What's In A Name - Part 2

Last week I shared how Ronnie and I chose Ethan's name. This week I'll talk about our second child.

Elijah on his birth day.

We didn't have such an easy time choosing his name, but we finally agreed and we love it still. Mr. Elijah Hayes. I remember writing a list of Bible names that I liked (I love Josiah, by the way, but Ronnie said no!) and giving it to Ronnie. He'd tell me yes, no, or maybe for each one. I heard "no" a lot. But I didn't hear "yes' very much. And there were a few "maybe" answers. Eventually we reached a truce and we decided that the first name for this little boy would be Elijah. It's another Hebrew name and means "the Lord is my God." Plus there's the fact that Elijah was a great prophet in the Bible.

When we got to the middle name, we decided that we would name him after someone in my family. Vernon, after my dad? No. Arlie, after my grandpa? No. Robert? Leroy? Eugene? Martin? Rueben? Obviously all a no. (I have some strange and old-fashioned names on my side!) I decided one day to go through the geneology book that my grandpa Arlie researched many years ago. It was there that I discovered my great-grandfather Rueben's middle name was Hayes. I liked it immediately. I shared it with Ronnie and he liked it too. It flowed well with Elijah. And we had the name for our second son.