Names?? Yes, our babies have names!

Names are a difficult thing. They are an important thing. It has been said that your name is your favorite word in any language. Your name is you. It is who you are. When I came to look at the job at Salem Alliance 14 1/2 years ago, I asked for a picture directory of the students. There were about 80 at the time and when I spoke to the middle schoolers that weekend part of what I did was line them all up and try to say all their names. I got about 90% of them right. It was amazing!

I work really hard to remember people's names. I know it's important to them. I even ordered one of those late night infomercial Mega Memory packets a bunch of years ago. Honestly, it has helped me a TON! I am way better at remembering people's names than I used to be. Now my friend Jeramy Williams (no relation) is the master at this. When he shares stories about people he always uses their first and last names. He knows who these people are. I try to know more than just names too, I want to know people. I want to know their stories. That's why I think it's important to really focus on the person you are talking to. Making eye contact and engaging in the conversation.

I am starting to veer off topic a little bit, so let me turn back to where we started. Names. What's in a name? A rose by any other name would still smell so sweet...or something like that. When Jeanne-Ann was pregnant with our first child we were settled on the name Brittain. We had a friend in college with that name and we really thought she was cool and loved her name. When she was born, we both immediately said, "She doesn't look like a Brittain." That was a weird moment. I never thought that could be real for babies. So for a couple of days we just said "her" and "she" a lot.

We finally settled on Kynzi Anike. We loved it. It fit her. It was perfect. Jeanne-Ann and I talked a lot about how we would spell her name, but I made an "executive" decision when she was still "under the influence" of the pain medication. (insert smile here) Karston Thomas also went nameless for a while. After some back and forth on how we would spell it we finally named him. We worked really hard at choosing the right names for them.

That brings us to today. You have read that we are adopting 2 kids and we just got both of their referrals this last week. We have been talking about names for a long time. I got us both an app for our phones that we could look up names. Jeanne-Ann has been doing a lot of research on names and their meanings. She looked for names meaning "chosen." As we looked through the names we found several that made the possible list and some that just made us laugh. Can you imagine our kid being named Flavia? Can you say, "Flava Flav!!?" Now, if that is your name or a loved one I am sorry, I am not laughing at them, it is just not a name that fits with us. Other favorites in that list...Mustafa (almost Lion King), Nazarite, Vala and Waljan.

Another meaning we have talked about is "purpose." There were only a few names on this list, but one name that we loved was one we had already talked about. How cool is that? That being said, we have talked about a LOT of names over the last year. It kinda drives me crazy, but Jeanne-Ann loves to talk about it. ;) The kids have given names and we will use them as middle names, but we are giving them these names.

And now for the reveal.

Our son is Haakon. This means chosen. God chose this child for us and we chose him. You may feel a bit confused as to how to say it, so let me help you. Hawk-en, or if you want to say it the Norwegian way, Hawk-awn. We will nickname him Haak or Hawk. A little history on this name and part of why it jumped out at us on this list. After we told our parents about it my mom emailed me some things she knew about this name. Some of these things we knew already, like it is the name of the former King of Norway and the current Crown Prince of Norway. Now for my mom's email.

Did you know that in 1994 the olympics were held in Norway.  It is the olympics where everything went perfect. There were no weather delays. Perfect sunny days with perfect temperatures. (it didn't hurt that Norway did so good:):)). Crown prince Haakon lit the Olympic flame and the mascots were Haakon and Kristin. Yeah for Haakon. Beautiful name with lots of history. 
One  from old history is Haakon den Gode. He was known as the king who tried to deal with conflict by being good and not using weapons. He also became a believer in Jesus and spread that to the people who to this point in history only believed in the old Norse gods like Odin 

Our daughter is Nyah. This is a name we have had for quite a while. We talked about it, loved it, threw a bunch of other names into the mix and kept coming back to it.

I googled Nyah and found out a few things.

Nyah is a town in northern Victoria, Australia.
The following names are baby names related to Nyah and are suitable names for brothers and sisters of Nyah: Boys - Amare, Dakarai, Daktari, Daniachew, Danso, Demissie, Diallo, Diji, Donkor, Dume, Jabari, Girls - Shani, Zula, Both genders - Damisi, Kamari, Makena, Nalo

I love it! I love her! I love them!

There you have it.