One day, the kids will thank me for naming them.  If my parents (who claim to be devout Christians) had their way, the boy would have been Peter Paul and the girl Mary Martha.  Worse and this almost actually happened until I intervened, the Chinese names considered for the girl were many times more appropriate for how shall we put this nicely – ladies of the night.

Names matter.  My understanding is that in some Native American tribes, a member doesn’t receive their name until later or they go on some type of spiritual test or journey.  I think that approach makes a lot of sense – our names should reflect who we are.  Also maybe give us something to aspire to.  Jacob receives a new name after wrestling with God.

My daughter was always going to be——-.  My son wasn’t a sure thing.  I needed to see him pop out before deciding whether he looked worthy of this most blessed and problematic name (the backup was Elijah – also a great name belonging to my favorite Biblical character).  To his credit, the boy looked like a mini Benedict Wong / Kublai Khan in the Marco Polo series and the deal was sealed.