The Name Game

After three and a half weeks solid of visitors (I say solid, truthfully there were two days in there which were saved for ourselves), we are finally getting the chance to see what family life will be like for just the four of us. We have definitely enjoyed the time with family and the ability to adapt to a newborn while having constant entertainment (in the form of playmates) for our little Caiah Bear (CB), but there is still something to be said for having some quiet nuclear-family time and we're looking forward to it.

Thus, now that the house is quieting down for a short while (i.e. the extent of naptime) I will take the opportunity to divulge the explanation behind the naming of Emmett.

The day we found out we were having a boy, there was much trepidation on the part of both mommy and daddy. We were used to a baby girl - we knew what to do with her and felt we had a pretty good handle on this parenting a daughter thing. But a boy was a whole different story and, to us, carried much more responsibility. We were to be in charge of growing our baby boy into a godly man who will be the leader of his home one day. Yes, we understand it is also our task to grow CB into a godly woman, wife and mother, but growing a boy into a man just seems so much more daunting. And we weren't sure we were up to it.

The day after the ultrasound, I continued with my Bible study through Proverbs. That morning's passage came from the third chapter, which depicts instruction from a father to his son on wise living. Verses 3-4 in my ESV Study Bible read: "Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man."

I found it very interesting that the key to godly success as noted in these verses was found in living a life defined by love and faithfulness (or, as the NASB puts it, kindness and truth). Whereas the world emphasizes power and strength when looking for a successful man, God looks deeper. I wanted for our son to live his life according to God's definition of success. These verses would be a guiding point for me in raising my son according to God's standards.

Thus, when considering a name for our son, I decided to look into the original Hebrew in verse 3. The Hebrew word for "kindness" was "checed" (pronounced "khesed"). Ok, so maybe this wasn't a good plan . . . But then I found the word for "truth": "'ehmeth" (pronounced "ehmet"). Well, now that sounded like "Emmett" to me and that name could definitely work. Philip agreed and we mulled over it for, literally, months. But no matter what other name we thought of, we always came back to Emmett and, thus, he was born.

An interesting fact to note is that while we chose his name for the Hebrew word, most baby name sources site his name as coming from a German origin meaning, "Strength." I found a bit of irony in the point that I had considered strength to be the worldly standard while truth was the godly standard and here his name meant both.

His middle name was chosen almost immediately, long before we had its antecedent. We both liked the name Elijah, which means "The Lord is my God", but Philip preferred it as a middle name, so we went with that plan.

And there you have it. The history behind Baby Emmett's name. I hope your curiosity was thoroughly satisfied.


Oh, and a couple of pictures, because I can . . .


"That would be me: Amazing!"


That's my little super hero, racing off to save the day.