What’s in a name?

We have a little bit of a pattern going on with our children’s names. They all have one name that is either biblical or has a very strong meaning or both. And one name that is a family name.

First, there is Bakri Moustapha. Bakri and Moustapha are both family names. He shares his name with his Jiddy- grandfather and his great great grandfather and has the reverse name of his father and great grandfather. Bakri is an arabic name and means “founder.” Moustapha is an arabic name and means “chosen one of God.” Not too bad when it comes to meaning.

Next, we have Maddux Elijah. His first name is a family name, mommy’s maiden name. Maddux means “son of the Lord.” And, Elijah is a biblical name of hebrew origin and it means “the Lord is my God.”

Our third child, our daughter is named Trinity Rebekah. The name Trinity is of latin origin and means “triad” referring to the Holy Trinity in the Christian Faith. She is our third child so we felt that three was a very special meaning for her name. Her initials are TRE which also means “three.” Her middle name is Rebekah which is her mommy’s first name and is of hebrew origin and means “to bind.”

And then, there is Leeland Thaddeus- our third son and fourth child. Lee is my dad’s middle name. Leeland is of old english origin and means “one who lives by unseeded land” or “meadow land.” We loved the sound of the name Leeland and the uniqueness of it and that it incorporates Lee- part of my father’s name. “Leo” is also a very common name on my mother-in-law’s side of the family. And, Moustapha has a sister with a name that sounds very similar- Leila. We just absolutely love the name. After 18 weeks of talking about it, it was the one name that we always came back to. When he was born, there was never a doubt- he is Leeland. Leeland’s middle name is Thaddeus. It is of aramaic origin and means “heart.” Thaddeus was one of Jesus’s twelve disciples.

Our boys’ first names all ended up being two syllables and their middle names are all three syllables. I think they go really nicely together.

We believe they all ended up with the name they were meant to have. I’m so thankful that God gave us all of their names.