Their Given Names

A little while back someone sent me a link to the Baby Name Genie. You enter your last name and the gender of your baby into this website and it gives you the perfect first and middle names for your child. I thought this was pretty entertaining, until I asked it to pick a name for a girl named Bullington. Then I discovered the truly magical nature of the Baby Genie. It said that the perfect first name for a female Bullington is Faith.
So it is probably a good thing that Faith did not end up with some of the other names that were contenders. She is not Madeleine. Or Claire. Or Blythe, (though I do really love that name, too.) I worried some about naming her Faith, just because the potential silliness of the word/name confusion. But I got over that. We had to have a name that would pay tribute to her against-the-odds presence in our lives. And that speaks of our hopes for her. Originally she was going to have my name as her middle name, but I had to cancel that so she would not be traveling through life "Faith-lessly." We chose Eleanor instead, because it means "light."
We have already chosen names for our adopted children. Our son will be Davis which means son of David. Rather literal, but I think it speaks to the intentionality with which Davis is becoming our son. Also, from the very first time we discussed names for our children before Faith was born, we've always known that our first boy would be named after his father. I found a second meaning for Davis in a baby-naming book recently that makes it even more appropriate a name for our little boy. Davis also means, "Child of my heart." There have been several specific points in this adoption process that have made me feel like no matter what, we are definitely on the right path. Seeing that meaning for Davis was one of those moments.
Davis will keep the name that he comes to us with as his middle name. I'm not sure if that will be a name given to him by his birth parents or by the orphanage care-givers, but either way it will be an important link to his Ethiopian heritage.
Pearl has always been Pearl. I can't remember when we chose a name for our daughter from China. I asked David if he could remember, and he says I just told him that her name was going to be Pearl. A beautiful hidden treasure. A reminder of the pearl of great price. I love pearls - I feel like they are evidence of a Creator that delights in His creation. They are everyday miracles. Just like our Pearl will be.

This post should not be construed as an endorsement for the Baby Name Genie. It may have told me that Faith was indeed the perfect first name for a girl Bullington, but it also reported that Cinnamon was the perfect middle name. Or some such nonsense. And repeated efforts to generate decent baby names met with similar results.