August 28, 2012

Mr. "joined in harmony"

The naming of children has to be one of my favorite things about having kids. Actually, if I could invent a job for myself, it would be naming kids in general. Anyone preggers out there and want to hire me...?

Not only is it fun, but I see how children, and subsequently adults, embody what their name means. For example, Maximilian means "strongest" and have you seen this kid take a blow? He doesn't flinch. He is steadfast in trials and can lug a tire around the yard. Yeah, Max sure fits him all right.

So when it came to naming baby #3 I was super excited. Girl's name, check, and actually, I have a billion girls' names we could use and I love them all. (Ugh, is there a way I could just have babies and name them and not do all the work?) But when it came to our boy's name, I just couldn't get it together. Levi was our choice from the beginning (it was actually supposed to be Maximilian's name, but God had other plans for him) yet I was unsettled about it and kept finding other names I liked.

Poor husband. I think I came to him with a new name every other week. And I wanted to talk about it all the time. I think some of my hesitation had to do with the fact that Levi isn't a saint name and I wanted a feast day for this little one to celebrate every year. And I wanted him to have a saint to look up to as an example of his very own.

To make a long, 9 month, story short, we finally settled back on Levi (and one other choice if we wanted a last minute switch-er-roo). I still wasn't 100% but, for some reason, I knew that Levi had to be it. I've always loved this name (and the jeans, man do they fit like designer denim) and I felt God whispering "Levi Levi Levi" all. the. time.

So, once "it's a boy!" came out of Michael's mouth we looked at our babe and then at each other and said, "Levi Joseph, welcome to the world!"

We initially took the name from the Levites and Levi, being the third son of Jacob and Leah. This tribe of Israel was one of the 12 and their role was to perform the holy service in the Temple, accompanying the Divine Presence in the Tabernacle, much like our current Priests do today. They were among the spiritual leaders and had a special place in God's relationship with the Israelites.

But one thing that always struck me is what the actual name "Levi" means: joined in harmony. Once we gave Levi his name I always wondered how he would embody this characteristic. If the first 6 weeks were any indication, however, we should've named him something with the meaning like "little one who cries and screams all the time" because, thanks to the reflux and milk allergy, that's all he ever did.

Now that we are months down the road, I am more than convinced that Levi was destined to be this child's name from the beginning. He is seriously the happiest, most joyful baby I have ever seen. The only time he's not smiling or laughing is when he's eating (but sometimes he laughs when he does that, too) and now I see why God wanted us to name him Levi all along. He sure is Mr. "joined in harmony" and I cannot wait to see how his name will fit him in the coming years.

We love you, Levi. You rock.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, we plan on celebrating his feast day on the feast of St. Joseph. 'Cause it's all about the parties, right?






I'd love to hear, how did you know your child's name had to be what it is? And, seriously, would you like to hire me to name your kid? I'd take payment in Skittles, if it helps.

5 comments:

Family of 4 said...

we have 3 names we like, but are always open to suggestions, exp. names that 'go' with Gus/Augustine ;-)

Unknown said...

It was pretty easy for us, my husbands middle name is Shannon and he always felt like it was a girl name, he has a cousin named Kailey and he really liked that as a middle name. Once we wrote it out and saw that with our last name her initials would be SKY we were sold. We wanted her to have options as to what she wants to go by and figured with initials like that and variations of Shannon or going by her middle name it would work well. For now she is Sky.

Unknown said...

Jen, that is so neat! And what a cool nickname. I love names with fun meanings :)

And, Anna, you have made my day: I have a feeling that I will be googling and thinking about baby names for days!

Shannon said...

When we were on our honeymoon, there was a family with a sweet little girl named Victoria. My husband was totally enthralled with her and told me that if he ever had a daughter, he wanted to name her Victoria. Little did we know that she was already on her way. For Ana, both of my grandmothers' names were/are Mary Ann and my dad's mom had a devotion to St. Ann (all 5 of my aunts have Ann as their middle name). Our one rule for names is that it needs to sound good in Spanish and English.

PS Anna, The only names that occur to me that go with Gus are Bus and Fuss, what do you think?

Unknown said...

Shannon, I am in love with AV's name. It is so beautiful. However, I should caution any mom from naming their kid Fuss. You would be setting yourself up for failure with that one......But, Bus. Now that is cool.