It's All in a Name

I'm sure I've probably posted before on this topic, but since I don't remember I'm doing it again! My friend is having a baby soon and she posted on her blog a bunch of ideas for baby names (since they are still undecided, they were hoping for some input). This got me to thinking about my children and their names. For us, naming our babies was pretty important business (as, I'm sure it is for every parent). We wanted to give our children names that meant something important. Names that they could be proud of. It was a big ordeal with each child and we were happy and relieved each time we decided on something. That's why I find it funny that I have never really talked to them about the meaning of their names. Ronan is too young to care (Probably Gareth too) but Ruth would probably LOVE to hear about it.

Anyway.. I thought I should probably write it all down for posterity's sake (and your enjoyment). So here it is: The stories behind our children's names:

Ruth Ellen: We argued endlessly for months before we were able to agree on a name. The funny part is that the name 'Ruth' never came up in our arguments. We were driving from Logan up to Washington listening to an audio book. One of the characters names was Ruth. After the book was over we started talking about names again. Jones said "How about Ruth?" I said "Okay, Ruth Ellen." Jones said "Okay." And that was it. If only we knew it would be so easy we would have suggested Ruth from the beginning.

We loved the name Ruth because: (1) It means 'Friend' and (2) We were able to name her after Jonesy's Aunt Ruth. I love that Ruth has grown in to her name so perfectly. Anyone who knows her would agree that 'friend' is a perfect meaning for her name. She is a very friendly kid. She is a friend to all. Whenever she sees a kid who is sad she runs over to them and tries to cheer them up. She's always putting her arm around others. I don't know where she gets it.

Her Middle name 'Ellen' comes from my Great-Great Grandmother, Susan Ellen Johnson (daughter of Joel Hills Johnson--writer of the hymn High on a Mountain Top). I've always loved hearing the stories from Susan Ellen's life and we were proud to name our daughter after her.

Gareth Blaine: We had decided on Gareth's name before we had even decided to be married.  While we were dating, we were hanging out with my roommate and we were having a conversation about what we wanted to name our future kids.  Jonesy said he liked the name Gareth and I quickly agreed.  Not because I was trying to impress, but because I had always loved the name (I try to never mention that it was the name of a boy in high school that I had a crush on...purley coincidince, I promise!).  Gareth is taken from a character in a book series by David Eddings called The Belgariad. Gareth was also a nephew of King Arthur and one of the Knights of the Round Table in Arthurian legend.  The name Gareth means Gentle.  Gareth lives up to his name perfectly.  Anyone who knows him knows how sweet and gentle he is.  (except when he's throwing one of those awesome three-year-old tantrums...that is anything BUT gentle).

Blaine (his middle name) comes from a long line of first-born Jones boys.  It started with Gillespie Blaine Jones who begat Howard Blaine Jones who begat Ronald Blaine Jones who begat Michael Blaine Jones who begat Gareth Blaine Jones.  Not to put any pressure on the kid, but he better have a son!

Ronan Christopher: Coming up with Ronan's name was a bit difficult since we didn't find out whether he was a boy or a girl until he was born.  We had to spend 9 months arguing endlessly about boy names AND girl names.  (when was actually kind of fun).  The girl name was decided upon very early on in the pregnancy.  He would have been Lizabeth Nyna if he had been born a girl.  The boy name we argued about clear up until the moment he was born. 

There is a certain character in a certain scifi television show that we love who's name is Ronon Dex.  He's an awesome/studly character.  Jones thought it would be fun to name our son Ronan.  I thought the name is cool but I had it filed away in the fantasy hero category (next to Hercules, Tarzan, Aragorn, Conan, He-Man, etc.) and didn't think it would fit for a real person.  Jonesy said if I could come up with something better then we'd go with it.  Long story short, I didn't come up with anything better (except Zebulon.....but that wasn't a REAL suggestion).  After he was born, we then found ourselves unprepared and didn't have the spelling figured out.  As we filled out the form for the birth certificate, we had to write down all the different spellings and argue about which was best.  Ronon, Ronin, and Ronan were our choices.  We picked the best one.

We chose the middle name early on.  In fact, we picked the middle name and said whatever the first name is, it has to go with this middle name.  If our friend Chris didn't have such a common name (which we really didn't want to put with our common last name), it would have been Ronan's first name.  But we pride ourselves in unique-ish first names so had to put Christopher as a middle name.  Chris and his wife Anali have been an anchor in Joney's life and continue to be the best friends anyone could ask for.  We want Ronan to aspire to be a faithful friend like Chris is and as awesome and studly as Ronon is.  (Chris, Jonesy says that you shouldn't worry... you're awesome and studly too).

Anway.  If you made it through all that, you deserve a gold star!  I hope it was as fun for you as it was for me! :D