I think I’ve picked out the pirate’s first name.
Here’s the thing. I don’t want just a cool name. I want a name that has some meaning. I love names that have a story to them.
Amanda means “worthy of love”. Even though Amanda is a basic name, the meaning has always made it feel special and beautiful to me. It’s also been a directive for me. I want to treat people and conduct my life so that I am worthy of others’ love. My parents have always talked about the meaning of my name and I’m sure that’s why I think it’s special, too. Even since I’ve been an adult, my parents have introduced me to people and told them about the meaning of my name. They reiterate that I am indeed worthy of their love! It warms my heart every time.
I want my children to feel this same way about their name. I want them to love their name and be proud of it. I want their life to show the qualities of the name we’ve been speaking over them their whole lives.
So.
I’ve pored through the Baby Name Wizard book Jodi gave me. And I love it. (Seriously, if you’re contemplating names, it’s the coolest book. And here’s the blog.) The author has categorized the names into some great…uhm, categories. For every name she gives “brothers” and “sisters” that have the same feel as the original name. So, Lydia’s brothers are Simon, Harrison, Lincoln, Victor and Henry. That goes, right?
(Just to give you a good comparison and so you can see how perfectly the author has nailed the “feel” of names, here are the brothers for Amanda: Jeremy, Derek, Brandon, Joshua and Kyle. Only Jason would have made the list perfect!)
Anyway, after looking through the names and scouring every brother and sister and category and chart in the book, the one name we kinda got stuck on was Asa. Asa means “healer”. He was a good king in the Bible. And according to the Baby Name Wizard Voyager, it was the most popular in the 1880′s. And that’s about as far as we got.
We throw it around every once in awhile. But Lydia always jumps into the conversation and proclaims that the baby’s name should be Wall-e (pronounced, “waaaallllleeeeeee.”) So, yesterday I cracked open my Bible got onto biblegateway.com and looked up the name Asa. And now I think I really like it!
Not only was he a good king who followed the Lord, he was a warrior! 2 Chronicles records one battle with the Cushites. Just before they march out, Asa talks to the Lord…
“Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, “LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O LORD, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you.”
Isn’t that great? What an awesome life verse! There’s nothing I’d rather do than have my son always look to God when he feels helpless. And to always rely on God’s power rather than his own.
Of course, the best part is the conclusion to Asa’s prayer—God wipes out the Cushites. Or as the Bible puts it, the Lord “struck down the Cushites before Asa” and they were “crushed before the Lord”! Exciting, right?
Now, here’s the funny part. After God crushes the Cushites, Asa and his men “carried off a large amount of plunder” because there was “much booty there”. Sounds like a good pirate to me!
So, what do you think?
