On May 3, 2011
I became a MODSquad mom
for the third time over.
Since we like our children’s names to have special meaning, we named our sweet little angel Ava Marie, which means “breath of life.” Because we prayed about God’s will for family size – to expand or not – and I instantly got pregnant we feel this name truly honors God breathing life into the womb.
Marie is my middle name and we’ve always chosen middle names in honor of someone.
She fits into our family perfectly and we are TOTALLY in love.
How did you choose to name your girls?
Find her on Twitter @MelissaNesdahl or at melissanesdahl.blogspot.com
15 Comments
We named our daughter Mary Elizabeth, after my maternal grandmother and my husband’s maternal grandmother. Both women with lots of spunk and followers of Jesus.
In the summer of 2005 we decided to start trying to have a baby. We had a feeling our first child would be a girl and her name would be Israel. At a conference (Campus Crusade for Christ staff) we got her middle name “Hope”. We never had a boy name. We began to pray for Israel Hope. That she would “wrestle with God and overcome, bringing Hope to people who wrestle with God”. Working in ministry, we didn’t want our child to grow up saying she is a Christian just because she grew up in a Christian home with parents “in the business”. One month later we became pregnant with Israel Hope. She was born in May 2006. This past November after our miscarriage, Israel Hope prayed to receive Jesus after wrestling with the issue of losing a brother or sister. God brought hope to Israel that day and we pray that she will bring others the hope of Jesus.
Two years ago we heard the name Madeline in our hearts for our next daughter. We weren’t planning on trying any time soon to have another baby, but we started praying for Madeline. Then we moved to Sarajevo Bosnia with CC. We then found out about a remarkable woman who moved to Sarajevo 150 years ago and served the Bosnian people, saving thousands of lives during the war in the 1800′s. She brought education to women and was “mom” to orphans. Then we found out…she’s my husband’s distant cousin. My husband is in the process of finishing a book about her that will release in September here in Sarajevo. She gave out New Testaments in Serbo-Croatian (the language here). She was known as a national hero. And a major street here is even named “Miss Irby Street”. Her first name? Adeline. So close to Madeline! So we will name our next daughter, due in October, Adeline Faith “Noble Princess of Faith” after her ancestor.
We are so thankful God gives us names for our children months before they are conceived. The only name we didn’t hear was the one we lost last November. We chose not to name that baby because we felt God knows his or her name. We never felt comfortable calling that baby Adeline, not even when the scan looked good and the baby was healthy. We rest in the fact that God is in control and will tell us that baby’s name in Heaven.
Taylor recently posted..New Life
Congratulations, Melissa!! That is SO exciting–your third daughter. Did you know you were having a third girl? (Side note: When my third daughter was born, I was soooo excited that she was a girl, but my poor husband kind of wanted a boy since we knew this would be our last child. I turned to him, and the first words out of my mouth were, “I’m sorry.” Weird, huh?)
Anyway, about names. My middle name is Marie, too! And so is my mom’s, and my grandmother’s. So my middle daughter got the hand-me-down middle name.
I’m a literature person, so basically I chose names that sounded like they were from a Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte novel: Kathryn, Caroline, and Julia. Their middle names hold more significance to me. Marie, for obvious reasons. Ann, after my most beloved grandmother. And Grace, because our third daughter was a special grace to us.
Shelly W. recently posted..31 Days Closer to Your Kids- Show Up
No we didn’t know if we were having a boy or girl but my husband guessed girl the whole time and was VERY happy.
The special meaning link takes you to my personal blog where I wrote about not knowing the story of the boy name we had picked too.
Melissa Nesdahl recently posted..Thanking Inspirational Teachers
Our daughter’s name is Calliah Grace. God has been so gracious to us our whole lives including the birth of our daughter. Calliah means beautiful in Greek… so Calliah Grace is “beautiful grace.” We lost our second baby during pregnancy and have named the baby Corey which means God’s Peace because through the loss and pain God gave us peace about the whole situation. We pray God will give us more babies soon!
Congratulations!
Our girls’ names (three living and two lost to miscarriage) all have special meaning, but I couldn’t really tell you how we choose them. First names are all – at least loosely – biblical, and hubby and I both have to like them, but apart from that we just look until we find a combination we like.
Our first is Ariel M’Kaela – it means “lion of God” “who is like God.”
Our second is Sophia Betakyah – it means “wisdom” “trust the Lord” (Sophia is only in the GREEK NT, btw, in case you were wondering. And the first part of Proverbs 3:5 begins, “Betak el Yahweh…” That is, “trust in Yahweh.”)
Our third is Livia Grace – Livia is an Americanized spelling of the Hebrew word (Livyah) for “ornament” or “garland” where Proverbs talks about wisdom being a “garland of grace.” (Hubby was afraid people would never figure out how to spell “Livyah.” This way we can say, “It’s like Olivia without the “O.”)
And the babies we lost are Bethami Shalom (“house of My people is peace”) and Mara B’chie (“bitter weeping” – as in, “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more.”)
Rachel Ramey recently posted..Prayer Notebook – Church
Our daughters name is Sarah Kathleen which means ‘Princess dear to my heart’.
My husband and I decided to use middle names in honor of someone as well. My middle name is the same as my mother’s and my husband’s middle name comes from his grandfather. Our daughter is Caitlyn Emily … Caitlyn means “pure” and Emily is in honor of a close family friend.
Danica recently posted..March Quarterly Top 5
Congratulations on your latest blessing. What a lovely family you have. I have two daughters, Lily Amara (Lily because I knew she would be a beautiful flower and Amara because it means eternal) and Hannah Rose (Hannah because she was given by God’s Grace and Rose because she, too, is a beautiful flower).
Kristin recently posted..Planting Our Fruit Salad Update
Congratulations on your third daughter!
I have two for-sure daughters (one with us and one in heaven) and two other babies lost in early miscarriages. We think one was a girl and we think of the other as a boy.
Our daughters:
Lydia Grace (our 3-year-old): for the Lydia of Acts 16 because we wanted her to be a woman of hospitality whose heart would be open to the message of the gospel, the message of God’s grace.
Naomi Faith (lost at 19 weeks gestation): for the Naomi of Scripture who had lost much but saw God’s blessings, and the test of our faith that we knew losing her would be.
Kyria Hope (lost at 8 weeks): for the Kyria of 2 John, the “chosen lady”, because we believed that although we did not get to raise her, God chose us to receive the gift of her life for the time she was with us, and for the Hope that she gave us that another pregnancy was possible, and to remind us that our hope is in Christ.
If the Lord will allow us one more child, and if it is a girl, I know her name already. I so hope to get to use it.
Kristi recently posted..The Story of Brie Hackett
We are expecting our fourth daughter in a few weeks!
It has been harder to decide on this one’s name, mainly because we desire for her name to be as meaningful and personal as our other children’s names. My hubby and I are unapologetically Preppy. And Southern. So we have chosen “family names” for each daughter, using (a traditional feminine name + a surname ) formula. I wanted their names to sound pretty, to look pretty in print and flow smoothly. Being a total nerd, I set up a spreadsheet with all our family names, firsts and lasts, and then we combined them until we had about 12 options.
Over time, our rankings have changed but we have referenced this list often.
A month before our third daugher was born, my husband’s grandmother went to be with the Lord. She was a month shy of her 100th birthday and woman of many graces. Easily, we named our little one after her!
We decided to name our fourth daughter after two ancestors. We dated in Charleston, SC, and one afternoon while strolling through the beautiful cemetery at St. Michael’s, we noticed a pair of graves facing one another. One tombstone bore his ancestor’s name; the other tombstone bore my ancestor’s name. We knew we were menat for each other at that point! I love how 10+ years later, we can celebrate God’s sovereignty at work by naming this child after our shared connection.
Oh my word, I want to smell her sweet head!
She is really beautiful! Congratulations Melissa!
Stacey recently posted..Multitude Monday
What a beautiful family!
My husband’s Great Grandma was Addie Mae and her mother was Addie Ellen. We decided that our daughter would be Addie Rose. My Mother’s name is Rosalie and we wanted to honor her in some way. However, just prior to giving birth everyone kept asking us if Addie was short for Addison. Addison was very popular at the time and we didn’t want to follow trends. At the time of my pregnancy, my husband was reading a book that had a character by the name of Adelyn. When we discovered the name was Old German and meant ‘noble beauty’, we were sold. We gave birth to Adelyn (Addie) Rose on August 31st, 2004 and she is beautiful inside and out!
What a beautiful blessing! Congratulations!!
Our girls all have Christian attribute names- Liberty, Grace, Hope, Mercy, and our most recent, Faith.
ali @ an ordinary mom recently posted..Saturday Snapshots
Saw this mentioned on Twitter. Funny, but I blogged about this recently, too! I have 3 girls and each name has a very special meaning, all Biblical. You can read my post here if you’d like:
http://embracingdestiny.blogspot.com/2011/05/5qf-on-sunday.html
I don’t actually share their full names on the Internet, but this is the story of HOW and WHY we chose their names.
Congrats on your newest little sweetie! Love all the names you chose!
Sara @ Embracing Destiny recently posted..Book Review- When Chicks Hatch by Heather Randall