by Gina Jacobson, a wife, a mom, a leo. She works for a non-profit organisation, is a procrastinator, loves sci-fi, sushi, good books and Scrabble. Her blog is made up of A Bit of This a Bit of That.
In Jewish tradition a child is usually named after a relative that has passed away. In our case, Aaron was named after my father.
We thought long and hard about the name we would give our son. Would we give him my fathers actual name or name him using the first letter of his name. We chose to use the first letter.
Next came the choice of a modern name, a biblical name, an old fashioned name or a ‘made up’ name. We made lists, we researched meanings, we argued. Eventually we decided on a biblical name, something simple and timeless. The decision was made easier once we found out Aaron was a boy.
You would think that was all but you would be wrong…
We were going to give Aaron a second name after Paul’s father and were having difficulty in deciding when my mother-in-law asked 
us if we wouldn’t mind giving him a second name after her mother, as Paul’s sister had named her daughter after their dad already. We didn’t mind and started looking at names with a ‘B’. This proved a little more difficult and we decided to stick with the biblical names.
All in all the process was an interesting one, sometimes painful, mostly fun. I hope that one day when he is able to comprehend it, he isn’t too upset with the names we chose for him.
How did you name your children? And if they are old enough, do they like the name?
We chose our kids names when we were dating – in those rambling discussions you have about one day. Neither of us like the family name thing, too much politics, so we settled on the first (and only lol) 2 names we both liked that we felt would work in english and afrikaans.
Rafe was the name in a Mills and boons I read in high school and always liked, I suggested it and dh loved it so that was settled.
Kara, I dont know. We were playing with the Kiara, Tara, Zara kind of names and settled on Kara.
Finding another boy name (in case Kara was a boy) was more difficult but we eventually found one that we now dont get to use.
It was a mission just settling on these so there was no way we were going to do 2nd names lol. No one knew the names we chose till after each child was born.
forgot to say both kids seem to like their names – Rafe who is almost 5 has requested that I tell moms with babies in their tummy to please call their boys Rafe so that he can meet someone with the same name as him – he can’t understand why friends have the same name but no-one else he knows is called Rafe.
Thats so cute.
My eldest son Kevin Michael is named after the character in “The Wonder Years”. I loved him. Michael is my grandfathers name who I adored. He raised me.
My second son, Liam James… Liam was the name of the son of a colleague from Ireland and everytime she said Liam… I just loved it. I still do. James is my x’s fathers name.
My daughter, Victoria Yvonne… well, I wanted a boy and only considered Elijah which is a name I just adored and Brian, being my then husbands name… surprise, surprise we had a girl and she didn’t have a name for ages… We couldn’t agree on a name… one day I looked up and said “What about Victoria?” and that was that. She is not Vicky btw, but Victoria. Yvonne is my Mom’s name.