What’s in a name?

I wanted to tell the story of how we came up with our daughter’s name.  Names are very important to Scott and I, like I am sure they are to most parents.

Very early on in our process while I was pregnant with Katy Pierce, we were discussing names.  It takes a while for Scott and I to agree on names, and to settle on one.

You know some parents do all biblical names, others have names that all start with the same letter, etc… We, not necessarily on purpose at first, have given all the kids first names that contain four letters.  The boys we have given biblical names, and the girls are named after wonderful spiritual women in our family.  The girls also have double names…. it’s a southern thing!

Seth, Levi, Lyla- Ruth, Katy-Pierce, and Joel

As I mentioned, early in our process we came up with her name.  I was watching a movie and one of the main characters name was Lyla.  I saw it written on a piece of paper in the movie, and I decided I really liked it.

Ruth is after my grandmother, a wonderful example of a wife and mother, and person who followed Jesus faithfully even when it was not easy.  And I thought Lyla Ruth flowed well together.

Later after deciding on the name Lyla, I decided to look up its meaning.  In Persian, Lyla means dark haired beauty, and I thought that was appropriate.  Then I discovered in Hebrew it meant mine or chosen.  This made my heart do back flips!  The verse at the top of this blog, and the one that God laid on my heart about adoption… “I have called you by name, you are mine.”  So, I knew that was it!  She was going to be Lyla.  I knew God was going to make her mine, and His.  Technically, she was already His…which has been so evident to me from the beginning of her journey from a little village, to the Ashram, to us!

Now, I actually wanted to spell Lyla…. Lila.  But, Scott wanted it with the letter y.  He says I have a y in my name, and he thinks writing the letter y in cursive is prettier.  Since, I pretty much decided it was going to be Lyla Ruth, I let him decide it could be spelled with a y… not with out a little bit of a fight though.  🙂  But now that I have written it a gazillion times on the blog, I love it with a y, and it fits her.

Her Indian name is Ami, which Mr. Pandit explained means a pleasant feeling, and he used the example of eating a wonderful meal and how you feel afterwards. Food associations with our family is great, because we love to eat!  🙂  But it was just an example… he was trying to describe the feeling.  I am imagining that the pleasant feeling can also be like when one is full of the Holy Spirit and has the Peace of Christ within.  We are keeping Ami as part of her name..  Her name will be…

Lyla Ruth Ami Parkison.

I think we will call her by Lyla and Lyla Ruth, at least the boys refer to her as Lyla Ruth all the time.  🙂

As the process got longer and longer, I became more concerned about renaming her.  Renaming her has some spiritual significance to us, as God renames those He adopts and uses for His kingdom in the Bible.  We had also read a book by Russell Moore called Adopted for Life. In it,  he talks about his own experience with adoption and how he wanted to rename his children because he wanted them to know that they were his children and part of their family, and that he had chosen their name just like their other kids.  That resonated well with Scott and me.

But as time went on, I got  more nervous about renaming her.  I was thinking she is four now., and this would be like someone telling Levi that was not his name anymore.  I just kept praying about it, and decided I would know once I met her and saw her.

I also prayed that God would make it clear to me…and He did!

On the first day when we got back to the hotel, I called out Lyla as her back was turned, and she turned to look at me, as if that had been her name all along.  And she has never looked back.  She has been Lyla ever since… Our sweet and feisty Lyla.