This post is a short story explaining the thoughts and reasons surrounding the names we picked for our children. Those who have been following our blog know that our daughter's name was originally Constance, the name on her birth certificate. It turns out that she does not go by Constance but Nana Amma is what they called her at Christ Outreach Orphanage. 'Nana' means 'Queen' in her native African language of Fanti and 'Amma' is her Ghanian traditional name derived from the day of the week she was born, Saturday. Amma happens to be my Ghanian name too since I was also born on a Saturday :-) It was important to us that we keep part of her familiar name, Nana Ama, as well as have her opinion in the decision for her name as she begins her new life with us. The name Amaleah came to mind one evening while I was in Ghana and I asked Mo if he could find the meaning for that name. Sure enough, the meaning for Amaleah when you put the names Ama and Leah together is 'having great strength, yet delicate, graceful'... wow, could this have fit her more perfectly?! But of course, she had to be thrilled with this name too (fingers crossed). When I asked her what she thought about Amaleah her smile could not have been bigger, she LOVED it. Amaleah it is!! For her middle name she chose her birth mother's name, Esther, which also has a beautiful meaning 'victorious, star', AND it happens to be my Gram's middle name too! For our little guy, we decided to keep his birth name, Jonathan, for a few reasons. He has been called JoJo or Jo (and a few other nicknames for that matter) the last 2 years so this is a familiar name to him. And we actually are very fond of the name Jonathan, meaning 'gift of the Lord or God's precious gift' because that is what he is, our precious gift. Another special reason we were drawn to the name Jonathan was because our son, Reece, has a middle name of David, and if you read your bible you know Jonathan and David were the best of friends, as close as brothers. So this is our prayer, our hope, that both our sons will be just that, not only brothers, but best of friends :-) Jonathan's middle name, Enrique, was chosen because it is the middle name for both Mo and his father Celso, and thus a continuation of the heritage within the Padilla family. So people ask, should we call you Amaleah and Jonathan or Ama and JoJo? And the answer... either one!! Jo has some other nicknames too, those we'll have to explain later, wink wink.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Introducing Amaleah Esther and Jonathan Enrique Padilla!!
This post is a short story explaining the thoughts and reasons surrounding the names we picked for our children. Those who have been following our blog know that our daughter's name was originally Constance, the name on her birth certificate. It turns out that she does not go by Constance but Nana Amma is what they called her at Christ Outreach Orphanage. 'Nana' means 'Queen' in her native African language of Fanti and 'Amma' is her Ghanian traditional name derived from the day of the week she was born, Saturday. Amma happens to be my Ghanian name too since I was also born on a Saturday :-) It was important to us that we keep part of her familiar name, Nana Ama, as well as have her opinion in the decision for her name as she begins her new life with us. The name Amaleah came to mind one evening while I was in Ghana and I asked Mo if he could find the meaning for that name. Sure enough, the meaning for Amaleah when you put the names Ama and Leah together is 'having great strength, yet delicate, graceful'... wow, could this have fit her more perfectly?! But of course, she had to be thrilled with this name too (fingers crossed). When I asked her what she thought about Amaleah her smile could not have been bigger, she LOVED it. Amaleah it is!! For her middle name she chose her birth mother's name, Esther, which also has a beautiful meaning 'victorious, star', AND it happens to be my Gram's middle name too! For our little guy, we decided to keep his birth name, Jonathan, for a few reasons. He has been called JoJo or Jo (and a few other nicknames for that matter) the last 2 years so this is a familiar name to him. And we actually are very fond of the name Jonathan, meaning 'gift of the Lord or God's precious gift' because that is what he is, our precious gift. Another special reason we were drawn to the name Jonathan was because our son, Reece, has a middle name of David, and if you read your bible you know Jonathan and David were the best of friends, as close as brothers. So this is our prayer, our hope, that both our sons will be just that, not only brothers, but best of friends :-) Jonathan's middle name, Enrique, was chosen because it is the middle name for both Mo and his father Celso, and thus a continuation of the heritage within the Padilla family. So people ask, should we call you Amaleah and Jonathan or Ama and JoJo? And the answer... either one!! Jo has some other nicknames too, those we'll have to explain later, wink wink.
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Beautiful names!
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