"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
~ Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) ~
By any other name would smell as sweet."
~ Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) ~
I know many parents these days choose a name for many reasons. Maybe they like the way it sounds, maybe it's a family name, or maybe, like Christian and me, it's because of the meaning. We put a lot of thought into the name we chose for our little girl. We both have names that mean a lot to us and to our parents and we wanted the same for our daughter. I thought I'd just take a minute to share the meaning behind her name and why it means so much to us.
Joanna:
"My God is Gracious"
We actually had never talked about this name until THIS pregnancy. It first came up back in December when we were in Michigan visiting the Luckhardt side of our family. My mom and I were going through the alphabet coming up with baby girl names (she was still pulling for a boy, but I knew from the beginning in my heart of hearts that she was a girl), and when we got to "J" we came up with Joanna. A few weeks later Christian and I were discussing names again and he brought up Joanna and we put it on the list. He also had a student the year I was pregnant with her named Joanna who was sweet and quirky kid and just what we'd want for our little girl (as a teacher naming a child is particularly difficult because you don't want to use something you associate with a tough student). We were finally convinced that Joanna was her name when we looked up the meaning of it. Joanna is the feminine form of "Johan" or "John" which means "God is Gracious". We struggled for a long time to have a child of our own and wondered if it would ever happen for us. Joanna's birth has made our dream of having a little family of our own come true and is the answer to A LOT of prayers. She is such a perfect little baby that I now have no doubts as to the graciousness of our Heavenly Father.
Elise:
"Consecrated to God"
We had a much more difficult time coming up with a middle name for our girl. We talked about a lot of things, but could never quite settle on something. Christian finally just told me one night on a walk that I should choose since he felt he was the one who chose "Joanna" as the first name (I didn't argue with him.... I knew it was the name I wanted too, but I wanted to get to choose her middle name!). I got the idea to use Elise from the older sister of my friend Rachel from High School. Jill named her daughter Madeleine Elyse which I thought was so pretty. "Madeline" is actually a name we discussed for our own child, but we decided not to use it because it is also the name of the stillborn daughter of our very good friend. I loved the way "Joanna Elise" sounded (I wanted a more traditional spelling) and looked up the meaning (again, we're all about meanings here). "Elise" is a variation of Elizabeth, my middle name, which means "Consecrated to God". I loved that it was sort of like naming her after me, and I loved the connotation the meaning brought. We know that she's not really ours, she really belongs to our Father in Heaven. We're so grateful He has allowed her to come down to us and to give us the priviledge and responsiblitly or raising her.
Burrell:
It might seem weird to you to talk about her last name since seemingly we didn't get to choose, but I feel like I, in choosing her father, did choose her last name. When I married Christian I took his last name because by being married we became "one". It was a wonderful gift he could give me, free of charge, to let me take his name for myself and to belong to him for eternity. He also gives this gift to our little girl. Someday we do hope that she will marry a choice young man in the temple and take his name, but until then she gets to use her Daddy's name. It reminds me of the way as Christian's we take upon us the name of Christ. We do this to symbolize that we belong to His fold. By giving our children our Husband's last name we are saying that they belong to Him and to us.
I hope some day to sit down and talk with her, as both of our mothers did with Christian and me, and explain to her why we chose her name. We hope she likes it!
"My God is Gracious"
We actually had never talked about this name until THIS pregnancy. It first came up back in December when we were in Michigan visiting the Luckhardt side of our family. My mom and I were going through the alphabet coming up with baby girl names (she was still pulling for a boy, but I knew from the beginning in my heart of hearts that she was a girl), and when we got to "J" we came up with Joanna. A few weeks later Christian and I were discussing names again and he brought up Joanna and we put it on the list. He also had a student the year I was pregnant with her named Joanna who was sweet and quirky kid and just what we'd want for our little girl (as a teacher naming a child is particularly difficult because you don't want to use something you associate with a tough student). We were finally convinced that Joanna was her name when we looked up the meaning of it. Joanna is the feminine form of "Johan" or "John" which means "God is Gracious". We struggled for a long time to have a child of our own and wondered if it would ever happen for us. Joanna's birth has made our dream of having a little family of our own come true and is the answer to A LOT of prayers. She is such a perfect little baby that I now have no doubts as to the graciousness of our Heavenly Father.
Elise:
"Consecrated to God"
We had a much more difficult time coming up with a middle name for our girl. We talked about a lot of things, but could never quite settle on something. Christian finally just told me one night on a walk that I should choose since he felt he was the one who chose "Joanna" as the first name (I didn't argue with him.... I knew it was the name I wanted too, but I wanted to get to choose her middle name!). I got the idea to use Elise from the older sister of my friend Rachel from High School. Jill named her daughter Madeleine Elyse which I thought was so pretty. "Madeline" is actually a name we discussed for our own child, but we decided not to use it because it is also the name of the stillborn daughter of our very good friend. I loved the way "Joanna Elise" sounded (I wanted a more traditional spelling) and looked up the meaning (again, we're all about meanings here). "Elise" is a variation of Elizabeth, my middle name, which means "Consecrated to God". I loved that it was sort of like naming her after me, and I loved the connotation the meaning brought. We know that she's not really ours, she really belongs to our Father in Heaven. We're so grateful He has allowed her to come down to us and to give us the priviledge and responsiblitly or raising her.
Burrell:
It might seem weird to you to talk about her last name since seemingly we didn't get to choose, but I feel like I, in choosing her father, did choose her last name. When I married Christian I took his last name because by being married we became "one". It was a wonderful gift he could give me, free of charge, to let me take his name for myself and to belong to him for eternity. He also gives this gift to our little girl. Someday we do hope that she will marry a choice young man in the temple and take his name, but until then she gets to use her Daddy's name. It reminds me of the way as Christian's we take upon us the name of Christ. We do this to symbolize that we belong to His fold. By giving our children our Husband's last name we are saying that they belong to Him and to us.
I hope some day to sit down and talk with her, as both of our mothers did with Christian and me, and explain to her why we chose her name. We hope she likes it!
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