What’s in a Name?

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything on this blog (my wife is an all-star blogger), but I wanted to use this opportunity to celebrate / remember Charlotte Jane’s life and talk about the meaning of her name and the names of our other girls.

As you may know, if you know us well at all, names are a HUGE deal to us. More than just a name sounding cool, we are always conscious of what each of our girls names mean. Modern-day America has completely divorced the concept of choosing a name from that name’s meaning. If you spend anytime in other cultures or study cultures from generations past, you’ll discover what a person’s name means is a HUGE deal. For instance, Angela and I have both spent time in places where Islam is the predominant religion, and one of the first questions asked when getting to know us is “what does your name mean?” Therefore, we’ve always wanted this to play a factor in naming our children. It’s easy to share the gospel simply by explaining the meaning of your name. I wanted to share the story of how each of our girls got their names.

Elizabeth Grace

The name Elizabeth is from Hebrew origin and means “consecrated to God.” The idea here is that our child, our first born, is not ours -- but God has entrusted her to us, and we are therefore stewards of her life and well-being for all of her days. Furthermore, the idea of “consecration” infers that her life is not her own but belongs to Christ. Because of His grace, our hope is that she has been adopted as a daughter of the King and her citizenship is in His Kingdom.

Furthermore, Angela’s mom and sister share the middle name “Elizabeth”. We couldn’t think of a better way to honor each of them.

The name Grace means exactly what it sounds like - an expression of the graciousness of God. Throughout the world in cultures and languages where Christianity is the predominant religion or at least has been at one point, you see the name “grace” being used as a name. Names such as Anne, Jane, Hannah, Anna, Karis or Charis, Kyleigh (no we didn’t know this when we named our dog), Rae, Nancy, Janna, Nina, and probably many more names that I’m leaving out, are from variations of the word grace in several languages.

Since High School, I’ve wanted my first girl’s middle name to be “grace”. Yes, I’m a huge dork that I had these plans this early in life. I understand that. I absolutely love this name and its meaning.

Full meaning: Elizabeth Grace - consecrated to God because of His grace.

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Elaine Karis

The name Elaine is Greek and means “light” or “sun-ray”. This is my mother’s middle name, so this name was already decided, (unless my mom’s middle name had been Beezus or something). However, we think this accurately describes her and our hopes for her life. She is full of life, and this comes out in so many ways. We know that her life will bring the light of the Gospel to many.

The name Karis is also Greek and is a phonetic spelling of “Charis” which is the Greek word used in the New Testament for the word, “grace” such as in Ephesians 2:8, “by chariti (dative form of charis) you have been saved...” Notice another name that can be added to my list above, “Charity” which is the exact word used in this verse.

Because we liked the concept of Elizabeth’s middle name being Grace, we wanted to copy this and apply it in naming Elaine. At some point, we decided that this would be the naming convention for any girls God blessed us with moving forward.

Full Meaning: Elaine Karis - light bearer because of God's grace.

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Charlotte Jane

The name Charlotte is of German origin, but was popularized in England and means, “freedom”. We picked Charlotte’s name for several reasons:

(1) we liked it, and at the time we chose the name, it was not very popular (although it has shot up the charts in the past year).

(2) Charlotte was one of the characters on LOST, which we both love.

(3) Elizabeth and Elaine both have short versions of their names that they may prefer to use as they get older - “Lizzie” and “Lainie”. We loved the name “Charlie” as a shorter version of Charlotte.

(4) Another really random thing about me is that I wanted to name one our children after a town in Texas (even though that has nothing to do with why my name is Justin). I love Texas and as much as I love the concept of living in Colorado, unless God calls us somewhere else, this is where we will be. I always assumed this would be a boy’s name. However, as we were thinking through naming Charlotte, we realized that Angela’s Aunt and Uncle own a ranch near Charlotte, Texas. This is where I got to know her family, and we’ve spent time there every year since we met.

(5) Most importantly, the meaning of Freedom was so very appealing to us in the naming process. One of the results of God’s grace on our life is Freedom. Many people (as popularized in western philosophy) believe that we have a “free-will” or the ability to choose Christ. In reality, our hearts, our minds, and our souls are completely incapable of choosing Christ. We are spiritually dead. When grace is applied to our lives, we are given true Freedom, and as our heart is regenerated, we have the ability to now choose Christ over idols that we’ve created in our hearts.

The name Jane is of Hebrew origin and also means “grace”, or “God is gracious.” We loved the way “Charlotte Jane” sounded. It fit together perfectly. Interestingly, the Charlotte Jane was a ship that carried the first English emigrants to New Zealand. Much like the story of America, these “pilgrims” were seeking religious freedom in another part of the world. We knew that Charlotte Jane would be a vessel God would use to bring freedom to many lives.

Full meaning: Charlotte Jane - Freedom through the gracious gift of God.

Thanks for hanging in there if you’ve made it to this point. I hope you found this post both informative and entertaining. It’s a unique insight into the reason each of the girls have the name they do.

Finally, in regards to Charlotte Jane, we obviously didn’t see what would lie ahead in choosing her name. As much as it hurts to not have her with us and as many times we’ve grieved her loss, we know that she is now experiencing true FREEDOM that is not found on this side of heaven. Her joy has been made complete, her sin nature is gone, and her lowly body has been transformed to be like his glorious body.

May you take hope that Christ can bring citizenship, light, and freedom through the power of the gospel.