What's in a name?

Naming your child is such a big deal. It seems to almost shape a person (or maybe a person just grows into their name?) and even affects the way other people view them.

I particularly like the children's book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes and how Chrysanthemum describes the many situations she enjoys hearing and seeing her name: written on an envelope in the mail, written in icing on her birthday cake, written with big orange crayon. I also loved hearing my house helper in China read that book in Chinese to the girls - Chrysanthemum's name was translanted "ke-li-san-si-mei-mei" and we all laughed and giggled each time we said it to each other.

Anyway, we've taken our sweet time trying to name this yet-t0-be-born boy in my womb. Our naming powers seem to have shrunk now that we've named three other children. It seemed as though we had no creativity left! We scoured the internet, other books, baby name lists and wanted to find the perfect balance of unique but normal, in ways that honored our traditions and our own hopes about who our baby boy would be.

With Emma, we didn't tell her name to a soul until she was born.

With Samantha, we irritated all our family when we made them wait until we called from the hospital.

With Abby, we decided we didn't care so much anymore and we told her name several months before she was born.

But with this guy, we really honestly just didn't have a name chosen.

Until now.

Finally. Finally! Even the girls have been excited to start calling him by his name and they pray for him by name now (which is totally precious).

Before we do an unveiling of how this child will be named, I want to lay out a little bit of the reasoning behind it. It may seem like we're trying to be some of those celebrities that give their kid 25 names and will wage a lifelong struggle to fit them on the tiny lines of a Scantron form...but really, that's just how it happened for us. We're not trying to be unusual.

To begin with, I hope and pray that our little boy will grow up to be just like his daddy.

His daddy is a man who loves God more deeply each day and seeks to honor Christ in his family, habits, and heart.

His daddy loves his mama.

His daddy is quick to admit when he is wrong and make amends.

His daddy says, "I'm sorry, please forgive me" all the time.

His daddy is a merciless tease and a merciful father.

His daddy is thoughtful and considerate towards others, loves to laugh, and loves to bless people.

His daddy is passionate and intense, and excels at spreading his passion to others.

I can't think of another person I'd want our son more to be like than his father. So, we're starting with Joshua.

We've also chosen a name that holds a lot of significance on Josh's side of the family - both his father and grandfather hold this name. And truthfully, even though it's an unusual name by today's standards, I'm happy that our son will hold the name of his grandfather.

His grandfather is the epitome of generosity and kindness.

He is gentle and tender and gracious to those he meets.

He is hardworking, doesn't complain, and is easy to admire.

If our boy ends up with any of the traits that his grandfather has, I'll be a happy mama.

That brings us up to Joshua Alphonse.

Joshua Alphonse, even though it will be part of his legal name, won't be the name we call him. Those are more of namesake, traditional names.

The name we've been calling him in our home - the little boy whose been read stories to by his big sisters and rubbed by his mama and prayed for by his daddy - is Silas.

We chose the name Silas for several reasons - I liked that it was uncommon but not weird; I like that it has a strong biblical tie and feel to it; and Josh liked it. (That was the hardest approval to get!)

As we thought and prayed over the name Silas for our son, several things stuck out to us about the biblical Silas:

He was willing to travel with Paul and suffer right along with him in his missionary journeys, and yet he was also willing to stay back to encourage and equip the church. [In this respect, it seems like he was part of a very complete model of church planting!] I love that his passions and abilities for spreading the Good News and nurturing others complemented each other so well! He proved himself to be a faithful and trustworthy follower of Christ, able to lead and able to serve, worthy of respect and love from the apostles, and yet it wasn't because he was the most dominant personality, the loudest or the most convincing.

We've chosen Silas to be the name we use everyday, and pray that many of the qualities of his father, his grandfather and the biblical Silas will be in him as well.

Joshua Alphonse Silas Caro---.

(Now if he would just come already!)