of time last fall

Since Reuel's birth, I've been reflecting on the images the name Rock brings to mind. Strong, Secure, Solid, Dependable, Firm, Grounded, Peaceful. These are all things I hope my son becomes. In fact I can already see a bit of theses qualities in his personality. When someone describes a loved one as being "my rock" you know exactly what they mean. Michael Paul and I can be rather tightly wound sometimes. Keziah, too, has a very intense personality. Our family needed a laid back personality to balance us out. And he is definitely proving to be laid back. I will not be surprised at all if he is the rock that balances out the crazy in the rest of us. God knows exactly what he is doing when he builds a family. I am now beginning to see that the name God gave us for this child truly reflects his destiny.

So we had our middle name, but no first name. I made a few suggestions and Michael Paul hated all of them. After months of frustration trying to think of a name, I told Michael Paul if he would come up with a list of 10 names I would be able to find one I liked. So Michael Paul started thinking of musicians and authors he loved for inspiration. After a few days, he gave me a list of 8 names. The name Reuel immediately jumped off the page at me. I had never seen it or heard of it, so I asked him where he found it and how you pronounce it. Michael Paul pronounced it "Ray -oo - el" and told me it was what the second R in J.R.R. Tolkien stood for. I loved how he pronounced it (I love three syllable names) and if you're going to be named after a famous author, who better than Tolkien? I loved it so much, I immediately grabbed my computer to look up the meaning: "Friend of God" Wow! I loved that too. And it's origin is hebrew. Keziah's name is hebrew, and while we never planned to stick with hebrew names, we now think it is pretty neat that they both have hebrew names. And for a couple of days, I was sold on the name.

But the more I thought about it, the more I had second thoughts. I found 4 different pronunciations from different sources. No one seemed to agree how to pronounce the name and that bothered me. Keziah's name is unique but once you hear it and see it, it is spelled phonetically. Reuel has no obvious phonetic pronunciation and that bothered me. The more I thought about it, the more doubts I had. I started back at square one trying to find another name. Most days I just told myself I didn't need to worry about it because I was going to have a girl. But I never found a name I liked as much as Reuel. In my spirit, it just felt like that was the name he was supposed to have. I just needed some confirmation to calm my doubts. I got that confirmation in an unlikely place. In late January, a few weeks from my due date, I was catching up on the blogs I follow. One of my favorite blogs is Dulce de Leche and she had posted this wonderful piece entitled "In Defense of Kreeaytiff Nayemz and Youkneec Spellings." I don't think God could have given me a better sign. Please click on the link and go read that post - it is so good. From that moment on, I had no doubts about the name Reuel. I knew it was the right name for our son. I love that it is unique. I love what it means. I love its three syllables and hebrew origin. I love how it flows off the tongue with Rock.

Reuel Rock. What's in his name? His destiny I hope. A friend of God; a person as unique as his name; a strong, grounded, dependable man; a lover of nature; a perfect fit to our family. It's all there in his name.