Jonah's Name

We have always had the names of our kids picked out before going into the hospital for their births. This time was a little different.

When I thought I was having a girl, I could not figure out what to name her. I thought we had already had a girl’s name picked out for years, but that name just didn’t feel right.

When I found out we were having a boy, I then knew why I couldn’t pick out any girls names, because it wasn’t a girl in there.

But, then I had the same issue with boy’s names. There was only one name I wanted or had even thought about in the past year or so, Marshall, Marshall John. Or, John Marshall and call him Marshall. But, that just didn’t feel right at all. Though, still the only name I liked.

Since John didn’t know what we were having I had to entertain names for both sexes. I didn’t like any name he suggested.

I kept telling people that this baby was coming home from the hospital un-named. How was it possible to not like any names at all???

Occasionally, before falling asleep at night, I’d ask John to tell me some names he liked for our baby. I never liked any of them. My thing is, I want my children’s names to mean something to me, be named after someone, and no one else I know can have that same name. I know no Trevans, or Mallarys. Sure, other people have those names, but I don’t know them. (Other than the Mallory on Family Ties)

That night, John rattled off some names, and in that list he said, “Jonah.”

What’s funny is, the very moment he said it, I knew that would be his name, but I wasn’t sold on the idea.

The Conversation:

Me: As in Jonah and the whale?
John: (I don’t remember his response)
Me: We would name our son after someone who gets swallowed by a whale?
John: (I don’t remember his response)
Me: We would name our son after someone who is disobedient to the Lord and gets swallowed by a whale?
John: There’s a whole other part to that story you know. He ends up being obedient.
Me: Yeah, but…
Me: Jonah?
Me: It reminds me of the Jonas brothers…

The conversation was not much longer than that.

What John didn’t know was during that conversation, in my mind I was saying, “Jonah Marshall Hamilton. Really?? Jonah?”

I wasn’t completely sold yet, though. But, from that night on, I knew that was probably going to be his name. It had been the only name that felt right.

We didn’t talk about it again until after he was born.

We were in the hospital and John initiated the conversation on what to name our new bundle of joy. We talked about Jonah. We didn’t even discuss any other name, I think I mentioned the name John Marshall, maybe just to remind myself that it didn’t feel right.

Later on, John called his Grandma. After he hung up the phone, he said, “I really feel like we should name him Jonah. My Grandma was saying how we shouldn’t bring any more children into this wicked world (what’s funny is that my Grandma says the same thing). And the world today is wicked, so it’s perfect. Jonah was alive during a really wicked time, and then he did good things. Our Jonah can do good things too.”

I still hadn’t told John that I felt his name should be Jonah too, and replied, “Yeah, but he got swallowed by a whale…”

I finally told John that I thought his name should be Jonah too, for these other reasons that I had thought about beforehand as well; Jonah is also named after his dad - Jonah is close to the name John, as it contains the letters in John’s name, and they have the same initials.

So, that’s how our little Jonah got his name.