What's in a Name

When Emry was born, I posted a blog explaining her name. Emry is unusual and most people don’t know where her middle name is from (or even what I’m saying when I tell them). At least Ethan won’t have that problem.

I think names should mean something. That’s just me. Some people probably draw their kid’s name out of a hat. Others (in Hollywood) just try to out-bizarre the star down in the street. But this child will have their name the rest of their life. And, as Christians, we hope and pray our child’s name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. So a name is important.

Granted, Ethan is just a name I have always liked. It means “firm, steadfast, a rock”. All qualities I want my son to have. It is an “obscure” Bible name, with obscure meaning the name is listed two or three times in a genealogy or is the name of a Psalm writer. In other words, it’s not Daniel, David or Peter. However, it has become an extremely popular name in the United States, ranking in the top seven boys names since 2005. I’d just like to say, I wanted to give my son this name long before 2005.

His middle name was a moving target. For a long time (since I was first pregnant with Emry), the middle name of a boy was to be “Edward”. I didn’t mind. It’s Ed’s name and his father’s middle name. But early on in this pregnancy, Ed came home one day and asked how I liked Ethan Hunter. I’ve always thought Hunter a nice name, so I said that was fine. About a month later, I was talking about a friend of mine who has a son named Harrison when Ed suddenly said, “Ethan Harrison! What do you think of that? Like Harrison Ford.” And while I don’t mind the name Harrison, we had to have a little discussion about that. Number one, I’m not a huge Harrison Ford fan. Number two, I DO NOT name my children after Hollywood actors. So, as long as he wasn’t using the name because of that, I was fine with it. A month later, we were back to Ethan Hunter and it stuck.

Hunter has an obvious meaning: “one how hunts”. And even though I am sure there are girls with this name, it is very masculine, something I certainly want my son to be.