What's in a Name?

Over two years ago when I discovered that our first child was itty bitty growing inside of me, one of the first things that crossed my mind was what would we name this child?! Way back to pre-junior high years, I came up with a boy and a girl name for my future children.

Addison and Jacoby.

Addison was a combination of American Girl's Addy books--love them!--and then realizing because of a cousin's friend's daughter that Addison was the full version of Addy.

Jacoby came from a younger brother of a family who participated in Wapak Kids Wrestling program. I remember even at that young age--I don't remember how young it was when we met this family--having a conversation with my momma about how had she had heard the name "Jacoby" before having my brother Jacob, she would've used that name instead. I remember later in junior high having a conversation with Momma-cita in which I said, "Well you could always adopt a boy and name him Jacoby." For whatever reason, we both just really liked the name.

Fast-forward to 2009. After we were married, I remember coming home to Mister worked up saying we no longer could use our my girls name! After filling him in on what my our future son and daughter would be named--do all women do that?!-- I scratched the girls name because it had become too popular for my liking, and the conversation was over.

When we found out we were pregnant with Ainsley, since we didn't know if she was a boy or a girl prior to birth, we had to choose both a boy's and girl's name. I still really like Jacoby but had no idea for a girl's first name and neither of us really had middle names figured out yet. Mister came home from work one day suggesting Ainsley--to which I initially laughed at because I thought he was joking. In my defense, he suggested it after suggesting Henrietta and Erma! He said that he just kind of came up with it while he was working that day and he remembered a character on the West Wing with the name. Once I realized he was serious, it stuck and became our girl's name. Chris struggled a bit to accept Jacoby because it was the last name of one of his elementary teachers.

So we had it down to Ainsley and Jacoby, but we needed middle names.

That's when we got the idea to honor our maid of honor and best man with our name choices, thus resulting in Ainsley Jo [my maid of honor's middle name] and Jacoby Joshua [Chris' best man/friend's first name].

Well obviously our firstborn is our sweet, charismatic daughter, Ainsley Jo. Ainsley--chosen by her papa and Jo after my best friend from high school and maid of honor.

Pregnancy #2 we intentionally decided not to find out the gender of the little one growing inside of me and therefore needed to come up with two names. Really just a girl's name as Jacoby Joshua was still our boy name.

Our only criteria was that the middle name had to have significance/be after someone. The first name we could be more creative with.

Well we never 100% decided on a girls name it doesn't really matter what our girl's name was because baby number two is our handsome little man, Jacoby Joshua. As mentioned before Joshua is after Chris' best friend and Jacoby is a variation of my brother's name that my momma and I heard many, many years ago!

***

To be named after someone or to name someone after someone else, in my book, is an honor. You don't choose your worst enemy or someone with attributes you don't want your child to emulate and name your child that name. When it comes to our Jacoby Joshua, that last part couldn't be farther from the case. While Jacoby wasn't originally chosen to honor my brother, Jacob, especially the past several months--and even years--this has become more of a reality.

I have seen my brother transform into a great man, father and Christian. He has characteristics of hard work, dedication and determination that I hope Jacoby emulates. All these feelings and the desire to not only have Jacoby's name be Jacoby because we liked it, but also after my brother was confirmed while we were in the hospital not knowing what was going on in little Jacoby's body. On the morning after his birth, I sent a text out to family giving the latest update, and my brother responded, "He'll pull through this. He has strong determination in his blood." Tears immediately came to my eyes as I thought, "You're right, Jake. He does. Just like you." Later that evening, after a very emotional day, as Jake and his family were visiting in the hospital, he squeezed me tightly, giving the big brother comfort that can't quite be explained, and it felt like we were the only two in the room. That's when he said, "Would you like me to pray for all us?" With tears in my eyes, I said I would and he led all of our family in prayer. This is the type of man that I want Jacoby to be--a man who is determined, a man who is dedicated to his family and God.

Today, I came across this post and linked it to my Facebook statues with the comment, "Raising a good, God-honoring, women-respecting man has already consumed my mind and heart since Jacoby has ben welcomed into my world... I'm thankful Jacoby has the men he does in his life--including his Papa and his namesakes."

If Jacoby becomes half the man of the these three great men in his life, he'll be just fine!